Read Voracity's End [Eng Novel] :: Victory is yours pt 2.5

A few more seconds passed and Daiki addressed them again.

“Fine, I’ll give you three seconds to tell me what I want to know or you’ll all find out what it means to exhaust my patience. Three…”

The children continued to deliberate what they should do while the redhead counted.

“Two…”

“But if we talk then…!”

“One…”

“It was them!” several exclaimed at the same time, pointing at three children.

“Heh. I'm pleased you know what's best for you,” Daiki said before addressing the culprits. “You guys forget that people only remain silent as long as it doesn't affect them, dumbasses.”

“Daiki Ikari,” the teacher's voice said suddenly. “To the principal's office after class,” she added as she looked at the redhead with displeasure. Daitaro, hearing this, covered his face, unable to defend his brother.

“Sure,” Daiki answered without a drop of remorse, he had already gotten what he wanted, so visiting the 'old man' was not a problem for him.

As the teacher asked everyone to take their seats, Daitaro was left thinking about his twin's behavior. When did his brother change? He loved his brothers very much and saw them as 'adorable', but he had to admit that at school all three of them had problematic behaviors... and although he understood the reason, he couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Daiki, proud of what he had achieved, looked at his twin in search of recognition for his work, but he did not even look at him. In fact, in the eyes of the redhead, Daitaro looked more defeated and disappointed. Sensing his discomfort, Daiki's mood fell as he leaned on the desk to look at the window listlessly.

"Good morning children" said the teacher in an attempt to start the class ignoring what had happened before. She stopped in front of the desk assigned to the teachers which was in the corner, to one side of the blackboard. "I hope you had a nice weekend, and of course, that you did your homework."

At the comment, the entire class went on to groan sonorously. The teacher frowned looking 'quizzical'.

"Hm? Are you saying you had fun doing it? Gee, if so I'd love to leave you more so you can enjoy your week more!"

"What, no, no! Not homework!" they all exclaimed in unison, of course with the exception of the twins.

The teacher let out an amused chuckle at the students' complaints, she then turned to look at Daitaro.

"Do you think I left too much homework?"

"Oh?" Daitaro eyed the teacher curiously as he realized she was talking to him. The redhead glanced sideways at the class for a moment before smiling at the woman.

"No. I think you were pretty fair with the amount," he replied without much trouble. "But I wouldn't mind doing more."

The class looked automatically outraged. Despite his current mood, Daiki smiled pleased with his brother’s reply.

"Really? Wow, I'd say you impress me but that's very typical of you" she said as she then walked to the center of the room. "There will be a pop quiz today, so I hope you were paying attention when you were doing your homework as it will be about the homework" she added very cheerfully.

"But teacher! That's unfair!" the children exclaimed. The teacher looked at Daitaro very happily.

"Do you think it's unfair, Daitaro?"

"Not at all," he replied kindly, making Daiki let out a chuckle. Chuckle that made his Daitaro smile in response. He didn’t like his twin feeling satisfaction from intimidating others, but… He had to admit that it felt strangely good to mess with their classmates.

Although he was laughing, Daiki reflected on the exchange between his twin and the teacher.

It seemed as if she was asking in order to bully Daitaro, but no, that way of treating Daitaro was normal even before everyone went from wanting to look good in front of him to hating him and wanting even the teachers to harass him.

He was grateful that they didn't dare to do much more, because the cowards only scratched his desk because they could do it without them knowing who it was, and of course, they tried messing with Daiki from time to time. (The result being disastrous for them)

They always tried to act anonymously. Why? His classmates were afraid of him. A fear that had arisen like a game of broken telephone... Because the students of different grades spread rumors that varied in severity.

They had distorted reality so much that Daitaro had become an amalgam of everything bad and now almost no one dared to approach him; However, seeing that at least the adults treated his brother well was enough for him to know that waking up before the alarm went off was worth it.

In the second class of the day, Masaru, finding the class boring, had started talking to the classmates next to him. He heard occasional whispers of children telling others to not talk to him, however due to his good reputation, it was normal that no one paid attention to that.

Of course, at this moment it was convenient for them to stop responding to him as they were in the middle of class. The black-haired boy sat at the back of the room, in the row on one side of the center, to avoid the teacher's attention and to make sure to have his classmates around him.

