Chapter Text
Chapter Twenty-Six: In Hot Water
3rd of April, 2011
“Ah, I didn’t know you were the type to break the rules, Naegi-kun. I am slightly disappointed.”
Startled, the Ultimate Lucky Student loudly gasped and turned around, various scenarios of him being brought to the police station for poking his nose where it didn’t belong already running through his mind.
His surprise was even greater when he realized the police officer who had just caught him had a very familiar face. Somehow, Makoto didn’t allow himself to breathe a sigh of relief quite yet.
“A-Ah, um... t-that is...” This is not the time to stutter, Naegi! “I-I got lost, y-you see...?”
Makoto knew this wasn’t convincing, and not only because of the stutter that showed up to make his day worse. He genuinely hoped the others had managed to make a safer escape, for lack of a better word.
“You got lost, did you?” At least, the boy drew a smile. Nobody would hear him complaining if it could be followed by some leniency. “Then perhaps I can show you the way. To the station, that is.”
He visibly gulped. “I-I’ll, uh...” Scratching his temple, Makoto pondered his following few words carefully. “I-I think I’ll try to find my way out alone. T-Thank you, Kirigiri-san...”
The Ultimate Detective sighed. “You’re lucky I’m the one who found you. We’ll just pretend you really got lost and were not just leaving Sayaka Maizono’s dressing room. Follow me.”
Feeling his heartbeat slowing down the tiniest bit, Makoto was quick to comply. “Y-Yes, ma’am!” he said, closely trailing behind Kyoko as she walked towards the exit – using the path he and his classmates had taken earlier to join the Ultimate Pop Sensation. “I-I’m sorry, Kirigiri-san... I wish this hadn’t happened...”
“Well, it has, so I’m afraid what-ifs won’t do you much good,” the lavender-haired Ultimate told him matter-of-factly. “Consider yourself lucky I don’t deem you capable of harboring any ill intent. Had it been someone like, let’s say, Owada-kun, I wouldn’t have been so lenient.”
Yeah, Owada-kun definitely would have caused a scene... Kuwata-kun, too, for that matter... “T-Thanks, Kirigiri-san.”
She rolled her eyes, showing some exasperation. “I would say there’s no need to thank me, but considering I am purposefully not doing my job correctly for your sake, I suppose you actually should be thankful.” Okay, that made Makoto feel kinda bad. “More seriously, something like this better not happen again.” She stopped and looked him right in the eyes. This was pretty terrifying. “Am I clear?”
“C-Crystal!” Phew... Way to get scolded... It’d been a while since the boy had last been admonished in such a way by anyone. “S-So, um... I take it you’re here on security duty, Kirigiri-san?”
“Correct,” the detective answered with a nod. “Police were put in charge of security for this show, considering how large of an event it was. Though, by all accounts, something went wrong. It appears I’ll have to issue warnings to some... lazy officers.”
Even if he had just gotten caught doing something he shouldn’t, Makoto was glad not to be one of Kyoko’s subordinates right now. The girl had a cold nature at all times, but the Luckster didn’t even want to imagine how she could be in a work environment. She didn’t seem the type to enjoy half-assed work.
Without much else to say, the two classmates walked in silence toward the entrance of the concert hall. In the distance, Makoto noticed his other classmates, all accounted for, chatting amongst themselves. Hina was the first to see him approach.
“Ah, Naegi! There you are! You sure took your sweet time!” she told him, though she mostly seemed relieved. “And that’s... Kirigiri-chan...? What are you doing here?”
With all the attention now on her, the purple-eyed Ultimate gave the small group an intimidating glare. “I’m the one who should be asking questions here. What were you doing backstage, where you had absolutely no business being?”
“A-Ah, um...”
Speechless, the swimmer preferred not to say anything. Upon realizing what was happening, Taka nearly screamed in terror.
“K-K-K-Kirigiri-kun! I… I sincerely apologize!”
He bowed so hard they all thought his face would hit the concrete. Nonetheless, no one had the guts to say anything when the Ultimate Detective was so very clearly not in a mood to mess around.
“It’s Kirigiri-san to you, Ishimaru,” Kyoko dryly replied. “As for all of you, you should have some shame. We are all students of Hope’s Peak Academy. Try to live up to our school’s reputation. For your own sakes.”
Mondo almost started to speak, only to be stopped by Sakura’s firm hand on his shoulder. They all breathed a long sigh of relief. They didn’t even want to know what he’d been about to say.
