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Kamuro West High School. Kitakata’s new place of work that he got thanks to Kaito. He hated nepotism, but he couldn’t complain too much – not when it also allowed him to move closer to Yagami.
He was a bit worried, though. Apparently he was handed “the most rambunctious bunch of high schoolers”. Whatever that meant. If it’s just a class of rowdy kids who have trouble listening to the teacher, it’s one thing. If it was a class full of bullies, however…
He had no idea what his reaction would be if he witnessed something like what Kawai and others did to Mitsuru.
So was it really safe coming back?..
Yagami reassured him it was. But Kitakata knew himself better.
He was talking to one of the teachers who was showing him around school when a red-headed punk-looking boy walked past them. Which he immediately identified as Jun – Kaito’s surrogate son.
“Sadamoto-kun!”
Jun looked at Kitakata and stared questionably. Right. He might’ve known how Jun looked, but Jun probably didn’t know how Kitakata looked.
“Yu Kitakata. Your dad’s friend and a new teacher.”
“Ah! Kitakata-sensei. Nice to meet you,” he said, bowing. “Dad told me a lot about you.”
The kid has manners after all. Good.
“Hope it’s only the good things,” Kitakata chuckled.
Jun smiled and took a deep breath and opened his mouth, and it looked like he was about to go off, but he looked at the teacher next to Kitakata and promptly closed his mouth.
“Yeah,” he said with a smile. “You are… Pretty cool. I hope you’ll like it here.”
“I hope so too.”
Kitakata looked at his watch and realized it was about time to meet his class. “Ah, I need to go. Have a good day, Sadamoto-kun.”
“Good luck, Kitakata-sensei!”
***
When Kitakata walked into the classroom, he froze. His eyes were glued to the scene before him: a bunch of kids kicking someone’s Detective Pikachu toy around, part of the class doing nothing but watch, and the owner of the toy begging them to stop.
After witnessing the scene for a couple of seconds, Kitakata took a deep breath and took the toy from the bullies.
“Games are supposed to be fun, you know,” he said. “For everyone. Weird. You should’ve learned that in elementary school.”
But I guess you all skipped a few grades,
was what he wanted to add but didn’t. He was a teacher. There might be a problem if he is too straightforward in his insults.
He hands the toy back to the kid, and when he looked at him, the horrifying realization that the kid had a physical disability – their one hand was short, and it lacked some of the fingers, making it look more like a lobster’s cleft.
Great. Fucking excellent.
He went back to his desk.
“I’m your new homeroom teacher, Yu Kitakata. Nice to meet you, all.”
No it wasn’t.
He opened the journal and started going through the list of names in his class, calling them out one by one.
Shinya Fujimoto.
Chika Sasaki.
Takako Mutō.
Those were the names of the potential bullies. He made sure to remember them.
He made sure to remember the disabled kid as well.
Haru Tanaka.
He made a note of this. The time, the names. Just so he could make sure it wasn’t a fever dream. Just so he could have a record of what he saw in case it was bullying.
After the terrible first impression the class actually went surprisingly fine. Well, as fine as it can, considering those are teenagers that were probably given too much reign in the class before him.
He knew all too well about that, after all. He was going to do his duty as a teacher this time. He wasn’t going to let history repeat itself.
Most of them behaved. The trio he had on the hook were a bit rowdy, but nothing that a stern voice couldn’t fix.
***
After the class, he waited until the bully trio headed out and approached Haru.
“Tanaka-kun. You doing alright?”
Haru nodded, not looking Kitakata in the eyes.
“Good. You carry Detective Pikachu with you. You like mysteries?”
Haru nodded again, and smiled.
Good. Establishing connection is the first step to have them open up.
“Yeah. I read and watch a lot of them. I wanna be a detective.”
“Oh, really? My boyfriend’s a detective in Kamurocho,” he blurted out, but when the remaining kids all looked at him, he realized what he just said.
Well, shit. Shit, shit, shit.
“Boyfriend?” asked one of them.
Kitakata sighed. “Erm, I mean friend. Who… is a man. Man friend. Yeah.”
Kids started laughing, but he couldn’t help but laugh with them. It was a stupid thing to say, anyway.
“Apologies, I shouldn't have brought my personal life up.”
One of the students snorted. “Don’t worry, Kitakata-sensei. We’ve kept worse secrets.”
“Yeah, like Nagoshi-sensei, the teacher you replaced, touching Haru in front of the entire class.”