He always had someone he could talk to. Whether it was the one next to him, the one in front, the one behind him or anyone else who wanted to talk to him, Masaru in one way or another managed to communicate with them. In fact, the black-haired man had proposed making a hole in the lower part of the wall so that the classrooms could exchange messages.

Evidently this had ended with Masaru being suspended from school, although everyone thought it was strange how he had only been given two weeks and the others had been grounded for a month. Weren't they supposed to expel the person who had suggested the idea? Since this was too strange, the others believed that his family had bribed the director not to expel him.

Many had taken issue with Masaru, but most were still on good terms with him due to his friendly and honest demeanor, not to mention that they couldn't intimidate him as he didn't hesitate to defend himself. The green eyed was very strong and resisted blows well, causing those who messed with him to end up either with bruises or embarrassed for not having been able to hurt him as they wanted.

He was a rare breed whom many students identified as 'the friendly troublemaker' despite Masaru not actively seeking confrontation.

While he was talking, the teacher had stopped writing on the whiteboard to look at Masaru.

“Mr.Ikari, I asked you three times to stop talking and to pay attention to the class.”

“I'm sorry, it's just that I get distracted very easily when I'm bored.” Upon hearing this, his classmates began to laugh. Masaru raised an eyebrow without understanding why they were laughing.

“So you’re saying my class is boring?”

“Don't worry about it, school usually is, it's not your fault” Masaru said with a smile. The children laughed louder in response.

“Boy… Are you laughing at me?”

"What? No? But it's true, did you like school when you were a child?

“…”

“You probably wanted to go for a run in the garden instead of sitting unable to move and unable to speak, right?”

“I understand,” the woman said as she now pointed toward the door. “If you want to go out to run so badly, why don't you do just that?”

“Hm? Yes, I would like to, but I'm in class."

“It doesn't seem like you’ve been here for some time, so you better leave so you can stop interrupting.”

“But you’re just writing on the board…”

“Leave!” exclaimed the lady. Masaru narrowed his eyes at that. Had he said something really bad to get him kicked out?

“It's okay... Don't get angry, you'll get more wrinkles if you keep frowning like that,” said the boy as he headed to the door with the laughter of his classmates as background noise.

"Now!!" she shouted as the boy left the room. Masaru closed the door on his way out and continued listening to the laughter of the others. "Keep silent! We will continue the class now that your classmate has left, if anyone wants to continue talking you can go out with him at once."

Faced with the woman's threat, the children turned silent seconds later.

Masaru shrugged and walked away from the room. It's not like it was the first time she'd been kicked out of the room so at this point she didn't care anymore.

“Should I do like she said and run around in the garden?” I felt like doing that but I also don’t want to look like she punished me and thus made me run, uh…” he said out loud.

“But I really want to run and lie down on the grass to maybe roll down the mini hill…” he added, imagining just that, he had to admit that it was very tempting. He felt very restless and thought that perhaps doing that would help him concentrate…why didn't they make sports class be first every day? It would be great if every day were Friday- he thought.

“Give me back my console, asshole!” Hearing a familiar voice shouting, Masaru interrupted his own thoughts for a moment to observe the scene of Mitsuru in front of a boy a little bigger than him who was standing with his back to the fountain that decorated the center of the garden.

Scanning the older boy, Masaru realized that he had Mitsuru's console in his hand. Wasn't he supposed to be in class? What was he doing in the garden fighting with that guy? Questioning that, the black-haired decided to approach.

“You're not so arrogant anymore, huh? Too bad that killer isn't around to help you, though... Would he help you? He only seems to cares about his twin."

"Who cares?! Just give me back my console!”

"What? Aren't you going to deny it? It seems I touched a sore spot, heh” the boy made a mocking face. "I have an idea. Say that your brothers don't care about you and I'll return your console."

“Who would say what you want?! I'm not stupid!" Mitsuru exclaimed as he tried to snatch the console out of his hands.

“Oh? I think you didn't hear what I said." Saying this, the boy stretched out his hand that had the console until it was above the fountain.

"Huh?" The blue eyed froze. One wrong move and that kid would ruin his console.

“W-Wait! Don’t do that!"

“So you’ll say it?” the other asked as he moved the console away from the water. Mitsuru was silent, he thought about it for a moment but decided to give in. He closed his eyes and frowned, knowing that he was about to humiliate himself before a bully, but, if it would help him get the console back from him...