Kyoko shook her head. “As I told Naegi-kun when I caught him, I’ll pretend this never happened, but I won’t be so kind next time, so ensure there’s no next time.” Her expression softened somewhat. “I understand you were all eager to see Maizono-san and that she’s most likely the one who invited you to her dressing room, but rules are rules, and it is my job to enforce them. I am not scolding you just to play the bad cop, but because a real bad cop wouldn’t have let this slide. Well,” she crossed her arms. “I have work to get back to. Be careful on your way back to Hope’s Peak.”
With that, the Ultimate Detective turned around and left. The others bowed, apologized for their misconduct, and let her return inside the arena. Makoto could see plenty of embarrassed faces, especially Chihiro’s, which was as red as a cherry.
“She’s not the fuckin’ Ultimate Fun Girl, that’s for sure. The princess is lucky she’s a girl.”
“O-Owada-kun!” Taka reprimanded, sounding positively offended. “Please have respect for police officers!”
“Tch, if you knew what I think of cops...”
No one wished to ask for more details. Now able to relax, Makoto finally realized that it was now nighttime. He had no clue the show had actually lasted that long. But now that it was over, and a yawn escaped his mouth, the Ultimate Lucky Student realized they had left Hope’s Peak hours ago.
Well, they had warned the Principal that they would return to school late, but it was probably best not to roam the streets too long. Even with a biker gang leader and a martial artist within their ranks, they had perhaps misbehaved enough for one day.
Makoto merely followed along as the Ultimate Programmer suggested they take the bus back to Hope’s Peak instead of walking. To tell the truth, his mind was elsewhere – already far away from the incident with the Ultimate Detective – filled with thoughts of the show.
The lyrics and choreography would undoubtedly leave his memories someday, but the Luckster knew one thing for sure: this was a moment he would commit to memory for a long, long time.
7th of April, 2011
It was difficult to tell conclusively, but looking at his reflection in the mirror of the changing room and inspecting it closely, Makoto was pretty confident his hair was finally back to its original color. As Sayaka had promised, the dye had not lasted too long, barely a week – though he had to shampoo a fair amount of times to get rid of it.
“Hurry up, Naegi! I need to see the girls in their swimsuits as soon as possible!”
“H-Hey, no need to drag me there! Geez...” Makoto sighed as he was forcibly grabbed by the arm by none other than Leon (who had already dyed his hair back to its more common red color) and led to the swimming pool in a rush.
Today was Class 78th’s first swimming lesson in P.E. The Ultimate Lucky Student was a decent swimmer, and not unlike most people his age, he enjoyed spending time in the pool with friends. Though he had little interest in staring at the girls in their swimsuits.
He didn’t care as much as the ballplayer, anyway.
Once there, Leon wasted no time and went to see Sayaka, sitting near the edge of the pool, with the Ultimate Detective sitting not far away, though the two didn’t seem to be conversing. Both girls were wearing a blue one-piece swimsuit, so Makoto figured this was the generic swimsuit the school had given the girls.
“Maizono-chan!” the redhead cheered, finally dropping Makoto’s hand and running to Sayaka’s side, almost slipping in the process. “You look incredible in that swimsuit!”
That... was not something the Luckster could deny. Sayaka did look lovely, perhaps even more than usual, though he tried his best not to stare. It sure was tempting. Kyoko looked very pretty, too, even if her lack of a smile disadvantaged her against the pop idol.
Makoto said nothing and let Leon ramble. In roughly the month they had known each other, both Ultimate Lucky Student and Ultimate Pop Sensation realized there would be no point trying to do anything about Leon’s infatuation. Everyone could see it, but it didn’t seem clear that Sayaka would do anything about it any time soon.
Sometimes, the hazel-eyed boy told himself that was a good thing.
For absolutely no reason, of course.
None at all.
“Alright, everyone! Gather here so we can get started!” With a loud whistle, Hina called the troops near the lifeguard tower. Not everyone seemed to be as enthusiastic as she was. “Okay, so I heard from sensei that not everyone wanted to participate, which is fine; I understand that some of you don’t want to swim. For everyone else, we’ll have a short group lesson followed by some free time, okay?” The more she spoke, the more the young Olympian’s smile grew broad. The fact that the only three non-participants were Byakuya, Toko, and Celeste probably had something to do with it, too. “If anyone needs my help with anything, please call me! That’s why I’m here!”
None could say they had ever had the Ultimate Swimming Pro as their swimming teacher before. In Makoto’s opinion, this was bound to be interesting – even if he suspected the likely exhaustion that would undoubtedly come after the lesson would make him regret thinking this.
With this, the lesson began. Easy, at first, as Hina merely asked them to swim a few laps around the pool. That much Makoto could do. The more athletic students, namely Sakura, Mondo, Leon, and Mukuro, quickly moved away from the rest of the pack while Hiro and Hifumi (for obvious reasons) were trailing behind.
