Archive of Our Own ^beta

The first time the Nakamura’s think ‘hey, something’s unusual with our daughter’ is a little under two years of her birth. Rio (or Rio-chan as her father calls her) starts practically out most of the alphabet in her colouring book, over and over and when she was stuck on the last few letters, she went to find a book and scanned through it until she it, hidden amongst the sea of text. It’s like this she first picks up on English, attempting the English alphabet almost immediately.

Naoki is 4 years older than her, with a toothy, excited smile, and yet, they read the same books, all of Naoki’s plus a few from their father’s bookcase. He’s blissfully ignorant as to why his parents’ fuss over his little sister so much, for he doesn’t understand that being this smart that young is abnormal, that he’s just average compared to her He eventually will realise but for now he’s luckily ignorant of their parent’s favouritism.

She starts using English exclusively at home to hone it better, a move supported by both parents, and by the age of eight, she’s practically fluent. Naoki’s is still a little rough around the edges, his accent clipping and catching in his throat. It’s not bad but it’s not good, not Rio-chan good. He still smiles, but not at her. Never at her. Now, he stares at her, like a gaze that could grate glass, and Rio isn’t sure if it’s envy or rage or both.

There’s a lot of compliments. Everyone loves complimenting a smart child. Aunties and uncles and friends of friends all comment on how bright she is, how much potential she has. Her parents never say that sort of stuff. But that’s okay- because everyone else can fill that gap.

There’s pageants, rehearsals, spelling bees, Mathletics and always, always, always, bright flashes, more luminous than a thousand, dazzling suns. The strobing flashlights as she gets her portrait taken blind her, leaving throbbing black discs of plasma in her vision. The press, always asking questions, never to her. They don’t ever speak directly. They speak to her parents, almost as if she wasn’t even there. Like a porcelain doll, high away on its perch, she almost like decoration, something cool to show at a dinner party. A fancy trick, an oddity, a commodity, a specimen. She is abnormal.

Abnormality is not a good thing; Rio decides very early on her life. Abnormal is not what makes someone interesting or liked. It makes them strange, unrelatable, alien. Abnormal keeps you separated from the rest.

It’s probably the main reason the other children don’t try to befriend her, never invite her to come and play. Not so much scared of her as there were detached, comfortable with the varying degrees of separation. They did not see a child when they looked at her, but a machine. Well-oiled and always working away. It’s not just them either.

Naoki (who is fifteen and very much going through a phase) now glowers at her, as if she were the gum on the sole of his boot. He doesn’t read so much now, so all of his old books are given to Rio, thrusted into her arms. On the inside of them, most have the name ‘NAKAMURA NAOKI’ crossed out. Rio adds her name neatly underneath.

Rio understands where they all come from, she concludes it’s a natural reaction early on. She stands too tall, babbles too fast, and reads and reads and reads. She’s the weird one. Odd one out. She doesn’t play at breaktime because she does not know to. Some children have fun, and some children are smart. She just so happens to fall into the latter.

Regardless, it breaks her heart all the same when she figures this out (for she is still a child) as she sits alone on the bench, hands bunching up the fabric of her school uniform as she wills herself not to let the floodgates burst open. No one even wants to sit next to her. Maybe they really are afraid.

She squeezes her eyes shut and wishes to wake up in a world where she is just like everybody else.

Junior high allows for a fresh start, a clean slate. Sure, some people might know of the past, the lingering smell of peculiarity that haunts her every step, but the larger population won’t.

She may be smart (or gifted as the adults call her) but it’s not etched into the marrow of her bones. She can shrug off this assumed character, reinvent herself in her own image. She might always know the answers but who says she has to write them out? She keeps herself in A Class (a move done solely to soothe her pride) but allows to zone out on most lessons. She’s learnt this all before anyways, Rio rationalises. If anything, it’s a well—earned break.  

