There Is No Way I Cannot Worry About You

Tch! This is such stupid bullshit! Fuyuhiko scoffed, eyes closing as he looked down, scuffing his foot on the stone ground of Hope's Peak's courtyard, leaning against the Academy wall, hands in his pockets. He didn't hate Hope's Peak, rather, he hated everyone in it, and the obnoxious spirit of Hope they always tried to force on everyone. Didn't they know it got old? Annoying? Repetitive? Besides, some of us weren't meant for that Hope shit anyway! The Ultimate Yakuza shook his head.

But whether the ironic contrast of his Talent, and everything the Academy stood for, bothered him a little, or bothered him a lot, he was a student there either way. With a sigh, the young man pushed himself off the wall. It was time g—

"WAH!" Rounding the corner at the exact same time was...

"M-Mikan?!" How on earth had he missed her?! "W-what the hell are you doing?! Watch where the hell you're going!" He ripped away from her. What's that sorry little whore clinging to me for?! He was disgusted that she would try to come onto him like that.

"AAAHHH! I'M SORRYSORRYSORRRYYY!" Mikan literally went flying back, tumbling almost half the courtyard away.

"Hey! Fuyuhiko! Just what do you think you're doing?!" Mahiru's eyes flashed as she pointed an accusatory finger at the Ultimate Yakuza.

"Huh?! Wha-?! I didn't do anything! She—!" He pointed a finger at Mikan's pathetic, spreadeagle body, legs wide open (as always).

"You pushed her!" Mahiru continued to shriek, stepping even closer to Fuyuhiko. For a second time, the Ultimate Yakuza recoiled, something halfway between a gasp and a hiss tearing itself from his throat. The courtyard suddenly seemed to come alive with his classmates.

How long have they been there? Have they always been there?! Was he really so unobservant?

His head whipped back around to face Mahiru directly. While all the other Ultimates watched with interest where they stood, only Mahiru continued to approach. Indignation surged through Fuyuhiko. And... something else. Something he didn't quite have a name for, because it was a feeling he'd never acknowledged before. Why do you always assume the worst in me?

Idiot. Did he seriously just ask that question? "I didn't hit her!" He wasn't even thinking as the protests came pouring out. "I didn't push her!"

Mahiru was still closing in and pointing—

"An accusation with no evidence is an argument that surely will not stand." A wise, low voice caught every student off guard. A young girl with silver hair approached, eyes closed as if she was meditating while walking, a long sword strapped to her back. When she was only inches away from Mahiru and Fuyuhiko, she stopped, and her red eyes opened again, glasses flashing in the morning sun.

Wh-what the-?! What the hell?! Fuyuhiko's outrage did not dissipate in the slightest, but complete and utter shock now filled his face as well. And once again, something managed to escape his notice. In his stupefaction, he barely registered Peko slowly, subtly sliding between him and Mahiru, standing in front of him. The next thing he remembered was his own voice, speaking his previous thoughts out loud.

ooo

"What the hell, Peko?" While Mahiru and the others went one way, Fuyuhiko and Peko went the other.

"Is it not my duty to protect my master?" Peko asked, voice completely inflectionless.

"For the last time! I'm not your master!" She was his bodyguard, but... master? Nah, that shit was just too weird. He shook his head, both to further reinforce his denial to Peko, and to himself. He had to clear his head. "Don't worry 'bout it." Then he shrugged, still looking away, as they walked on to another entrance of the school. Peko shrugged as well.

"There is no way I cannot worry about you."

Fuyuhiko's stomach seized. Just as before, a feeling he was unfamiliar with—simply because he refused to ever acknowledge it—washed over him. It was stronger this time, such that he could not ignore it as well, even though he didn't even have the knowledge to understand what it was.

Fear and love, two sides of the same coin. Before, it was how quick Mahiru was to reject him. This was why he could not trust himself to open up or be himself around the others. They would always hate him for something, and that would ruin everything.

That desire... to be loved...—Well, maybe not loved, but certainly not so easily misunderstood and mistreated—was ripped away from him again. Just as he'd ripped away from Mikan. That was right! He hadn't pushed her, remember? He pulled away. But she was the one that went flying backwards. And she did that all the time! Didn't they know that? So why target him?

"An accusation with no evidence is an argument that surely will not stand." When she said she couldn't not worry about him, that was the second time the feeling washed over him, and this time, he could not ignore. Just like he tried to ignore how much the distrust of the others stung. Only this feeling wasn't fear or rejection, even though it caused a similar, fearful, disgusted reaction in him. This time, it was love.

They both knew Peko hadn't just been protecting Fuyuhiko from Mahiru in the literal sense. She really was no threat to him. Not physically, at least. But Peko had known how Fuyuhiko would feel in response to Mahiru's words. That was what she was intervening to stop.

"Likewise, the others. Did you not see?" Peko's words cut him like a sword. Ah, right. Even though he'd just been thinking of his peers—shameful as it was to admit—he'd forgotten something... Mahiru was the only one who approached, but all the others still watched closely, none more so than Peko herself. She saw the way some of the rowdier students were getting...

There was Hiyoko, who unwittingly instigated the entire chain of events the moment she spooked Mikan and chased her right into Fuyuhiko's arms. Then there was Akane, Nekomaru, Gundham, and even Ibuki and Kazuichi, who all looked like they were itching and ready to join the fight... Truly, it wasn't just Mahiru. That was when Peko intervened.

"Tch! You idiot! You can't take on that many opponents at once! You'd be swarmed because of the sheer number alone!"

"I am the Ultimate Swordswoman, after all." An almost cocky tone entered Peko's voice, and Fuyuhiko caught it immediately.

"It's still just a stupid battle strategy in general! You can't seriously think it would be worth the risk and payoff, do you? Even if you won!"

Though they were long gone now, Peko looked over her shoulder for half a second, imagining a very different scene where all the students lunged, and Peko had to raise her sword against them as her body became the shield.

Yes. Yes, I think it would be perfectly worth it indeed.