He will always remember that he has friends by his side, even if he had left them for his personal agenda.

And yeah, you should know that Natsuo would not make it out alive at the end of this story.

Chapter 1: Impressions

It was pouring heavily outside school, yet a boy was found lying on the muddy ground. Covered in bruises and mud, he was stuck, all alone and cold outdoors as he struggled to keep himself conscious. He wasn't hurt too much, spraining only his ankle and have a rib or two punched out of his system since all he could only thought of at the time was to protect the helpless victims who were being bullied by bullies. Typical of them abusing the weak when they are weak themselves.

Maybe I have been training too much these days…didn't have enough sleep from yesterday's training…

The rain poured harder. Anytime soon, it is inevitable that he will pick up the flu after lying down under the rain for the past 30 minutes. A change of weather would be good, the boy thought.

True enough, he felt a shadow covering him from the rain. He couldn't see the person who was sheltering him, but he knew he saw a pink umbrella up above. Before he adjusted to see his Samaritan, the boy fell into a deep slumber as he slowly recalled his first day of middle school.

"…I'm so happy that we're in the same class together this time…"

"…it's the first day of middle school. Let's do our best…"

"…do you have any idea which club you're going to join? I was thinking if the dance club is recruiting anyone this year…"

Hearing at the enthusiastic chattering surrounding him, a 12 year-old Tsunashi Takuto made his trip to his new class. New school, new class, new friends…wait, maybe the last item will be more challenging than handling the difficulty of middle school curriculum. It was a new environment for Takuto; having never made any progress in making friends back in elementary school as he was shunned from the other kids for being 'too quiet', 'introverted' and 'anti-social towards his classmates', he made a request to his grandfather if he could enroll him in this middle school that is situated some 5 kilometers away from home. Though he may have to face the reality of waking up earlier than before, at least he didn't have to face those disheartened faces he already met in his old school. It was never a simple task having to convince his grandfather that he would score well for his final exams and enter a good high school after graduation for not attending a more renowned middle school he planned for his grandson to attend.

"Well class, welcome to middle school. Before we go into the administration stuff, firstly I would like to take attendance," the teacher greeted. The middle-aged woman with her hair tied in a simple ponytail took out the attendance list and called the first student on the list. "Abe Yuuko..."

As the teacher took the attendance of the class, with his keen eyes Takuto, who was sitting at the back of the class could observe a good deal of every action of his classmates, subtle or not. He could easily see his classmate who was larger than most of the students in the class staring at the boy sitting at the other side of the class. He was frail and small in height, obviously making him an easy target for being bullied by the troublemakers of the class. The smaller boy dared not make any eye contact with the bully and timidly pretended that he was paying attention for his name to be called.

"Komori Natsuo."

"H…h…here." He said softly. The teacher tip-toed, found Natsuo and ticked his name on the list.

"Hey, you must be new around here. Never seen you around this area," a girl who was sitting in front of Takuto spoke to him for the first time since he arrived. Making even the most casual sentences sound formal, Takuto felt a warm feeling towards her as she continued. "Oh, I don't mean to be rude. My name is Okada Hana. What's your name? Are you from nearby?"

"Around five kilometers away from here. I'm Tsunashi Takuto. Nice to meet you." Good, this time I have made a decent impression in front of his new classmate, Takuto thought as Hana's name was announced. It was his first step to be at least appealing to a certain group of people and he had better made sure that he would not screw up this time.

"Tsunashi Taku-"

"I'M HERE! I AM TSUNASHI TAKUTO! HEEEYYAA!" He didn't know what drove him to act like a compulsive idiot, shouting and abruptly standing up in front of the class before the teacher could finish announcing his name. There was a short pause of silent surrounding the classroom with thirty-three pairs of eyes all at him. Breaking the silence was an uncontrollable laugh coming from Natsuo, who was desperately trying to contain his laughter. A few more laughs soon followed after and before long everyone, including the teacher and even Hana were laughing with him.

An embarrassed Takuto blushed and bashfully went back to his seat.

Recess arrived not long after all the administration stuff has been taken care of, from choosing the class representative and picking students to be part of the class council. There wasn't much going on as Takuto, sitting all alone in his table about to have lunch when he found himself with two tables attached together with his.

"We apologize for laughing at you in class in the first period, you don't mind us sitting with you for lunch?" asked Hana as she and Natsuo settled down on their new seats, ready to have lunch with a new friend.

"Ohh…sure. I don't mind." Takuto said, opening up his lunchbox. "It's just that no one has ever wanted to sit with me for lunch. I'm used to having lunch alone back in elementary school. Itadakimasu."

"Itadakimasu."

The three of them enjoyed having lunch as the three of them asked each other on their plans of the future, as well as discussing less serious stuff, the clubs they would like to join, sitting positions in class and additional information of the teachers in school. It was the first time Takuto experienced sitting with other people without feeling restrained. They enjoyed his company, so does Takuto being with his new classmates.

"So, Takuto, did you make that bento all by yourself?" Natsuo asked, finishing his last ball of rice on his box.

"Yes, I did. Since no one wakes up earlier than I am."

"What about your mother?" There was silence among the group and Natsuo looked at Takuto's solemn look written all over his face. "Oh, I guess that was an insensitive question. I can't believe that I've embarrassed you over and over again for the whole morning-"

"No, Komori-san. It's okay. My mother's still alive, but she left me with my grandfather when I was two. I couldn't remember clearly what really happened. At least I have my grandfather to keep me company." Takuto smiled lightly, trying his best not to look troubled in front of them. Observing the situation for a time now, Hana stood up and slammed her hands onto her table.