Kitakata’s eyes widened.
What. The. Fuck?!
This got real dark, real fast. And the kids acted like nothing happened. Only Haru hid their face.
What do I even say to that?!
He had no time to say anything. He had a literature lesson to give to another class.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The literature class only had a couple of students, with Jun among them.
“And they wonder why the nation is on the decline… No one wants to read anymore.”
Jun raised his hand.
“Yes, Sadamoto-kun?”
“Sorry, I thought you were a language teacher?”
Kitakata laughed. “Can’t have language without literature. Or, well, I guess it’s the other way around, but you know what I mean.”
Another one of the students raised their hand. “Yes?”
“Kitakata-sensei… I’ve been trying to start a book club for ages, but because no teacher is willing to be in charge of it, I keep getting denied. Would you be willing to be in charge of it?”
“I mean, if you’ll make sure we have people, yes. I have to catch up on a lot of contemporary literature, anyway.”
The bell rang.
“Good luck today, kids,” he said, gathering his things. “Sadamoto-kun, can I talk to you for a second?”
Jun nodded.
***
They found a place in a schoolyard that was relatively quiet, but still could be observed by people - not to raise any suspicion.
“What do you know about those three?”
He handed Jun the list of names. Jun looked through it carefully.
“Haru, don’t know much about. Don’t interact much with Shinya after I left the basketball club, but we butted heads a lot. I think he wants to be a writer, actually. Sasaki-kun’s the one I saved from that creep of a teacher you replaced.”
“Wait, what?!”
What the hell is going on in this school?!
“Wait, hold on–” Kitakata took out the phone. “Would you be okay with telling me the whole story, on record? Mostly for my own sanity that I didn’t dream of this, but also in case I need to take action.”
Jun nodded. “Yeah, I get it. Sure.”
***
“I was late to school that day, May 15th. Academic writing lesson was on schedule that day, and it always sucks for me – Saito-sensei keeps hogging me about my ‘bad’ handwriting. Mom leaves early, dad’s the one who woke me up that day. He told me that he never finished school and his writing is even more atrocious, so it can’t be that bad. He also told me that I could stay at home if I wanted, but he mentioned how I stood up against a yakuza for smoking with a baby in the room, so what’s a teacher hogging on the writing, y’know? So I ended up going. So, when I was at school, everyone were already in class. My class is 2-B, yours is 2-A, so I inevitably pass by the classroom. I have a habit of looking into the windows of the class and in case there’s trouble, step in. So not only I heard the cries of “Stop it”, I also actually saw Nagoshi-sensei grabbing Sasaki-kun’s breasts. I rush in and say, ‘Hey, asshole, leave her alone or I’ll call the cops!’ and he lunges at me. We fight. The class freaks out and runs after the Chairman. The Chairman suspends Nagoshi-sensei, Sasaki-kun and me, and calls our parents to school. I dunno the specifics of that conversation, but mom gave an ultimatum: replace the teacher or we’re suing the school. Well, you’re here, so you can guess what they chose.”
Kitakata pressed Stop.
“Thank you, Sadamoto-kun.”
Jun smiled gently. “Glad to be of help. If there’s anything else I can do, let me know.”
Kitakata nodded. “Sure.”
***
So, at least two kids in his current class were assaulted by the teacher. Haru Tanaka and Chika Sasaki.
After school, it was time to do a little bit of investigating. By which he meant meeting the parents of the Tanaka family, as well as the families of bullies.
First up was Haru’s home. It looked like the kid had some extracurricular activities, so he had hoped she wasn’t home.
He knocked on the door. A woman opened the door. “Apologies for the abrupt visit. I’m Kitakata-sensei, Tanaka-kun’s new homeroom teacher.”
He handed her his business card, bowing. “You can call the school if you need to check it, I understand.”
The woman nodded and closed the door in front of him. After a while she opened it again and invited him in.
The apartment looked nice enough. At least they aren’t kept in terrible conditions as far as the living room goes.
Too Western for his taste though. He much preferred the more traditional washitsu room. Times change, of course, but he found the obsession with everything Western, American in particular, too much.
Sometimes he’d rant about it to Yagami, who was more or less ambivalent to the issue, but listened to him anyway.
When he wasn’t insufferable about his cause, he was insufferable about everything else. Which was night and day compared to his 30 year old self, who tried so hard to be ‘the cool teach’.
Must be getting old.
He was offered a tea and he gladly took a sip of it.
“So, how can I help you, Kitakata-sensei?”
