"My parents gave me everything I needed. They are very wealthy, so we had a big house, tasty meals prepared by chefs and helpers, and I lived comfortably. But that was not really what I wanted. From the day I was born, my parents never truly showed me any love. I was originally unwanted, just a mistake they made, and my mother gave birth to me," Her voice was strained, but she kept talking.
"So I was more like something they had to manage and not a real daughter. One of the helpers, Koyuki-san, was the one who really raised me, she taught me how to cook and take care of myself. But I was just a kid and really wanted to be seen by my parents, so I studied harder, worked on myself and tried to be as perfect as possible. It just made me more tired and tried and it was all useless! Yesterday i got a call from my mother, and she talked to me like I was nothing but a problem she couldn't wait till she get got rid off."
Mahiru's head lowered to the ground tears slowly dripping on the sofa in Adrien's apartment. Then she felt a warm hand caressing her head. She looked up and saw Adrien, who was smiling warmly at her.
"Mahiru, you're genuinely amazing, everything you do is amazing. You're cooking is first class, you're beautiful, smart, kind, maybe a bit too kind for your own good. Your words might be sharp sometimes, and say what's on your mind, but that just makes us birds of a feather", Adrien's smile deepened, "I have a motto that I go by, even though it's probably the reason for my current situation but hear me out anyways, 'don't let anybody define what you are or want to be' and that's because you're the only you in the world."
"If someone don't like you for some reason, they can go fuck themselves. Doing what 'you' want to do without caring about what people think is what makes you different. You don't need to try to fit in, to try to be perfect, to try to please anyone so they can look at you. And to be completely honest, I prefer the real you, not the fake persona I saw you putting at school, the one who'd scold me if I didn't do the dishes, the one who's afraid of completely harmless spiders for some reason. So just be 'you' Mahiru and that's enough."
Mahiru listened tears still flowing down her face, she took a pillow and hid her face behind. Then through small sobs Mahiru said, "Will... you look at me... Adrien". Mahiru didn't want to feel unwanted, that was her fear, her own demons.
"Sure I will, I'll always watch you whatever you do", he said as he patted her head.
"Can I cry on your shoulder just for today?"
"Yeah, come here.", Mahiru closed the distance and wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Please forget that you saw me like that...", she said in a soft voice, her ears turning red.
Suddenly, Adrien's eyes widened in surprise, there was an energy leaking out of Mahiru.
'Wait... that's...', the corners of his mouth twitched and he broke into a smirk.
"Nah I don't think I will."
Mahiru let out an annoyed hum, a few minutes later she fell asleep her head resting on his shoulders.
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BEEP!! BEEP!!BEEP!! BEEP!!
SMASHHH!!
Adrien smashed his alarm clock to pieces, it was his 4th in the past 10 days. He sat up and stretched while yawning.
"Guess I need to buy a new one..."
Adrien stood up and went to the bathroom, he rinsed his face, brushed his teeth, then returned to his room and put on the school uniform.
"Mahiru...", a grin appeared on his face, "She has a sacred gear, I'm sure of it."
Yesterday, as Mahiru's emotions welled up, a small amount of energy was emitted by her. It wasn't something as crazy as a Longinus but it wasn't weak at all. For a sleeping sacred gear, the amount of energy that leaked out wasn't small. Then, after the leakage stopped, Mahiru fell asleep immediately.
"What an amazing coincidence".
Adrien went to school, as he walked through the hallway, he passed the short girl walking with a cane again. He looked at her, "need any help?". Adrien was devil, he didn't usually went around helping people, but something about this girl made it hard to ignore her.
The girl looked at him, she was beautiful in her own way, she had short white hair that reached her shoulders and violet eyes that were assessing Adrien. She gave him a small smile, "No, I am quite alright. Even so, I do appreciate your thoughtfulness."
"Alright then", just as he about to start moving again she asked.
"May I ask for your name?"
"Adrien Agares, you?"
"Arisu Sakayanagi, nice to meet you."
"Yeah, same here."
Then both of them walked away in different directions.
Adrien walked toward his classroom, and like always girls flocked around him asking him random questions. He would answer half heartedly while smiling faintly. He could have just brushed them off, but if he wanted information on all the students in the school he knew that they would be useful.
'Ahhhh! teenage girls and their love from drama'
Most of what they talked about was, who started dating who, and who broke up with who. He caught her getting fucked by the whole basketball team. She caught him kissing that girl.
'Wait a minute! The WHOLE basketball team? what a fucking slut! Poor soul.'
