#fananfiction

[knockyasocksoff2022]

More Than You Know || Soukoku

Chapter One: Nakahara VS Mori (2,553 words)

(A/N: For this context, Dazai’s surname is Mori so Chuuya calls him Mori and calls Ougai, Mr. Mori/Mori-san)

Chuuya's Perspective:

I’m the only one here and the courtyard is still quiet, the only sounds are the birds chirping, the creaking of the gate, and the swishing of the trees that hide Kafka Academy from the gritty rest of Yokohama.

I like it this way, here I can actually study, which I suppose is the point of my enrollment here, at any rate, it’s better than home. I know Kuoyou tries her best but ever since our parents died in a lab accident, and my brother ran off to France, it’s been hard. 

Kuoyou is in university and works as a secretary at Yokohama Port Corporation, and I studied my ass off for this scholarship.

My head flicks up from my maths textbook when I hear the gate opening. It piques my interest until I recognise the car. I curse myself for letting myself get distracted on this particularly difficult problem. Still, I can’t look away. The car is a limousine, pretty standard for the types of kids here, but this car has the Mori family crest on the grill. 

Mori Ougai is the CEO of Yokohama Port Corporation, his son Mori Osamu goes here and we have all our classes together. Unfortunately for me, he’s an annoying little shit. But, fortunately for me, he’s usually only here just before the bell rings.

He steps out of the car, says something to the driver, and then to my horror starts marching right up to me, swinging his hips like some kind of model. Rich, spoilt brat!

When he reaches me he glances down at my textbook and then says “The answer to that one is 3,459.”

I should be used to it by now but I’m not, “What!”

“You were close though.”

His words snap me out of my shock, how dare he patronise me? “Don’t tell me the answer, then I won’t learn!” It feels stupid after I’ve said it.

“I’m just telling you the answer, not telling you how to get to it. Besides, even if I did, it’s not like the teacher checks the textbooks anyway.” he looks genuinely confused at why I would actually want to do more work and it makes me want to punch him.

“Well, some of us actually care if people think we’re lazy and spoilt. You know, some of us aren’t born arrogant geniuses, and I actually want to learn. Go flirt with the garbage bin, or whatever it is that makes you late every day.”

I expect him to tease me back but instead, he sits down beside me and stares at the maths book. “Yes, you’re a very passionate dedicated student, and person in general, so willing to try everything and do it with all of your heart, it’s what makes you so admirable.”

I can tell he’s talking to me but his words don’t make a shred of sense, “What the hell!? Stop that, are you high?”

He only laughs, “No, I’m flirting with garbage, just like you told me to.”

I can feel the heat rising in my chest and my blood pulsing in my ears, my capabilities of rational thought disappearing as the anger takes over “Oh, really? Ya’ know what? . . .”

The punch lands squarely on his left eye and he falls to the ground, not dramatically, he just falls with an empty-sounding thud, I expect him to spring up but he just stays there, after a few seconds he’s still motionless.

As I walk away I realise it’s the first time I’ve really hit him like that, with all of my power, and intention to hurt. I mean I’ve hit him loads of times before but this feels different, for one thing, he didn’t hit back, even if just to play the victim. Shit! I wonder if he’ll tell. I’ve always been so careful with my temper, of course, this bastard is the one who made me mess up. I could get kicked out and lose my scholarship for this.

I look around, but nobody’s there yet, except the driver. I wonder distantly why he didn’t leave, but more importantly, if he’ll report this to Mori-san.

Pushing down all of my pride in favour of saving my reputation, I plaster the best sad expression on my face that I possibly can and walk back towards the boy on the ground.

He’s still on the ground and completely still, should I say something? I hate that I’m actually worried about this when I should be worried about the beating Kuoyou’s gonna give me for this. But what if I actually hurt him, I’ll definitely lose my scholarship for this.

Panic starts to rise in my chest, and I fight to maintain my usual teasing tone, “Come on you lazy bastard, get up.”

He makes no move, I nudge him with my foot, and try to bait him into getting back up and arguing with me, “Did I knock you down that easily? Wow, so it was really this easy huh? I should’ve done this a long time ago.”