“Well, I was mostly wondering if there’s anything I need to know about Haru, about their relationship with other students and such.”
The mother took a deep breath. “Well, they’re a bright one, but a little lazy, I feel like. They could do better if they’d try harder.”
A classic,
Kitakata thought. He used to think that way about Mitsuru.
“Sensitive, too. One day they told me about the kids that were picking on them, and I told them they need to learn to stand up for themselves. You won’t be coddled your whole life just because you’re disabled, wouldn’t you agree?”
When Kitakata heard that, he remembered something.
I told Toshiro to grow a spine. That he’s weak and that’s why he gets walked all over.
Back then he extended sympathy to Ehara. Back then he thought he was doing the right thing.
But what if Ehara didn’t deserve sympathy?
Your child goes up to you, pours their heart out, and you reject them. Scold them. Tell them it’s all their fault when it wasn’t.
Ehara was just as complicit in Toshiro’s suicide as Kitakata was in Mitsuru.
It wasn’t really the kids - it was adults who did nothing about the bullying, dismissed it, swept it under the rug.
If he went off of his own logic back then, he should’ve gone after Ehara. He should’ve killed
himself.
He was disgusted with himself over being complicit in Mitsuru’s suicide attempt, yet he extended sympathy –
admired
– the absent parents who got to kill a human being to quell their souls.
Yagami was right, after all.
It’s the first time he was actually able to admit as much to himself.
“...Kitakata-sensei?”
He snapped out of it.
“Apologies. You know, Tanaka-san, I see your point. Kids at that age need to learn some independence. But unfortunately, I’ve seen what happens when kids who get bullied don’t get support from their parents. You don’t want to lose your child, do you?”
“...No. Of course not.”
Kitakata got up. “Parents want their kids to be able to talk to them about anything. It’s their job to provide a safe space for them. If you scold them for opening their heart to you, they clam up. And if there’s no one to share their problems with, the feelings they keep inside of them will burst.”
The words seemed to have an effect on Haru’s mother. She looked down, frowning. Kitakata continued.
“Did you know your child was sexually assaulted by the former homeroom teacher?”
Tanaka-san looked up at him in horror. “No. Are… are you serious?”
“Yeah. Looks like that teacher had a pattern. The entire class had witnessed it.”
The mother fell silent again.
“Sorry for ruining the mood. Here’s my number in case you need to contact me directly. If you decide Haru needs to change schools, I won’t hold it against you.”
The mother got up and bowed. “Thank you, Kitakata-sensei. I just wanted my kid to go into a good school…I… had no idea things would be this grim there.”
“I understand. Have a good night.”
***
He went to the Sasaki family, but it didn't go well. He heard shouting, parents scolding the kid, and still knocked – in hopes to at least give the young girl a rest. But the parents demanded he write a letter about coming in, that it’s not right to come in like that, we don’t even know if you’re really a teacher.
The Mutō family seemed alright. Nothing to nitpick on. The Fujimoto may have been
too
nice though,
too
rich for his liking. Dad was a writer and wanted the son to continue his legacy. Praised him too much. Of course he'd grow up a brat, being constantly praised like that. He reminded him too much of Kawai. Hell, they shared a first name.
After that bit of the investigation was done, Kitakata went back home.
And for the first time in a year, he bought a can of beer on his way back.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Kitakata couldn’t help but get a can of beer on his way back. And instead of embarrassing himself in front of Yagami for relapse, he found a place to sit and drink it.
When he came back, Yagami was already there, with Kaito-san, and the strong smell of tobacco hit him.
Guess I’m not the only one having a hell of a day.
“I’m home.”
“Welcome back,” Yagami said, getting up and picking up the bowl on the other side of the table and putting it in the microwave. “Got us decent food for once.”
“Hey man,” Kaito said and then sniffed the air as if he smelled something. “That rough of a first day, huh?”
Yagami turned around, confused at Kaito’s remark. Kitakata took out the empty can of beer. “Sorry, Ta-chan.”
Yagami chuckled and showed him a pack of Seven Star. “Happens to the best of us.”
Kaito took it straight from him. “I’ll leave you two to it.”
When Kaito left, Yagami gave the bowl of gyoza to Kitakata. He put his hand together, and bowed slightly. As he started eating, he asked Yagami, “What happened?”
“Genda-sensei had a stroke.”