“Alright, now that you’re all done with that easy warm-up... I want 800m in butterfly stroke from everyone! Anyone who takes over fifteen minutes must do it all over again! Let’s go!”
Makoto’s eyes widened. Forget after the lesson; he already regretted this.
7th of April, 2011
“Hey, Togami! Since you’re not swimming, make yourself useful and take a few pictures, okay? It’ll make for some nice memories later!”
“And why would I have to do anything you say...? Do you even know who you’re giving orders to...?”
Makoto rolled his eyes as Byakuya outright refused to comply with Hina’s demand. These two got along as well as one could expect; that is to say, they were pretty much constantly fighting like cat and dog, with both sides refusing to listen to a word from the other.
“Don’t be a jerk and do it! No one’s talking to you, so it’s not like you’ve got anything better to do!” the swimmer insisted, talking loudly from her chair while keeping an eye on her classmates. “Yamada said his camera was in the boys’ changing room.”
“And you expect me to touch something this human piece of grease owns?!” He sounded genuinely baffled. Makoto, Sayaka, and Kyoko, who were the closest to the Ultimate Affluent Progeny, could see the disgust in his eyes. “Forget it! Who cares about your pictures, anyway?! Those serve no purpose!”
Aw... “I know the two of you don’t get along, but could you please do it for the rest of the class, Togami-kun...?” Makoto asked, hoping to be the voice of reason between them. “I’ll, uh... do something for you in return if you want.” I shouldn’t have said that. For some reason, I just know.
“That’s an awfully kind offer, Naegi-kun,” the Ultimate Detective commented. “I’d withdraw it soon if I were you.”
“Can’t disagree with Kirigiri-san,” Sayaka concurred. “You know Togami-kun’s just going to make you do everything he’s too lazy to do himself, Makoto.”
Makoto sighed. Why’d I even interfere... “W-Well, maybe not anything then, but, uh... I can lend you a few hundred yen if you’re interested...?” What the heck am I even saying...? He’s filthy rich!
“Tch.” A mere sound was enough for the Togami heir to express all his disdain. “Remember your place, Naegi. You are a mere commoner, and I am the heir to the wealthiest family in the world. The day I need you to lend me pocket change, pigs will fly.”
To their surprise, Byakuya protested no further and walked back to the changing room to fetch the Ultimate Fanfic Creator’s pink camera, though he held it with the tip of his fingers.
“I’m not sure I’d touch that, so I guess I sympathize with him a little,” the bluette said. The blonde boy was annoyed; that much was clear, but it appeared he had decided not to fight a losing fight. Hina smiled in victory.
“Thank you, Togami. You see, you can be nice sometimes.”
“Quiet, Asahina.”
With that, the Ultimate Affluent Progeny started taking a few pictures as the students played around the pool. Once he was done, Makoto walked over to his classmate to check out how they turned out.
“This one looks pretty nice,” he stated. “Though we can’t see Enoshima-san’s face since Kuwata-kun’s splashing water all over her.”
Byakuya seemed to be as disinterested as ever. Nonetheless, the picture turned out nicely overall. Sayaka and Kyoko were in the foreground, and the pop idol’s sweet smile was the first thing the Ultimate Lucky Student noticed. He was standing just behind, while Celeste and Toko were in the background, a little out of place.
Meanwhile, Mondo was observing as Taka swam a lap, Hiro was freaking out over Sakura’s superhuman jump from the water, and the duo of Chihiro and Mukuro were near the poolside, watching Leon and Junko play in the water. Lastly, Hifumi, who had jumped from a diving board off-camera, did a cannonball (that had emptied a good chunk of the pool).
“Isn’t it nice to see everyone having fun?” Makoto asked, secretly hoping that his annoyed classmate would have a sudden change of heart. “You should come to swim with us next time, Togami-kun!”
“I do not wish to ‘have fun’ with you plebians, Naegi. Besides, if I wanted to swim, I would much rather do it at the Togami residence.”
Makoto sighed. I guess it can’t be helped... But I’ll make you change, Togami-kun, you can count on it!
Time passed as the 78th Class enjoyed the rest of their P.E. class. Perhaps Hina’s lesson had been hell to endure, but the relaxing time that came after made it all worth it, allowing the students to forget all the pain and exhaustion.
Putting his hands on his hips, the hazel-eyed boy smiled. Seeing everyone enjoying themselves made for a sweet scene. Finally, after a month, it appeared the class had developed a sense of unity. Of course, it was still fragile, but Makoto deemed they were on the right path.
Nothing could make him happier.
Yeah, as long as everyone’s having a good time, nothing can go wrong. And the few outliers will come around eventually, I’m sure. Well, it’s time to jump back in, Naegi!
To be continued...