Finally, he stirs. I expect him to make some big announcement about how hearing my annoying voice brought him back from the dead but instead, he just mumbles something into the quiet morning air. 

Because I know the driver is watching I extend my hand, and to my surprise he actually takes it. I bring him to his feet and he lets go of me immediately, probably disgusted to be touching someone who doesn’t live in the fanciest part of the city.

He walks away, not towards the school, but back to the car. Is he ditching? Just because I punched him? Whatever, what do I care?

I watch nervously as the driver says something to him, looking at me like I’m a bomb that could go off at any second. I would make a crack about how I didn’t know rich people spoke to their help but I can’t afford to make this any worse. Mori answers the driver and gets back into the car. 

It pulls out of the gate the same way as it came in, and then he’s gone.

After he’s gone the worry settles in my chest. Of course, he left, he’s probably going to tell his dad that I ‘mortally wounded’ him, and then they’ll sue the hell out of us. 

I try to go back to my maths to distract myself but I can’t focus so I just stare off into space.

—

Eventually a hand waves in front of my face, for a second I think it’s one of the Mori family’s goons come to arrest me but then I realise that the hand is covered in bandages.

“Wha-”

It’s Mori. He must have scraped his hand when he fell, but I didn’t see any scrapes so he’s probably faking for attention. “Hey, Chibi! Did you finally figure it out?”

“Figure what out?” it comes out in the aggressive tone I usually use with him but I try to soften it on the slim chance he’s still making up his mind and hasn’t told on me yet. His fringe is over his face, particularly his left eye, my punch definitely left a bruise.

“The maths problem, of course. I’d offer to help you, but you seem to be in a handsy mood this morning and I’m afraid I’m not really looking for that right now.” The way he phrases it makes it sound like I did something . . . sexual.

“It wasn’t fucking “handsy” I fucking punched you, you perv!” So much for being gentle, “And I don’t need your fucking help!”

“Suit yourself.” He shrugs in the way he does that says ‘Whatever, I’m so superior anyways.’ and walks back toward the school.

The bell rings and I grab my maths book and head to my locker.

-

When I arrive in the English classroom Mori is already there, in the seat next to mine. Well, we don’t have assigned seats but I always sit there, and he knows it.

“What d-” I remember I’m supposed to be sucking up, for the sake of my scholarship. My tongue burns with all the words I want to throw at him right now but instead, I say, “Do you need something?” with as little aggression as I can possibly manage.

He looks at me for a long moment and then blinks, “You may speak normally, Nakahara-san.” The sudden formality is clearly him mocking me but it sounds right on him, fitting, like this is how someone like him should talk, not throwing kid-ish insults every chance he gets. I’ve never heard him talk like this before, almost like he’s pulling rank on me, but not like he usually does, shoving me and calling me a dog. At the same time, the elegance sounds weird coming from him, despite his aristocratic status, the words are like a suit that doesn’t quite fit. I’m used to him teasing me like a child, and it makes me realise how stiff it must sound coming from me. That was probably his intention.

It’s true it would seem hella suspicious if I all of a sudden started being sweet to him, I’ll have to try to find a balance. “Well, what do you want?”

“Nothing, I’m just sitting here, we still have free seating you know.”

I take a breath not trusting myself to forcefully relocate him to another seat by throwing him across the room. “Yeah well, just don’t bother me okay?”

He gasps dramatically, throwing a hand over his chest, “Of course not!”

The relief is immediate, to be honest it was actually kinda creepy hearing him talk like some fancy businessman.

-

English goes well, and true to his word Osamu doesn’t bother me once, not even to correct the mistakes I’m sure I must be making. It’s relaxing.

But, as soon as I step out of the classroom door, he’s beside me. “You didn’t make nearly as many mistakes as usual, Nakahara-san, have you been studying more?”

I can tell he’s still teasing me about being stiff earlier. “No, It’s because you weren’t bothering me the entire class. If you keep this up I’ll kick your ass out of that top spot!” I almost regret saying that, god forbid I give him more incentive to pester me. As if anyone could ever touch his ranking.

