Chapter 4: Beginning
Two days. That’s all it took for Haruto’s bruises to mostly fade, for the pain in his ribs to dull to a manageable ache. Being an Awakened One, apparently, came with a decent healing factor. Not that he was complaining. The quicker he got back to normal, the better. Or, as normal as things could be now.
Getting ready for school that morning was... an experience. Satsuki was practically glued to him, fretting over every tiny detail.
"Are you sure you feel up to it, Haruto?" she’d asked for the fifth time, her hands smoothing down his uniform collar with an almost obsessive tenderness. Her eyes, beautiful and deep, held that familiar intensity. "You know you can stay home. I can call the school, tell them you’re still recovering."
He just sighed, trying to gently untangle himself from her embrace. "Satsuki, I’m fine. Really. It was just a bruise. I don’t want to fall behind."
She didn’t let go immediately, though. Instead, she just tightened her arms around him, pulling him into a soft, lingering hug. Her head rested on his shoulder, and he could feel her breath, warm and soft, against his neck. It was supposed to be comforting, but a tiny voice in the back of his head, the one that kept replaying Miki’s warning, made him stiffen.
"Just... be careful, okay?" she murmured, her voice muffled against his uniform. "If anything happens, anything at all, you call me. Immediately. Promise?"
He promised, just to get her to let go. He grabbed his bag, gave her a quick, reassuring smile, and headed out the door. The fresh morning air felt good, a stark contrast to the suffocating intensity of his sister’s worry. *Yandere EXP Farm,* the system’s blunt assessment echoed in his mind. He shook his head. No, that was just... Satsuki being Satsuki. She was worried, that’s all. Right?
Sakura High School looked exactly the same. The same old building, the same noisy students, the same smell of floor wax and stale chalk. For a moment, a weird sense of normalcy washed over Haruto. Then he saw Jun.
Jun, who was practically bouncing in his seat, thick glasses slipping down his nose as he frantically scrolled through something on his phone. The moment Haruto walked into the classroom, Jun’s head snapped up, eyes wide behind his lenses.
"Haruto! You’re back! Dude, you okay? You disappeared after that whole thing, then the ambulance... I was so worried!" Jun’s voice was a frantic whisper.