With her brain in cruise control, the work Kunugigoaka sends her way is challenging, and it takes Rio some time to realise that everyone here was also exceptionally smart. It eats away at her confidence. Her whole life, her personality was being the smart one. But now, here she was, in a school filled with children all considered the smart one. Her irregularity, her freakish knowledge is the common denominator. She’s normal here and she allows her confidence to bloom. The students here were different (in quite literally all meanings of the word).  

However, with their intelligence came their boringness. Dull, all of them, like worker drones so accustomed to the norm. Those who never object at life’s cruel luck, the genetic lottery. No one seems to laugh or smile, just dead, dead eyes focused on their work. Their leisure time often spent on sports and languages and mathematics and more. No one ever wants to hang back for a chat, to just stop and stand and just observe. People watch. They were boring, Rio decides, the majority of the student body.

Some are interesting, though, she slyly notes. Some people in dingy little class 1-A were very interesting indeed. The boy who sits over to the right of the classroom, Asano, smiles a lot, with bright, bright eyes. He clearly didn’t regard schoolwork as work but rather as a puzzle with one correct answer to find, one path to follow, one solution. He seems to be well-meaning but sometimes, his smile seems… sinister, as if he were plotting something. Still, before exams, he approaches Nakamura and wishes her good luck. If the handshake stings a little afterward, Rio doesn’t think about it.

Another one who catches her eye- the boy at the back of the class with that viper smile, his eyes trained and gaze sharp. When she turns around in her chair to look at him, his eyes catch her immediately and it feels like he’s been staring the whole time. She looks back around and tries not to think about it and fails. He’s very mysterious, dipping in and out of lessons at his leisure and seemed to favour a different social atmosphere. There’s rumours of someone fitting his description who apparently beats you up and make you eat wasabi afterwards.  Rio refused to call the thugs at the back of the school a ‘friend group’ but he seems to drop by when he likes it. She decides that he is very much not boring.

After class, she pretends to fiddle with the closing on her satchel in order to lag behind him, in order to follow him around. However, after fiddling with the closing for over a minute, she hears a voice over her shoulder.

“Need help with that?”

Rio jumps away in fright, clutching the satchel close to her. She recovers from the shock when she sees his seemingly taunting smile. Condescending but still somewhat playful. She dusts off her skirt airily.

“Not anymore,” She dismisses. “Thank you though.”

They stand in deafening silence for a few moments before his eyes flicker between her and the door. “After you,” He offers, hand extended comically. “Unless you were waiting for me?”

Rio frowns it off, briskly leaving the room. “Obviously not.”

To her surprise, he follows her, running for a bit to catch up to her. “You stare a lot.”

“So do you,” She looks him up and down. “Are you coming with me?” She inquires, curious as to know why the other has joined her.

He shrugs. “It was you who was waiting for me, thank you very much. I’m simply entertaining you. What did you wait for?” He asks straight to the point.

“I wanted to ask you your name.” She lies smoothly, quacking deflecting the other’s attention.

He, however, doesn’t seem too convinced. Or maybe he sees through it all. Regardless, the response she gets is the same. “Is that so?” He croons, straightening out his back so he appears taller.

Rio stands firm in her determination. She’s not intimidated him (not with that colour of hair). He’s not scary- he’s interesting. The most interesting in the class. “Yes.” She affirms. “You stare a lot as well, by the way.” She counters.

He laughs a little and introduces himself.

Akabane likes maths, with its rigid formulas and where logic shines brightest. When she says her name, he tilts his head to the side, curiously.  

“Na-ka-mu-ra,” Akabane draws out the syllables, mulling it over in his head. Rio can practically hear the gears whizzing. His eyes then light up, sparkling with recognition and a certain sense of knowingness. “Like the wunderkind?”

“Nakamura as in myself,” She frowns. She always clarified that first. She was smart, yes, and maybe she was quasi-famous some time ago, but she was always going to be Rio. “But also, the wunderkind.” She quietly adds at the end.