"Okay, now that we are friends, anyone wants to go get some ramen around school after class? I know one that sells really good ramen. Too bad it closes early and the queue is long; so why don't we go get some?"

"Sounds good." Takuto said.

"Maybe just this once. I have a curfew to observe." Natsuo said shyly.

"Nice. We head off to the store once class is over." Hana said happily, putting her table back to the original position. "And that reminds me of another thing," she stretched out, shaking Takuto's hand. "Welcome to the group. You're one of us now. Don't be shy calling our first names."

"Ha…Hana-chan. Natsuo-san."

Hana twirled her hair with her finger. "Well, I don't mind the honorifics for now. But please try saying our names without the honorifics before we graduate, not to worry, I'm not going to force you or anything."

He couldn't control breathing. The room was so dark and he knew that his inhaler was somewhere in his bag. If only the lights were working…

"Found you." It plucked a string of fear in Natsuo as he gave the inhaler a little squeeze before he was pulled out forcefully by the bullies. He thought he could buy some time hiding in the PE room but too bad the bullies got their hands on the keys to the room. So much for squeezing through the window into the PE room.

It has been a few days since the first day of school; Natsuo feels that luck's not on his side ever since. Being the easy target of bullies, he was indeed warned about this from his upperclassmen since school began, but no matter what he did the bullies were certainly coming after him for his small stature and venerability of being unable to escape from their clutches. The fortunate thing; he was not the only one having to face this ordeal.

Without a word of warning Natsuo and the others were beaten in the chest and he could feel the bones of his arm disjointed. The pain didn't affect him, as he had gone through a worse kind of it when he was little.

"I knew that someone here told the vice-principal what Junichi did to one of you." One of the bullies retorted, giving another kick towards one of the boys and took the money from his wallet. "Hurry up, or we'll take all of your lunch money. That's what you get for being such a weenie."

The boys looked frightened. They knew that none of them would dared tell any of the teachers, let alone the vice-principal. Knowing the consequences for revealing their 'little secret', who could have set them up like this…?

"I did." A voice shot up all of a sudden. Finding none of the boys gathered here saying that, everyone turned to Takuto, serious and looking as a force to be reckoned with and gets himself into fighting position. "I told the vice-principal about what your pal did to a friend of mine. And you bullies aren't getting away this time." The bullies burst into laughter as he spoke.

"Man, which period are you in? I mean, that line is so cheesy. You want a piece of us? Fine, we'll give ya what you want." Charging in all at once, Takuto exchanged punches with the thugs. Outnumbered and still weary from his training with his grandfather last night, the bullies received the upper hand of the situation as they hit Takuto right at the spot.

An injured Takuto tried standing up and stared at Natsuo and the other boys. "Don't just sit there, get out of here! Go!" Reluctantly, they quickly scrambled out of the corner before the bullies caught up with them. While the rest were running as quickly as possible, Natsuo kept looking back at a helpless Takuto sacrificing himself for the benefit of his friend and innocent victims who were all just caught up with the mess.

Hana looked back, seeing little Natsuo putting his table back to position and sitting alone reading a book, before turning back to a clueless Takuto. "Come with me, there's something that I would need to inform you about."

He remembered what Hana told her in the first day of school as he was lead outside of the classroom, his mind boggled if there is something Natsuo's not supposed to know. "So, what is it?"

Hana shook her head, looking worried and helpless. "You know the guy who was looking at Natsuo-san while our teacher was taking attendance in first period? Well, it's about that. He's been bullying him since sixth grade, and no one has dared telling the teachers about this. It's more complicated than that, but my advice surviving school with him; try not to offend him. Maybe protecting Natsuo from him can be good too but he has friends backing him up and err...how can I be so selfish while I watch my friend getting beaten up day after day..." her voice slowly took a sharp halt and felt ashamed at continuing further.

Takuto patted her on the shoulder, a look so assuring that can make any girl smile again. "Don't worry, I'll protect the two of you if anything happens to you two."

The redhead had finally gained consciousness the moment he finished recalling the conversation he had, finding himself all bandaged in the sick bay, gaining back his clear eyesight…

"Takuto, you're all right!"

Before he got the chance to say a word, Hana, crying with relief was already at his side hugging him, caring little of the injuries he suffered.

"Oww ow oww…I think that's enough for today…look, the school medical examiner's here." It was good timing that Takuto found a distraction, his smile was wiped off soon after the moment he saw a surprise guest walking with the medical examiner.

"Grand…pa?"

This is my first fic made in 2011, I hope you like it. I doubt that I can update the other incomplete fics for now and it depends how school is going to be for the rest of the year. And yes, I changed my username since I find 'BestFanOfAnime' very fangirly if you get my point. I know that the first chapter's all over the place, but the funny comes in the next chapter onwards. There are other OCs appearing as well besides the trio to keep it from going stale and also to interact with Takuto, unrealistic to say he's going to hang out with Hana and Natsuo throughout the fic. Natsuo having asthma is not mentioned in canon though, but it fits his frail physical state for not being able to become healthy in the long run.

Yes, I did notice a plot hole on how Natsuo is going to get out of the PE room if the room is locked. He just didn't thought that far of his plan.