Deadeye

Chapter 1 – The Transfer Student

Middle school. An educational institution that lasts for three years where the complexity and banality of life starts to set in; wherein such things as 'creativity' and 'imagination' are completely snuffed out of a teenager's mind and force them into the mold of 'fit in or die'. It is this phase of human life wherein the toxicity and noxiousness of these social interactions finally come into full force, wherein social bullying and pariah-creation are now in the norm. Gone are the days of actual, physical, bullying – the riajuus who control the top echelons of each class finally realized that using emotions as a tool to butcher and cut people apart is a better and much more efficient tool in their armory rather than using fists and chains. And who wouldn't switch to the brand-new, innovative weapon in the war against innocents? Physical force makes one stronger by fostering hate – to make them realize that in order to avoid being bullied like the others who came before them, they must grow stronger in strength in order to fight back.

And that is how physical bullying differs from emotional bullying. You see, physical bullying is like Darwin in action – except that you don't die, but are instead given the chance to make yourself stronger, like COMPs. However, emotional bullying targets the psyche itself – the rationale of a person in order to take action. And psyches don't change overnight, unless trauma forces it to, and it is an extremely dangerous process that could result in the psyche itself shattering from the pressure.

I had been a victim of emotional bullying. My psyche had become warped beyond all repair due to what other human beings had done to me when I was in my second year of middle school, turning me into a dead husk of a person that can only shamble blindly like a zombie. My grades had dropped – for the better I guess – and I was dropped out of my middle school. Finally, my parents had noticed the despair that had gripped me by the heart for the last months of my second year in middle school, and decided that I need to get out of the prefecture in order to forget it all, and start a new life. A new school, a new life, was apparently what my parents thought that I needed in order to move on in my life.

They had been wrong.

Since my parents were burdened by their work, they weren't able to transfer jobs towards this prefecture. Komachi was too busy filling out forms and tests in order to move up into a middle school, and because it was only just a few days that my transfer into another prefecture had been announced to the whole family, she didn't have enough time to change her middle school into the one that I was being transferred into. Therefore, it was only me, inside this hollow apartment that was quite the ways from school, and the only company that I had were my toys, my books, and nothing more.

What's more, due to my grades slipping up that I actually had to flunk out for my second year in middle school, the school that I had been transferred into had automatically transferred me to the renowned E-Class, an infamous classroom filled with dropouts and delinquents that didn't make the cut in the highly-competitive atmosphere of the main classes. The main academy, if you will.

The campus for the E-Class was primarily made out of old, rotting wood, set on a mountain that was incredibly tiring for an ordinary student in order to hike to. There weren't even concrete walkways – the best that the students in the class could have were a few well-worn mountain trails along the way, forcing the students to stop and take a few breaks in order to go towards class. Which made them late. Which made them susceptible to punishments. Which made them extend more into their already-long class time and made them go home at seven in the evening. The E-Class wasn't a classroom; it was a goddamned extermination camp.

Which made it just short of a miracle that I had managed to come on time during my first day here on this new middle school.

I was panting, drenched in sweat, and my mind already half in delirium when I had slid open the door to the classroom where I was supposed to make my introduction. My eyes instantly met the man standing behind the podium, his sharp steel eyes, immediately piercing through my own as I couldn't help but be frozen under his stare.

What was this? A spell? A genjutsu? Just what the hell is a man in a suit standing behind the podium? He's your teacher, idiot. Thanks, common sense, I needed that. Why thank you very much, Hikigaya-san– You damn idiot! I was talking about that spell that he was using! Then I do not know what kind of genjutsu that he used. Maybe you should binge-watch that series again in order to familiarize yourself with all of the spells? Thank you, maybe I'll consider it later.

The man in the suit sighed, his steel gaze moving onto the class before him, a bunch of people in wild hairstyles and different hair colors and what the hell? Is this class just full of wild and quirky characters with various characteristics and personalities that just seemed to be oozing out potential? Just what the hell is this? Just what class had I transferred into?

"That's right", the suited man said in a deep tone that made a few girls in the front swoon and just how are you exceeding that manly aura of manliness, good sir? May I ask you to teach me how to do that? Well of course, it would only happen after school and in a private area so that my other (future) classmates wouldn't notice, and did I just suggest something that dangerous? I don't want to be sodomized, and I don't swing that way! "It seems that this year, a new student has transferred into this class. You, introduce yourself."

I nodded, my throat tightening in response to the man in the suit's words as I took a step forward and took a deep breath, trying to ignore the stares from the people around me as I slowly drawled out a breath, stopping just beside the podium as I turned around and found a few pieces of chalk laid around in front of the blackboard.