He nods slowly. “Cool. I once saw you on a magazine,” He taps his foot. “I think it was… Teen Chess Japan?”

Rio can’t hide her confused look. “You actually read that?”

“Flicked through it a couple times,” He shrugs it off with a laugh. Akabane doesn’t seem like the type to get caught up in life, one who goes with the flow. Very interesting, Rio notes. “Chess is eh.”

She rolls her eyes; glad the subject has been dropped. “How articulate.” She jokes, her voice light.

The weather gets colder, the air tenses up and the principal’s eyes seem even darker than usual which could only mean one thing- exam season.

Rio gives her notes a quick look over and achieves 7^th overall which is completely fine in her eyes, but God knows about her parents. Akabane gets 4^th, which surprises her. The Akabane she’s been introduced to seems competitive, violently so.

“You’re not going for the top?” She asks, curious. 

He shrugs it off. “If you have everything, there’s nothing left to achieve,” Akabane looks around idly. “First place is only worth something if there’s a fight to get to it.”

“A rival,” She muses, thinking the question over and over in her head. “Asano?” Rio suggests after some time considering it.

Akabane grumbles to himself under his hushed breath, muffling all speech. “I’m waiting for him to make it fun,” She manages to make out. “One day he will but. I think for now, I’ll just focus on making life fun.”

There’s definitely something up with that (something fruity) but decides she has more pressing matters at hand than Akabane’s love life. She’ll let him figure that out.

Her parents grumble quietly amongst themselves, agreeing on a verdict in private. Rio’s just thankful she’s escaped a telling off. She hides away from their judgmental stare alongside her trophies and plagues, who have no eyes to judge her.

Naoki visits but really, Rio sees through it all. It’s all a façade for a wellbeing visit, that much is obvious. Even though she only glances at him for a second, he looks worn out, stretched thin. He’s incredibly pale and with a tired look in his eyes when he forces a smile. Arguably- is not doing well.

He keeps to himself in his room, tinkering with something, only coming out for food and the toilet. He doesn’t shower and the musk of reclusively he leaves after every ghostly apparition downstairs is enough to make Rio retch.

She doesn’t worry about it, well not too much, as she assumes her parents have… some sort of plan with dealing with Naoki. She waits up at night, anticipating them entering his room, breaking his social isolation, to help him with whatever demons he’s facing. The knocks never made, the border into enemy territory never crossed.

Eventually, Rio decides, enough is enough. Late at night, after finishing a chapter of ‘The Catcher In The Rye’, she sneaks out of her room and tries to enter Naoki’s. It doesn’t budge. She pushes against the door for bit, trying to force it open.

Eventually, a voice dwelling within the cave answers. “Who is it?”

“Let me in.”

She doesn’t get a response but that doesn’t stop her. She continues to try and open the door. Naoki eventually realises that she isn’t going to go away and unlocks his door. It creaks open, revealing a man, one that didn’t resemble her brother at all and yet, he had his name.   

His jaw hangs loose on his face as he speaks. “What is it?”

Rio stands her ground. “We need to talk.”

He looks around. “We are right now.”

“You know what I mean,” She hisses.  “You haven’t been outside in a week.”

He tries to put up a fight, but he knows she’s right, so he allows himself to be dragged outside to get some air. He sits down, somewhat defiantly on the garden step, hiding deeper into his clothes. “Look. I’m out here. Are you happy?”

“Extremely,” She points at the sky. “Look at the moon. Crazy, right?”

Naoki’s gaze fixes on the moon, eyes glazed over in tiredness. “I still can’t believe that happened,” He mumbles before turning to her. “Are you over it already?”

She shrugs. “It’s cool to look at but I just try not to think about the impact of it.”

He shakes his head at this, letting it hang despairingly between his knees, silent once again. Rio really wishes he didn’t do that. “What’s up?” She flat out asks, spinning on her heel.. “You just came back here out of the blue,” Then, after a pause, she quickly adds. “Are you still in school?”

