Chapter 53 - CH 40: SADISTIC ANIMALS/ RESOLVE

"Soooo… You rejected her in the end?"

"Yes.."

Himiko was frustrated when she heard this answer. The heck!! She didn't think that Momo would be stupid enough to confess even though she had clearly no chance. In her initial plan, she would slowly guide Momo toward making Kuroha like her more and then everything would go well.

It was Sunday, one day after Momo rejection from kuroha. Right now they were in kuroha bedroom. Apart from the ceiling where a map of the sky was drawn, the rest of the room was pretty simple and void of decoration.

"You shouldn't have given her such a straightforward answer. The best would have been to ask for a few days and talk to me about it."

Once again, she didn't care about Momo. It was just that they may have lost an incredibly powerful and wealthy support.

"...."

"Could you tell her that you retract your words and in fact like her very much?."

Kuroha snorted, no one apart from himself, knew Himiko more than him. It may be arrogant and narcissistic of him to think like that, but he would rather believe that the sun could rise in the west than believe she was sincerely worried about anyone but himself.

He sighed and said,

"You know, I am not naive enough to think that no one will ever find all the things we did. Already, the bounty hunter team NIGHT RAID, composed of Asa, Mujitsu and Hina already know about my existence. Sooner or later, something will go wrong, and someone will find my crimes. In such a situation, having the Yaoyorozu backing would be extremely useful without a doubt."

Himiko was overjoyed when she heard this, it seemed like he understood her goal

"Then you should…"

"I will do nothing."

Kuroha cut her before she could finish

"Momo is someone who holds a really large weight in my heart. She is my friend, my best friend. I will never use her, and I will never let her be tainted by the darkness until she becomes a true hero."

Momo was one of the few lights that allowed him to not fall in the dark power of the Emo. He owed her too much. What more

Himiko laughed before pinching Kuroha right cheek with an amused look on her face

"Protect her. Don't make me laugh so much. Aren't you just protecting yourself?"

"..."

She didn't mind his silence and hugged his head against her chest and began to slowly caress his long hair.

"No matter how you act. No matter how hard and how high the wall in your hearts are, I will always be there for you."

--------

"Hum… The candidates this year are really interesting. Don't you think?"

A voice, that seemed rather young, sounded in an office in U.A.

"It's my first year, as such I have no basis of comparison. So I cannot answer this question."

Another voice sounded not far from the first. This time it was a little more nasal.

"Hyoga, you're too strict. Try to loosen a little."

It was the principal's office. In here a rather surrealistic scene was playing on. A penguin and what looked like a rat were playing chess. What more it was a tri-dimensional one. The number of operations necessary for each step was insane.

For those two though this was nothing more than a slightly more troublesome game. That was how smart they were.

You should have guessed it, those two were Nezu and Hyoga respectively, the headmaster U.A and the new teacher.

After placing another pawn, Hyoga asked,

"Are you sure about those changes?"

Nezu countered it by advancing one of his knights.

"Initially I had planned to hold a race type exam. But with the information I recently received about a young child, I decided to change the game a little."

Hyoga watched his compatriot quietly. Like him, he suffered at the hands of those human, why then was he so caring toward their progeny?

He didn't understand, but he understood that he could only live thanks to his charity. That's why he was ready to work as a professor even though he couldn't help but dream of biting their heads off. Still, even though he couldn't kill them, he could still make them wish they're dead once he began teaching them.

Those two, fully immersed in their imagination, one thinking about how interesting the test would be and the others thinking about how to torture his students,

"AHAHAHAHA!!!!" x2

Began to let out a really creepy laugh.

------

Outside, a tall black-haired man wearing a black outfit having a sort of very big scarf around his neck was on the verge of knocking on the door. But, once he heard those laugh, he wisely retracted his hand, took a few silent steps back, and began to slowly walk away. While he was going away, he could be heard murmuring,

"Nop, no way I will enter there. I will just act as if I heard nothing."

-----

After laughing for a while, they calmed themselves and began to play again as if nothing happened. Nezu, after taking one piece of Hyoga said,

"Still, it seems like you really like those human clothes."