“M-My… –” Without being able to finish the sentence, he felt something lightly touch his chest. When he opened his eyes, he saw his console against him and immediately realized Masaru was the one giving it to him. The blond held his console awkwardly and immediately observed his brother hitting the boy who had been messing with him, who subsequently fell into the fountain due to the black-haired’s blow.

"What the…?"

"Hey! Are you ok?" Masaru asked with his arm flexed and his hand clenched as a way to showcase his strength

“W-Where did you come from…?” Mitsuru asked, truly surprised. Wasn’t he supposed to be in class?

The blond looked back and as he saw students watching what was happening from their classroom windows, Mitsuru grabbed his brother by the wrist and took him towards the part of the garden, going down the small hill so that no one could see them.

“Speak, what are you doing here?”

“I just sensed danger and came! Isn’t your big brother cool?!” The green eyed declared with great pride as he made a victory sign with his fingers.

“Uh… Sure…, but that doesn't take away your foolishness” Mitsuru looked at his brother without understanding. “No, seriously, what are you doing here?”

“I was kicked out from class and I heard you screaming by chance.”

"Huh? Now what did you do?”

"Forget it! You were about to say what he wanted, why?”

“...It was either that or he would have drowned my console”

“Do you really think he would have kept his word? Don’t you think you are being very naive?”

Mitsuru frowned in annoyance at the irony of his brother saying that.

“Yeah, uhm… I don't want to hear that coming from you, and uh… Did you really have to hit him that hard?”

“Uh… That's what he deserves for messing with one of my brothers,” Masaru said nonchalantly. “Why was he even bullying you?”

“...The other day I heard him talking bad about Daitaro and I poured my orange juice on his head when he was with his friends”

“I thought you didn't want to get involved to avoid these situations.”

“I would have ignored him if it weren't for him calling Daitaro the defective version of Daiki and then saying that he shouldn't have been born.”

"What…?" Masaru looked at his brother in dismay.

“To make matters worse, Daitaro heard him say this. Daitaro did nothing and he acted like he didn't care” said Mitsuru. “I know he wanted me not to do anything, but he made me angry so I just reacted like that.”

“...I'm glad I hit him, although if I had known that I would have hit him harder,” he commented angrily for a moment. “I can't believe Daitaro listened…”

“I bet you just wanted to hit someone,” Mitsuru commented, narrowing his eyes and speaking in a mocking tone.

"It isn't true! "I only fulfill my role as the second in command."

"...Second?" The blonde looked at him with pity.

“Since Daiki and Daitaro are identical, that means I'm the second one!”

“…”

“Okay, okay, I just like the sound of ‘second in command’, because ‘third in command’ sounds lame…” Masaru said as he crossed his arms and pouted. “Sheesh, there really is no respect anymore”

“Uh, I guess as long as one of them is not present you could be second in command.”

Upon hearing it, the black-haired smiled from ear to ear, looking at his brother with enthusiasm.

“Right? I knew you were smart!” he exclaimed as he now patted him on the head as if to say 'good boy'. “You can be nice when you want to, my cold-hearted brother.”

“...I'm not a dog,” he responded, not appreciating the other's gesture.

“And what are you doing outside of class, did you skip it to play?”

“I know it seems that way but no, class actually started and that boy provoked me by showing me the console from the classroom’s entrance.”

“Did he open the classroom door just to provoke you…?”

“This teacher doesn't like to close the door, he only closes it if he hears a lot of noise outside.”

“Wow, that's weird…”

“It is, but asI was saying, he provoked me from the door and I ran after him. I don't think the teacher will let me return to the classroom after leaving without asking for permission in the middle of class, but I don't regret it. I was lucky that he tried to humiliate me instead of just stealing my console."

“Of course you're lucky, since your older brother came to the rescue,” Masaru added very proudly. “Your console was going to die whether you said what he wanted or not.”

“Yeah… I guess it was too stupid to give in,” Mitsuru said. His brother looked expectant of something. "Thank you"

“What?... Are you thanking me?”

“Are you deaf?”

“No, I just didn't think you would.”

“It's not like I was Daiki to not be able to thank you. I’m thanking you even though I dislike you,” said Mitsuru. “You saved my console after all.”