Naoki scoffs. “Of course.”

“Just checking,” She sits down next to the step with him. He doesn’t budge over so she sits right on the edge. “Not need to be fussy with me. I’m your sister, after all.”

To this, he snorts in annoyance. “Like that means anything.”

Rio frowns. “I know you have this weird thing about me but at the end of the day, we’re still family.”

“My ‘weird thing’ is even- Why do you call it that?”

“It is weird. Don’t act so offended. The way you treat me is abhorrent. The fact I speak to you at all is a test of my good nature.”

He shakes his again, his voice a lot less enthusiastic as last time. “It doesn’t matter.”

Rio won’t let him drop the subject so easily. “Clearly it does.”

For a moment, he’s silent, presumably choosing his words carefully. “I don’t hate you-”

“-Thanks for clarifying.-”

“-I hate you for what you’ve done.” He finishes.

“That makes no sense! I haven’t done anything!”

He rolls his head over to look at her, doubt clouding his eyes. “It’s due to how you’re treated, compared to me,” Naoki digs his thumb into the earthy soil, getting mud under his nails. He groans quietly. “Because no matter what I do, it’ll still be you who gets all the attention.” He somewhat sneers.

Rio looks around in disbelief, mouth agape. Sure, their parents might’ve favoured her but that’s not something she did. That’s not her personal fault. She points out this pathetic argument.  “I can’t do anything about that.”

“That’s the worst part.” He groans into his hands once more, with it now sounding more like a wail than a groan, shaking his head in disapproval, signalling that he’s had enough now. “I’m going to bed.”

He doesn’t say good night so neither does she, swallowing hard when the door swings closed behind her. He leaves early in the morning, presumably for university, without saying a word to anybody on his way out. Her parents don’t mention the visit nor the French exit.

Rio tries not to think about it. She fails.

She’s called to the principal’s office curtly. She’d been awaiting this. It still doesn’t feel real though, as she seemingly drifts through the corridors, feeling awfully lightheaded.

The principal sits at his desk as if he’s the president, hands neatly clasped in front of him, donned in shadows. As he lectures her on her failing grades, she thinks to herself that perhaps she’s glad Naoki never attended Kunugigoaka; the principal would have certainly freaked him out. Rio thinks of his office as a creepy escape room and hopes to every higher power there is that this conversation is straight to the point  Thankfully, the man is concise and soon he delivers that finishing blow:

“As of next week, you’ll be moved down to E Class.”

She walks broodingly back to class and when she gets back and has a proper look around the room, she realises she’s staring into a sea of unfamiliarity. Where had everyone gone? Akabane, well, that had been obvious. He’d been suspended, got too caught up in his own fun and games. It was unlikely he was ever coming back. Kanzaki, the girl with pretty, long black hair who sat towards the front, apparently skipped class to go to the arcade. Isogai, a boy who she occasionally studied with, had seemingly vanished into thin air. There was whispers, rumours that it was because he broke one of the school rules. Rio believes that to be a lie; there’s no way Isogai, who did everything by the book, would ever break a school rule. She thinks that’s just another rumour, created by the Kunugigoaka rumour mill.  

The only one she even somewhat knows is Asano junior himself, who perches himself on that one, lone pedestal he envisions in society, surrounded by minions and followers. He doesn’t say anything directly to Rio but there’s a certain look in his eyes when they pass each other which makes Rio think he’s known this whole time. She doesn’t wave behind when she leaves the next week.

The E Classroom appears to be smothered by the blanket of lush jungle that surrounds it. It peeks out through the foliage, a reminder that this is still school, even if it is on the mountain top that overlooks the main campus. There is something vaguely gothic about it- the rundown, abandoned and foreboding, nestled high away in the trees. This is what she tells herself in order to get up the mountain.

