metamorphosis

new beginnings

kaidou psyched himself up in front of the mirror, pulling at the collar of his beige sweater out of nerves.

"it's okay shun, you got this" he thought to himself, hoping the words of self affirmation would help prepare him for the day.

It's been a while since Kaidou had last seen his friends; his mother had sent him to a summer program in order to further prepare him for college. Shun spent a majority of his summer studying and taking part in activities, not really having time to himself, much less to hang out with other people.

The program is finally over with a week remaining before the school year begins, and the gang had planned to have a party at saiki's house to celebrate his return. to saiki's dismay, his mother happily agreed and even helped set up the decorations.

It wasnt that kaidou didnt want to see his friends, he missed them terribly and was looking forward to seeing them all summer. the problem was that kaidou had changed over the past few weeks.

it began with small changes; kaidou had arrived at the camp as his usual chunibyo self, but immediately got bombarded with questions about the bandages on his arms. after being asked over and over again, too embarrassed to repeat the same story of his sealed superpowers, kaidou ended up taking off the bandages and refrained from wearing them again for the duration of the camp.

everytime kaidou would bring up the dark reunion or the great battles he has fought in, the other teens simply stared at him in confusion. Kaidou was used to others mocking him, but the silent gaze of concern and disgust was somehow worse. as time went on kaidou talked less and less about the dark reunion and their diabolical plans, and instead opted to only talk about topics the other kids were intrested in.

By the end of the program, Shun had changed completely. whilst his shy and easily embarrassed demeanor remained, his old 8th grade syndrome fantasies seemed to only be a distant memory. his clothes were no longer ripped, his edgy jewelry stowed away, and his ramblings of dark forces ceased into nothing, replaced with only discussion of the material they learned and whichever topics his peers chose to bring up.

kaidou glanced at his tattered school uniform that peeked out behind the door of his closet.

"I was so childish and delusional back then, what was I thinking." he chuckled quietly to himself.

Still, he couldnt alleviate the anxiety he felt when thinking about how his friends would react to his new found identity as a normal, studious teen. Would they mock him for how he looked? Will they think he looks wierd now? Tease him for how he used to act? What if they dont like him anymore because hes so diffrent now? what if they never liked him in the first place and they were just preten-

"SHUN"

Kaidou whipped his head around in fright at the sudden noise behind him.

"your friends are waiting for you outside. the tall idiot won't stop shouting for his "lil buddy". I have important work to do you know!? and I have to take an entrance exam soon, how do you expect me to study with all this noise? hurry up and shut them up!" his elder sister grumbled angrily, before slamming the door behind her.

Kaidou took a deep breath and made his way to the front door. His hand hesitated as it approached the handle, but nendou beat him to it and burst through the door, consequently slamming kaidou in the nose with the door.

"You okay lil buddy?? Who did this to you??" Nendou asked in concern, not realizing that he was the culprit.

"Ah it's alright, nothing I can't handle" Kaidou claimed while simultaneously holding back tears from the pain. Blood gushed out of his nose and kaidou passed out from the sight of it, nendou now scrambling around his buddy trying to figure out how to help.

Saiki who was already sick of the noise turned back time for kaidou, effectively curing the nose bleed.

As Shun woke up, he looked down in bewilderment at the lack of blood and pain.

"Huh, that's wierd. it doesn't hurt anymore. maybe I really do have regenerative abilities" he thought to himself before shaking his head.

Those ridiculous thoughts were something his past self would believe, his current mature self wouldnt entertain such silly little musings.

"You alright dude?" Aren asked in concern.

"Yeah I'm fi-"

"-What happened to your clothes??" Nendou suddenly blurted out.

This was exactly what Kaidou was afraid of. A sweat drop appeared on his forehead as he hesitantly muttered "Ahaha, I don't know what you mean by that"

"Yeah I noticed it too, your outfit seems diffrent than usual" Aren chimed in.

"W-what, I'm not allowed to experiment with my style or something?", not looking his friends in the eyes.

His friends looked at him with concern, while Saiki was content with the turn of events. As he could read his mind, he was already aware of Kaidou's new found resolve to move on from his chunibyo past. It was less of a headache for him, and it meant that less attention would be drawn to the group. Lord knows that Saiki attracts enough trouble already.

Still, Saiki couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy about the whole thing. He expected Kaidou to grow out of his phase eventually, but this rapid progression seemed a bit unhealthy. As much as he gets annoyed by the delusions and far too wild imagination of his peer, it was a bit surreal to see his friend like this.

Saiki resigned to simply observeing how things went as time passed, only intervening when necessary.

Aren who noticed Kaidou's discomfort decided to change the subject.

"Anyways, how about we head to the party! We got you a cake and everything."

Aren put on his friendliest smile to urge his friend to cheer up, and it seemingly worked as kaidou immediately perked up to the word cake.

"yeah the cake is really good, it looks real tasty and real nice. very good cake" Nendou commented, wanting to contribute.

"Chiyo and Teruhashi offered to make it, they should be waiting for us at the house and we'll eat there-"

"TERUHASHI IS GONNA BE THERE??" Kaidou exclaimed in excitement, his eyes sparkling and jumping from one foot to another like a hyper child.

Relieved that he managed to ease the tension, Aren added on "Teruhashi said she really missed you and wanted to make you a custom cake so that its special"

Kaidou was just about to pass out again before Aren caught him.

"Oi! Dont pass out before we even get there!" he scolded.