Then one girl asked Adrien, "Hey, you surely play sports right? Why don't you try the Kendo team, our school's team is pretty famous, especially our captain."
"There's a Kendo team?"
"Yeah, why don't you go check it out later?"
"Wait you're in the Kendo team", A girl said to her.
"Yeah, you're just bringing him to your club!"
"Yeah!"
'Kendo, huh... that might be interesting'
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After classes ended Adrien passed by Mahiru's class to see how she was doing, but for some reason she wasn't there.
'Wait did she even come to school today?'
He made a mental note to check up on her in later.
Adrien headed toward the gymnasium of the school, he found the place where the Kendo club trained, it was a quite room with polished wooden floors, bamboo swords lined neatly, and the sharp scent of sweat lingering in the air. Inside were a few girls and boys swinging bamboo swords, and watching them was a tall beautiful girl with thigh-length purple hair and blue eyes. Her lips thin an pink colored accentuated her beauty.
"Oh we have a visitor, today. What's up, here to join the kendo club?", she said with a smile.
Adrien entered the room and walked toward the captain of the kendo club.
"I'm just looking, my name's Adrien by the way."
"Saeko Busujima, nice to meet you". She said, slightly tilting her head up to look at Adrien. "you're tall, I think you're one of the tallest in the school."
"Yeah I get that a lot."
Adrien watched the members swinging their swords, repeating the same movements again and again.
"Do you know how sword-play?", she asked.
"Yeah, I know my way around it."
"From the way you're watching them, I believe you're very good at the art of the sword."
"What makes you think that?"
"You're watching their feet, hips and their grip on the handle, not just the overall stance."
Adrien smiled faintly, he stayed silent for a second then said, "Let's play a game, we'll spar, If you win I join the club and help you teach them, If I win I become the captain and you'll assist me."
Saeko Busujima raised an eyebrow at Adrien's proposal, "What makes you think that I will take you up on the offer?"
"I don't know, just a feeling."
Saeko smiled, then focused her attention on her club members, they were getting more and more tired with each swing. She tapped her hands two times, the claps echoed through the clubroom.
"Alright, everyone, let us take a ten-minute break. After that, we will move on to sparring."
The club members let out relieved sighs and made their way to their bags to drink some water. At the same time, Saeko took two bamboo swords from a stack and handed one to Adrien who was just smiling, amused.
Whispers echoed in the room as everyone made space for the two of them. Saeko took a Chūdan-no-kamae stance where the sword pointed at Adrien's throat. On the contrary Adrien didn't have a stance, his sword just hanged from his right hand, pointing downwards.
"Gave up already?", she asked teasingly.
"Hmm?, aren't you going to attack?"
In an instant, Saeko closed the distance. She moved as if she were about to deliver a diagonal slash, but it was only a feint. Mid-motion, she changed it into a thrust aimed at Adrien's neck. Adrien reacted at once. His blade shot forward with incredible speed, sliding along the full length of her sword and pushing it off line before it could reach him. In the same motion, his sword redirected into a thrust of its own and came to a stop against Saeko's neck.
Saeko's eyes widened in disbelief, the whispers inside the room became louder with 'Whats' and 'No ways'. A torrent of questions passed through her mind, How did he get so fast to my thrust with no stance? What was that speed? was there absolutely no wasted movements?
"I win this one", Adrien flashed a grin. Adrien grew up loving sword play, but as he got older he found it to be less powerful then others of his techniques so he dropped it. But that didn't mean that he forgot how to swing a sword, on the contrary.
"Even my father, who is a national master wouldn't be able to pull that off...", Saeko said, her voice soft, mixed in with her disbelief.
Adrien just smiled at her reaction, he loved watching people lose their cool.
"That means, I'm also a master I guess."
"But you're just a high schooler..."
"A bet is a bet right?", He smile turned mischievous.
"Yeah...", she said still taken aback.
"You can call me captain from tomorrow onwards", he said as he left the clubroom, smiling like he just stole a kid's favorite toy.
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2 new characters appear, I've never saw a classroom of the elite character in a fan fic like this, but it makes sense since they're always in their school. Well now that Sakayanagi is out I chose her.
Saeko Busujima is also another character I chose, she's pretty popular in fan-fics but in this one I made her a regular high schooler not in a zombie apocalypse. I don't know if this Chapter felt a bit fast paced but I didn't think there was a need to stretch these parts out. Especially since I just introduced the two new characters.
Sorry for my mediocre English by the way, it's not really my first Language.