Rio’s not sure how she feels about the demotion. One part of her (the competitive one, who likes rankings, who likes being better) cringes away inside, in wailing desperation of where she has landed. The other side, the one that’s smouldering away, running on whatever’s left of itself, has expected this for a while now. If this is who she really is, then maybe she does belong in somewhere like the End Classroom, where the teacher is yellow and has 8 arms (or maybe they’re considered legs?).

This class to be the pick and mix of the school, individuals with brightly coloured hair scattered amongst the class. Her bleached blonde hair just adds to it and wonders if this makes her truly average.

The octopus did the whole… moon thing (not something she had predicted) and this whole school year is set up for an assassination. It sounds like something out of a movie. Rio pays attention, eager to learn as she decides that this is interesting (she actually lists it as ‘badass’ because it undeniably is) and it’s reason enough to try. Then Akabane’s suspension is dropped (which was highly suspicious) and he rocks up to the 3-E classroom as if it were just a normal day, anti-sensei knife already in hand.

When she’s allotted the government issues plastic weapons, she examines them more closely, pulling back the blade so she can watch it snap back into position. She can’t help the smile that grows on her face.

This, she decides, will be fun.

Somewhere down the line, she realises that Korosensei (as he had written on the chalkboard) is actually trying to be a teacher. She thought he was just… joking about all that.

But no, and one day, one lunch time where Rio preferred to sit alone, reading under a shady tree, Korosensei appears in front of her.

“Catcher In The Rye, eh?” He rubs two tentacles together, presumably mimicking hands. “How are you finding it?”

She glances at the book’s front cover. “It’s okay.” She answers, surprised that her alien teacher has even heard of the book.

Korosensei then produces his own copy of ‘The Catcher in The Rye’ and sits, legs messed together as he sits cross-legged. “Oh, good,” He begins flicking through the pages. “I’m only on Chapter 2.”

“You’re reading ‘Catcher In The Rye’?” She asks, unable to mask her disbelief.

“Yes! When I did my nightly rounds, making sure all of you guys were tucked away in bed, I noticed you had a copy by your bedside,” He removes his bookmark and gently places it on his lap. “I was hoping to read together, like a book club.”

Rio’s smile is watery. “I don’t know if you’ll like the book, sensei,” She means this earnestly. “I don’t think it’s your scene.”

“Nonsense,” He begins to read. “If reading this book will help further deepen your education, then I’m all for it, regardless of genre,” He pauses. “That and this is on the curriculum. Since you’re already ahead I thought I’d bounce some ideas of you.”

“But it’s your lunch break,” She frowns. “Surely, you don’t want to spend it reading with me.”

Korosensei flips a page. “I’ve already eaten, dear Nakamura,” He taps at his book. “Now could you help me with this bit?”

She obliges.

Korosensei cares way too much 3-E for a supposed assassination target. Even the whole idea of killing the jolly, yellow octopus seems absurd. The real challenge in front of them is exams, which historically, has not been class 3-E’s strong point. Korosensei seems intent on changing that.  

Studying periods increase in frequency, with Korosensei rushing around at Mach 10, to cover everyone’s individual needs. Some of the students are highlighted for their academic ability. There’s the likes of beanstalk Takebayashi, the shy yet wickedly intelligent Okuda, Akabane (Rio doubts this, despite his past record), the honourable Isogai and the perverted Okajima who gives Rio the creeps.

Eventually she’s asked to stay behind after class.

“Nakamura,” Korosensei begins in English. This surprises Rio as she wasn’t aware he even spoke English. It’s good, she notices. Not his mother tongue (duh, he is an alien) but certainly fluent. “I see great potential in you. You’re extremely fluent in English.”

She takes the language switch as a sign and decides to reply in English as well. She can already see where this conversation is going. “Thank you, sensei. I speak it at home exclusively.”

“Your dedication shows in your English results,” He holds up an old exam paper she’d aced. “How are you feeling about this next wave of tests?”

She shrugs. “Okay. I’m not worried.”

“Really? Woah, impressive! How’s the revision going?”

“I don’t revise.”

“Pardon?”