Taking one in my hands, I slowly yet surely spelled out my name on the board, gingerly placing the chalk back into its place a moment later as I slowly turned around to face my classmates, meeting their curious stares head-on as my mind began losing speed out of having lost a few conveyor belts that processed information.

Calm down, me. You cannot – and I repeat, you cannot screw this up. With that singular thought in mind, I took a deep breath and let out the voice that I had been holding back for so long ever since I had stepped inside this flimsy excuse for a building.

"My name is Hikigaya Hachiman. I'll be in your care."

[–|–]

"What", I said, immediately speaking my thoughts out loud as I perked up and stared at the...creature in front of me with wide eyes. It wore a scholar's robe and a cap that seemed like he was going to a college's graduation ceremony, and a crescent moon that shone with gold was draped over its neck. His arms were yellow tentacles. His feet were yellow suckers that stuck to the ground. His head was a bright yellow, the smoothness of his head letting me catch the reflection of the fluorescent lights above him as two beady eyes stared at the entire class, the creature's wide smile permanently engraved on its face.

Of course, faced with a situation like this, one would attempt to rationalize whatever stray thoughts that they have into an incoherent set of letters that would come out of their mouth, "What?"

"Like I said, I'll be teaching your class until the end of the year, and I'll destroy the earth next year", the yellow creature spoke in a sing-song voice that could be best described as 'irritating', a few of its tentacles writhing behind him in anticipation as he laughed. What is that laugh, though? Are you Monokuma perhaps? Trying to get us to kill each other so that you won't destroy the earth? "That means that I'll be teaching you everything that you'll need to know, along with how to assassinate me."

...Assassinate? Like killing a person when they're at their most unguarded moment, never taking chances and eliminating them before they have a chance to fight back? Shouldn't professionals handle this instead? I mean, the suit guy over there was literally part of the Ministry of Defence, so he should be capable of bringing down the...thing in front of us with just a few short movements. I mean, that's what they're supposed to do, right?

...I think.

"Hm?" The yellow creature reminiscent of an octopus said as his eyes scanned the room, seemingly stopping an instant later as his beady eyes met mine. I froze, "Oh? There's a 27th student? Karasuma-sensei, I didn't know that this class had a transfer student."

Stop giving me the attention, already! The fact that I shot off towards my seat in an instant was already enough fact that I didn't get along with people that well! They are bloodthirsty, ravenous maniacs that would sell out one another just for a taste of their dreams! Why can't you see that you're just using me as lure in order to – Oh wait. This damn octopus...!

"Hikigaya Hachiman has officially transferred in only a day ago", the man in the suit known as Karasuma said as he sighed and shook his head, "...Unfortunately, we couldn't reach you during that time, so you weren't informed of it."

"No, no, no. I wasn't talking about that; I was talking about..." The yellow octopus paused as the pen that he grasped using a tentacle was brought up against his mouth whilst his head tilting sideways, making the perfect expression of 'someone who was thinking about plot-important things while in the middle of something important'. A second later however, and its shoulders shrugged (how can that thing have shoulders?), a sigh escaping out of its forever grinning mouth, "...Well, whatever. Hikigaya, present?"

"Present", I curtly answered, once again trying to diffuse the attention given towards me by hugging up the bag on my desk even harder, preventing my other classmates from seeing my expression. I even had my incessant cowlick down for the count with a huge dollop of hair gel. I am pretty much confident that I could hide my expressions from this position.

Learning how to hide one's expressions and emotions is a survival skill that allows even the most desperate of people (read: NEETs and otakus) to blend into society. It is a skill that comes as a side bonus from learning how to lie, since it is a direct derivation from one of humanity's most basic skills into one of humanity's most basic survival skills. Kind of comparable to making stone tools and using them to whack an animal in the head. Pretty simplistic, yet directly leads to a cause-and-effect relationship that makes the two skills even more powerful than what they could achieve alone.

Of course, these skills were put to the test the next months after my failed confession; it took nearly half of my mind and my soul in order to keep myself together by just shutting off the things that I could hear from gossips and tattletales. It was harder to keep it from my family – my parents I could handle just by keeping the conversations short. They were always on-point speakers, so I didn't have any problems on that end. No, what bugged me the most about using these two skills was because I had to use them on Komachi. My little sister, two years younger than me, who was as innocent as a princess riding an armored unicorn towards Valhalla, was the one that saw the most use out of these two skills.