From the few months they spent together, Nezu remarked Hyoga unusual love for clothing. He rarely wore the same clothes more than five times.

Today, from what he could see, Hyoga was wearing a white tuxedo, a monocle on his right eye, a white hat and he was holding a cane with his left hand.

(AN: Search Excalibur Soul Eater to find the picture I used for this.)

Nezu was seriously impressed with this get-up. While Nezu was observing him, he was doing the same.

He never understood why Nezu always wore the same clothes. What more, even up to now, he was never able to guess what kind of species Nezu belonged to.

From what he could see Nezu was a short male who appears to be a possible combination of several different animals, including a dog, a mouse and a bear, which would make him a chimera.

He had the head of a mouse with circular black eyes, a large scar over the right one, relatively square-shaped ears with pale pink insides slanting outwards from the top of his head, and an elongated muzzle with a small round nose. His fur was white and has large, dog-like paws with pink pads and a thin tail like that of a cat.

He sports a white dress shirt, a dark red tie around his neck, a black double-b.r.e.a.s.ted waistcoat and matching dress pants. He also wore an orange lace-up sneakers with incredibly thick soles which seem to be quite large on him.

Hyoga was sure that no matter how much he suffered, Nezu should have suffered far worse. It was one of the reasons that made him listen to him.

He was of the opinion that If you don't share someone's pain, you can never understand them. Even then it wasn't enough understanding someone through pain didn't mean that you'll come to an agreement.

That's why they sharing the same pain was only one of the reasons he accepted to follow him.

Another one was that he owed him his life and his freedom. He would use his life to repay this debt no matter what. This was his way. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

------

Momo was sitting while facing a mirror. She cringed a little as she looked at her reflection. Yesterday, she cried during half of the night before falling asleep. Now, her puffy eyes and her rebellious hair made her look like a witch.

This thought made her smile a little before the memories of why she was in this state came back.

Tears gathered in the corner of her eyes but she fought them back. Crying one night was enough. Any more than this would just be a waste of time. If simply crying could solve problems, the world would be a very different place to live in.

What did she feel for Kuroha? Did she still like him? Should she give up and stay as a friend? Should she try once again?

Finally, she firmed her resolve. One time. One more time. One last time.

She will give her all to seduce him. The duration was one year. If after that he still rejected her, then she would simply give up. She loved him. As such she had to fight. Love is war. A war would never be won if the soldiers gave up at the first step back.

She began to reassess her situation from a more objective viewpoint.

Firstly, she had been friend-zoned. But it wasn't like there's no way to get out of the zone. She just had to find the one that will work.

Secondly, she had to change her approach. She wasn't stupid. After what Himiko and Kuroha himself said, it seems like Kuroha had some secret she didn't know, but that Himiko knew. She had to find what it was.

Thirdly... she bitterly smiled. Himiko was a great obstacle in her way. She thought back to his answer yesterday

---FLASHBACK

"What about Himiko-san?"

"I… Frankly I don't know what I feel for her."

----FLASHBACK END

Momo bitterly smiled, the difference was stark. He could clearly say that he didn't love her, but he was confused about his feelings for Himiko.

If it was a race, Himiko would have already completed 80% of it, while she didn't even start yet. Worse she was told by the referee that she didn't have the prerequisite to start.

But this wasn't enough to make her give up. She was Yaoyorozu Momo. A Yaoyorozu always got what he/she wished for.

After firming her resolves, she got up and went to take a bath. Perhaps what she was doing was useless. Most likely she would fail. But… She wanted to do it. If her first love must end in failures, then so be it. She just didn't want to have any regrets. She didn't want to think things like "What if I done this or that?"

That's why, even though it's stupid, even though it's pitiful, even though it hurt, she will still fight for his love.

-----

The next day the first batch of students who would pass the test stood in front of a podium. There a man began to scream, excitedly,

"HEY! HEY! HEY! WELCOME YOU EXAMINEE. I HOPE YOU'RE READY!!!"