“As if, Chibi can’t even reach that high.” he echoes my thoughts and I can’t help but laugh just because it’s so true that I can even forgive the height jab. I shake my head and head to my locker.

The next class is maths, just before I enter the room someone catches my shoulder. I turn. It’s a tall blond boy with glasses, he holds a green notebook with the word “Ideals” written neatly on the cover in fancy script. I think his name is Kumiya or something like that.

He looks concerned and whispers as he speaks, “What did you say to Mori-san in the corridor, he looked like he’d just seen a ghost?”

“Huh, what’d ya mean?”

“I have English with you and right after you walked away he looked like he might faint.”

The boy’s words confuse me, and I have seriously no idea what I could’ve said to shock him so much. “He must have realised he forgot to turn his oven off or something.”

Shaking off the strange encounter I head into the class

In maths, we do have assignment seats, and Mori’s is right next to mine. It’s hell. He’s always holding his stupid IQ over my head.

When the professor releases us to do work he does his work with ease, finishing before me and the rest of the class. But that’s not enough, no, then he turns to me and scans my paper.

He frowns, “You’re still doing it wrong. I can help you if you like.”

“No, I don’t need your help.”

“But, you clearly don’t know how to do it?”

“You think I don’t know that you smug asshole!”

“Well, if you know you’re not doing it correctly then, why–”

The argument goes on until the work timer goes off, scaring the ever-loving shit out of me and making me fall out of my seat. I mutter a curse. And gather my worksheets, releasing rather belatedly that most of them are less than half done.

To my horror the teacher is walking down rows, he isn’t collecting the paper but I see that he’s checking it, I take out my maths book and pretend to be consulting the text. I glance over and see that Mori has his book out too and is dutifully “checking his work”. Of course, he’s done nothing wrong.

Professor Tsushimura approaches us and looks disapprovingly down at my mostly blank papers.

“Is there a reason, Nakahara-san, that your work has gone undone?”

I look over at Mori, the smug bastard. 

“Yes sir actually, Mori-san wouldn’t stop bothering me. He repeatedly took my materials and refused to return them.”

At this accusation, Mori looks up but directs his gaze back down before the professor notices.

“Ah, I see. Well, seeing as you’re such a hard worker Nakahara-san I’ll let you off with a warning, and I’ll be moving your seat, come see me when you get to class tomorrow for your new seating assignment. And Mori-san,” the boy looks up looking innocent, “while I did not witness your transgressions myself I’m sure you will be fine with another person next to you and cleaning the blackboard and desks during your free period today.”

“Of course, professor.” Mori just nods making no effort to deny my mostly false claims. I’ll admit I expected him to come after me and the fact that he didn’t startles me and leaves an almost uneasy feeling in my stomach. He must be planning his revenge. I hope that maybe he just wanted to suck up, but I know that isn’t true.

The professor nods, pats me on the and heads back to his desk, dismissing the class just as the bell rings.

I cram the worksheets hurriedly into my bag and head off to the library to complete them.

By the end of the free hour, the concept starts to make sense. I think I’ll be able to finish them at home.

The next class is Science.

I sit next to Mori in this class too, it’s because we have M and N surnames and the seating chart is alphabetised. When I sit down Mori looks away. 

He doesn’t look at me for the rest of science.

I ignore his eerie silence as best as I can and focus on my worksheet. The work is easy because we have a substitute teacher (Some old guy with a monocle) so I finish quickly. I want to work on my maths a bit more but when I finish I find myself turning to look at Mori. He’s on his phone, playing one of those mindless candy-crush-type games. 

Soon my maths is abandoned as I watch him engrossed in something on his phone, he almost looks like a normal kid.

Before I know it the bell is ringing and I curse myself once again allowing Mori to distract me.

-

In History the same thing happens, it’s kind of creeping me out and I know whatever he must have planned is going to make my life hell.

But by Physical Education, our last class of the day nothing has happened.

Maybe he just decided to stop wasting his time on a peasant or something but either way, I’ll keep my guard up.