I regret that I had lied to her all those months. I regret that I had to keep my expression neutral even though I was pretty sure I could burst into a sobbing wreck anytime I see her smiling at me with that thousand-watt grin of hers. When I finally broke down, I finally swore to myself that I would never lie to her, to make sure that she doesn't suffer the same pain as I had for bottling it up over the span of a few dangerous months, and when I was finally going to go with my plan to keep Komachi happy–

–I was suddenly thrusted into this hellhole of a school system, "Hikigaya-san?"

...The voice made me look up from my fifty-minute slumber, seeing a guy (is he a guy? Please let it be a guy) with light blue hair tied up to the sides of his head, wearing a dark blue vest and a black tie and some oversized cargo pants. Somehow, just looking at the guy (?) in front of me was enough to make me blink twice before I blurted out the most irresponsible thing that I had ever done since my confession to Orimoto Kaori.

Of course, since it was something irresponsible that I had done ever since my confession to Orimoto Kaori, it only had to be a confession as well, "...Will you make me miso soup every morning?"

The blue-haired guy (?) blinked, his light blue eyes staring at me with confusion written all over his face as I couldn't help but inwardly sigh and scream at myself at the same time. Sighing in relief because the guy (?) in front of me didn't get what I meant, and screaming at myself at the same time for doing something completely unwarranted and would completely alienate me from the rest of this class if someone heard my indirect marriage proposal to this guy (?).

"Hikigaya-san, I don't know what you're daydreaming about, but it's currently Japanese period", the guy (?) said as he dragged the empty seat in front of me and sat down...Wait. I didn't ask for this. Why are you currently sitting in front of me? Are we supposed to share desks? Is that it? Then go get your own damn desk and use it as a buffer! I can't exactly run away from this, you know!? "Sensei said that we should pair up for the translation work, and I already got the printout. We should get started immediately."

...I see. It seemed that my mind was in the gutter for a moment back there. If that was the case, then was I...was...gay? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, Hikigaya-san, you're so funny! I know, right? There's no way that I'd ever fall for a guy! You do know that I'm a perfectly straight male that's close to approaching 15 years old and ready to unleash quite a few hormones that would make me visibly uncomfortable around women, right? Why am I even bothering about my sexuality now? I already proved that I'm straight after all!

"We should", I curtly replied, as the blue-haired guy (?) in front of me started to divide the work between us, with me having the more difficult kanji to translate into – Hey. This guy is cheekier than I thought, "Um..."

"Nagisa", the blue-haired guy (?) said as his light blue eyes contorted into one of focus, trying to translate the kanji that he had assigned to himself as I couldn't help but shrug and follow his lead.

Complex symbols were simplified into two to five strokes of a pen. My hand moved swiftly, my eyes occasionally glancing towards the printout that we currently shared as my hand moved across the answer sheet like water flowing through a stream. A few minutes pass of translating kanji into more readable furigana and katakana, and I was already done with my part. I sighed in relief, glancing up towards my apparent partner, only seeing Nagisa stare at me with wide eyes. Somehow, it felt wrong.

"What?" I said, my voice coming out snappier than usual as my partner was snapped out of his (?) reverie, staring at me with a stupendously huge grin on his face as tears started to form in the corners of his eyes. Wait, what?

"Hikigaya-san..." Nagisa said with respect in his tone as he suddenly grabbed both of my hands with a wait this isn't a proposal isn't it!? Just because I think that you're a guy(?) doesn't mean that you could use your inherent cuteness to win over my affection points! Only Komachi has the right to do that, and you can't substitute yourself as a cute little sister in my life! "...You're good at Japanese?"

"...Kind of had a knack for it since I was young", I said with a shrug after contemplating about what should I say for a moment. Nagisa might seem like a genuinely good guy(?) on the outside, almost all people had their true selves locked within their hearts. It's not every day that you see someone doing something genuine in this world after all, so it makes sense that a normal middle schooler like him(?) would be able to hide his true feelings and act like what society expects him to do, "And besides, it's not like Japanese only consists of translating words and phrases from one form to another. And let go of my hands. And focus on your work."

"Oh, that's right", Nagisa said, immediately letting go of my hands as a thin smile formed on his face, "Actually...I'm just average at Japanese, so if you have the time to teach me..."

I got his implication, "I don't. When I mean 'I don't', it meant that I don't have enough time to spoon-feed people information. It makes them dependent and useless, and therefore doesn't prepare them for the rigors that they face once their teacher goes away."