The dumpling he was holding with chopsticks fell to the floor. Yagami tsked and picked it for Kitakata, put it in a bowl he used for food waste. “Why do you have to be so messy?” he mumbled to himself, but Kitakata was still looking at him confused.
Yagami finally answered the silent question in his eyes. “He survived. But we don’t know the damage done until he wakes up.”
“So… what does it mean for you?”
“Well, I had a long and nice conversation with Saori-san and Kaito-san… I’ll probably get back to working at the Law Office.”
Kitakata smirked. “Life’s come full circle for both of us, eh?”
“Yeah. I’m technically Genda-sensei’s heir, and Saori wants me to take over instead of herself. She doesn’t feel quite ready yet. I don’t even have to drop the detective gig, really. But that way I’ll at least get a more stable income. I didn’t really care about affording or caring for myself, the only reason I was even living was for
this
,” Yagami motions at the office. “But now…”
Kitakata caught Yagami’s gaze as he was biting the dumpling and the softness of it and his smile made him slow down the chewing. Yagami reached out and wiped the corner of his mouth with a thumb.
“You’re always so messy when you eat.”
“You like me for this,” he said with mouth still full.
Yagami laughed. “Maybe. First day at school was hard, I figure?”
Kitakata shook his head and just ate, while Yagami silently waited for him to reply.
“Yeah. You could say that. Not only did I walk into a scene of three students ganging up on a disabled kid in class, turns out the previous teacher was a fucking creep. Technically, two students he had a physical contact with, but it was in front of the entire class.”
Yagami’s eyes went wide. “Fucking hell.”
“I did some digging. Went to their parents. One of the families turned me down. Judging by the shouting and plate breaking I heard, pretty sure things aren't going well there. I… should’ve done something…”
Kitakata clenched his fists and looked at Yagami.
“The second I walked into the classroom it’s like the memories flooded back in.”
He closed his eyes to stop the tears from flowing. He then felt Yagami sit next to him and put a hand over his fist.
“It was too early to come back, Yagami. I can’t do it– I can’t—”
He, just like before, put his face into Yagami’s chest and sobbed.
“You were right,” he whispered. “And I was a hypocrite.
“Well, I’m glad to hear it from you, but if it’s any consolation… I think the plan was rather genius, in a way. Sitting on that video until Mamiya and others get their lives together, that is. I don’t think you should’ve done murder, but you should’ve released the bullying video.”
“Hah. I still can,”. There was a change to his voice as he tried to contain the build up anger. “Should’ve thrown them under the bus instead of having Kusumoto-san confess…”
“Maybe you should anyway.”
Kitakata pulled away from Yagami and looked at him with raised eyebrow. “What’s gotten into you, Yagami?”
The man shrugged. “You deserve a life without guilt. They, on the other hand…”
Kitakata laughed – loudly, sincerely. “Damn, you fell that badly for me, huh?”
When Yagami gave him a light push, he put his head back on Yagami’s shoulder. “But, back to the issue. When I witnessed bullying, it’s like I was back at Kurokawa. Hell, one of the instigators’s name is Shinya. Can you fucking
believe
this?”
“Well, crap.”
“You have no idea how much I wanted to–”
Kill.
Kill, kill, kill.
He could never get rid of that desire. Could never get rid of ‘Kuwana’.
Yagami pulled him closer and kissed him on the top of the head.
Kitakata then lifted his head and kissed Yagami on the lips. Yagami kissed him back, softly, and took his face in his hands – Yagami loved to do that, and for a reason Kitakata couldn’t quite figure out, it made him melt inside.
“Yu…”
He let out an exhale. “I love when you say my name. I don’t know why.”
“Well,
now
who’s down bad?” Yagami chuckled and gave him a quick kiss.
Kitakata put his hand on the small of Yagami’s back. There was only one thing on his mind as Yagami looked into his eyes with a smile. He wasn’t sure Yagami would agree to it, he never expressed interest in anything beyond non-sexual touching. He took the leap of faith anyway.
“Ta-chan, I…Can you…”
Shit. It was hard to ask for it when he spent so many years without being close to anyone.
He moved closer and now took both of Yagami’s hands in his and looked him in the eyes as he said, “I want you to make love to me. Tonight.”
Yagami looked squeezed his hands. “You know I’ve never done it before, right?”
Kitakata nodded. “Yeah. It’s alright. I haven’t done it in fifteen years, so I probably forgot how. And you’re the only person I’d trust to be that close to me.”
Yagami nodded. “Okay. I’d love to do it with you.”
Kitakata kissed him.