Motivated to be lazy

SS Unlikely Alliances

No one in this school knows better than I do about how lucky I am that I came out relatively unscathed. I poked a dormant monster and lived to tell the tale. I doubt there are many who will ever be able to say the same.

I knew there was something about him. I knew deep down that Class D had a demon lurking in the shadows. No matter what I did to that weakling Matsuo, he always stood back up as if nothing had happened. The only explanation was that it was Ayanokouji. It was common knowledge that they were childhood friends and Ayanokouji never seemed phased by anything, no matter how dire the circumstances. Only he could be the reason why Matsuo always seemed to brush himself off and continue pushing forward.

It wasn't enough that I'd already beaten him. It was like an itch that never went away no matter how hard I scratched or how much I bled. It gnawed at my psyche like a migraine that pulsed in my brain and wouldn't go away even if I'd taken a hammer to the head. I rule by fear. Always have, and always will. No matter what I did and no matter how afraid Matsuo seemed to be, he refused to yield and it infuriated me.

I was never the strongest out on the streets. There were plenty of thugs who would pose more than a challenge in any confrontation. That wasn't what allowed me to reign supreme. It was my undying tenacity. The fact that no matter how many times they'd beat me senselessly, I could tell myself that it was only pain. The fact that the fight never left my eyes made them hesitant to confront me again. It was that hesitance that allowed me to capitalize and push forward until I broke through their ranks until all that was left was submission.

Even in my own class, I wasn't the strongest. Yamada was more than capable of besting me physically. It was his pacifist nature and his reluctance to put me down permanently that allowed me to subjugate him. For that split second where he hesitated in finishing me off, I capitalized on it. Beating him unconscious and leaving him with the only option of servitude.

Still, I was bored with it all. Ichinose was predictable and easy to break. Then Class B changed leadership quickly and it was even easier to take advantage of them. Katsuragi's a coward and Class A was an easy target unless Sakayanagi took over. Even then, they'd be canon fodder. I was reluctantly content in relishing the victory against Class D, content with the fact that I'd already beaten Matsuo. It wasn't until Hashimoto sought me out on the island and asked me to meet with Sakayanagi the day before she was forced to retire that I felt my blood boil.

That condescending midget. Even as the early stages of Pneumonia wracked her body, she laughed at me. She laughed. Her body was wracked with heaving coughs and she looked to be on death's door and yet she still had the strength to laugh at me. I could care less if she was sick. I was ready to pound that bitch straight into the ground for the mockery but I paused. She told me what I already knew. That Matsuo would never be broken unless I broke Ayanokouji. That there was only one way that I could get him to act and I listened.

I let that vapid snake poison me. I set the stage and I got exactly what I thought I wanted. I wasn't expecting an onslaught that barely lasted a few hours and then it was over before I'd even begun.

It was obscene. It wasn't even an hour into our meeting when phones were ringing back to back like it was some kind of national emergency. I was swept up in the shock and horror of it all. I'd barely begun analyzing the list and trying to find some kind of commonality between our VIPs before he'd already managed to figure everything out.

When Hiyori texted me, saying she was with Ayanokouji and that he was looking for me but couldn't find me, I was in disbelief. How the hell did he know? I didn't give any explanations, racing out of the room while grabbing a random phone off a desk as I bolted to their location. It was futile, he even saw through that.