"Then–"

"–Which is why I'll only be giving you pointers. You'll do the rest yourself", I said, cutting in before Nagisa could speak as he widened his eyes in realization of my words. I stood up and dragged my chair to position myself besides Nagisa, and my gaze scanned his work as if I was some sort of connoisseur. A few minutes passed before I finally realize where my partner for this activity went wrong, "Here, here, and here. The syllables are too drawled out, and when pronounced, sounds like you're reading a work of Genji in slow motion. Try to make your katakanas look simplistic. You're supposed to be doing a translation, not a work of art. Also...yeah. I guess that's it for the moment."

I sighed, dragging my chair back to its original place as I glanced towards Nagisa, who was now furiously editing his part of the workload as I couldn't help but glance at the clock. Nine forty-seven. Thirteen minutes before the papers were collected and passed towards that yellow octopus that called itself a teacher.

...Somehow, I couldn't help but shrink behind that octopus' beady gaze. I'm not going to suffer the same fate as those female heroines that couldn't defeat a slime monster...right?

[–|–]

Eight in the morning. First period: English. The yellow octopus was expecting that it was just an ordinary day at the office when he opened the door towards the room, and was immediately greeted by the sight of twenty-nine students wielding specially-made guns that were designed to kill it.

Like I said, the yellow octopus was expecting that it was just another day in the office. Bullets were fired from airsoft guns, with BB bullets specially coated with who-knows-what flinging themselves at high speeds towards the octopus that called itself a teacher as the octopus simply did what it does for every ordinary day whatsoever.

It dodged. Apparently, being able to move at Mach 20 didn't clinch it for the other members of my class. It was impossible to kill this thing. But then again, it dodged. As long as I don't follow the rest of the crowd and aim at an angle that the damn octopus couldn't see, I could get a shot in. After all, the yellow bastard moved in predictable directions, and all I needed to do was to wait until the last salvo of bullets were out, and fire.

My eyes blinked, the rear sights lining up with the ones in the front as I couldn't help but smirk at this airsoft rifle. The thing was, the sights don't actually hit the target dead-on – the BB pellet needs some distance before you could actually nail someone in your sights. This classroom was just big enough that your sights would line up with your target when it was on the other side of the room. For cases wherein that minimum sighting distance isn't met, it was much better to fire on the hip and hope that trial and error would take you home. Just some facts about guns that I searched on the internet last night, but still proved invaluable for today's events.

Fifteen out of twenty-nine students had already ran out of bullets, their magazines kicking in place as they couldn't help but scowl and glower at the octopus, who was still dodging bullets like there was no tomorrow. By the rate that this was going, there were four seconds left before the last salvo was fired. In order to keep the octopus distracted from what I was planning, I sent a few dummy rounds his way at random intervals to know that I was still firing, and upon checking the amount of BBs I have left, It seems that I still had 15 pellets left before I run empty.

Three seconds left. Ten rounds remaining.

Two seconds left. Seven rounds remaining.

One second left. Three rounds remaining. Switch to burst mode, seeing that it combines both the accuracy and fire rate of both semi-automatic and full auto fire modes.

Zero. The last salvo is shot, and I pulled the trigger on the rifle that I had, with three BB pellets whistling through the air just as the yellow octopus stopped, just in time for three BBs to hit him on three different sections on his right arm.

The arm literally exploded with a splat right then and there. The class stopped; the octopus stopped; and finally, after a few seconds of waiting, I lowered my rifle as well. Now that the octopus received some damage, I need a way out of this before suspicion could be turned towards me, "Damn it. Ran out of pellets when that last salvo happened."

Suspicion had been lifted off, making my other classmates turn towards each other in confusion as the octopus grew a new arm back (seriously, if it could grow a new arm then what the hell are we doing here?). Perceptive ones would know that I still had rounds left in my gun during the last salvo, but they simply sighed and shook their heads, under the impression that my aim was also amiss just like the others.

The octopus finally spoke up after a moment of stunned silence, told us to clean up the mess that we made before we could start class. The rest of us shouted in affirmative, and began taking out the cleaning tools from the compartment at the back of the room. I also stood in line, waiting for my turn to get a broom inside as I felt a sucker land on my shoulder. I knew the only person in the world where that sound could've come from, "Sensei?"

"Hikigaya-kun", the octopus said, his voice said in the same sing-song annoying tone, but with an undertone of urgency in his voice, "...Can I talk to you in the teacher's office later?"

Did the octopus find out, or was I paranoid? In any case, thinking about such things would only jinx it and let me slip up could only serve as a deep enough hole to dig myself under. Which is the main reason as to why I simply nodded without speaking a word, and grabbed a broom from the cabinet and started cleaning.

As a future househusband-in-training, I needed to brush up on my cleaning skills for the future, after all.