“I have a good memory,” She explains dutifully. “It only really takes a few study sessions to cement ideas.”

 “I still think you should,” And then he tilts his head to the side, the glint in his eye has changed. “Unless… this isn’t true...?”

She panics internally, unsure of what to do. Was she really that easily read, as if she was transparent? Or perhaps was he more intelligent than previously expected? She ends up pulling the old Naoki trick, where she decides to remain silent but maintains eye contact with the octopus.

Korosensei sighs, and the look in his eyes changes once again. This seems more fond than last time. “Think as your intelligence as the most unique weapon in your arsenal,” He advises. “It’s exclusive to you. No one can ever have your intelligence.”

She nods, as to urge him to continue.

“So don’t let anyone weaponize it against you! It’s yours, Nakamura. It’s yours to turn against others. The only person who can ever effectively utilise it is yourself. And whatever path you end up taking with your mind is uniquely yours as well.”

A tentacle affectionately pets her shoulder.

“I mean, you have every right not to perform to the best of your ability, as are the rest of your classmates,” And his voice… he sounds so sincere, genuine. “But someone like you I think ought to try.”  

She doesn’t get any clarification on what ‘someone like you’ means but it leaves a warm, fuzzy feeling in her chest. She uses it as fuel for revision, uses it to get her burnt out engine blazing bright again. For she is Nakamura Rio, former wunderkind, current struggling academic and full time English speaker. And she maybe gives the exams that follow a try, maybe for herself, maybe for Korosensei, maybe for her parents.

By the time she works up the courage to ask Korosensei what he meant in that classroom all those weeks ago, it is too late. For Korosensei is no more.

She tries not to think about it (and fails) but when she goes home that night, heart heavy and tears wet as her parents argue downstairs, she catches a glance of her copy of the yearbook he’d gifted them. In her copy, the last few blank pages have been used for Korosensei to leave his review for ‘The Catcher In The Rye’, signed off with a playful signature.

She feels obliged to finish her copy that night and reads his review afterwards. She definitely doesn’t cry herself to sleep but she definitely does dream of a hundred thousand fireflies as they scatter off into the inky blue night sky.

Her parents eventually agree on this: that they’re going to sue Kunugigoaka, that there’s no way the government are actually involved in such a scandal, and that Rio is grounded. Mega grounded. For the entire summer. Being grounded, under any other circumstance, would be a wrench in Rio’s plans, her social life. But given the swarm of paparazzi that’s trying to enter her street seem to block any chance of a social life anyways, so she sits content at home, glad to be free of school, even if most of her days are spent reading or scrolling on her phone.

Naoki moves back for the summer but Rio’s yet to see him. He had arrived late at night hastily, seemingly on another whim. He hasn’t yet awoken, still slumbering in his cave. She reckons she’ll only see him (if at all) in the anti-social hours. She ponders on briefly what they’ll say to one another if anything at all.

When the moon is high and the air thick with hazy heat marks a fortnight since Korosensei’s death. In a small show of remembrance, she decides to get a bit of fresh air and she eats her dessert in the back garden, perched up on the concrete step. The glass bowl is cold in her lap, which cools her down from the occasional warm breeze. The moon gazes down on her and Rio hopes that hiding amongst the rocks is Korosensei himself.

It’s much later than evening when Naoki joins her, seemingly just up, with a slice of bread in his hands. He appears to intend to eat it plain. His appearance makes Rio jump a little. She hadn’t expected company- especially not him.  

He doesn’t say anything but does hold up his plain bread slice  as to signal a hello. Rio doesn’t try to initiate conversation but neither does he, just silently eating their food. It’s not so much comfortable as it is surprisingly soothing. Camaraderie? Maybe, maybe not. More like mutual understanding.

In the moment, there’s no anxieties about high school, or academic testing or points and grades or homework or drama. There is her, her brother, and the stars.

She looks up at the crumbling moon and hopes that her next year of education is just as interesting as the last one.