Chapter Text
“Fucking nerd”
Kaigaku screeched at Zenitsu.
“Why don’t you do us all a favor and kill yourself”
Kaigaku was pushing Zenitsu on the floor while the other classmates stood by. He started to viciously pull Zenitsu by his hair.
“Your hair is an eyesore, would it not be better if I just cut it off?”
Kaigaku had pulled a pack of scissors and was ready to cut Zenitsu’s hair. Zenitsu struggled, but could not utter a single word because Kaigaku had punched his throat beforehand. It was starting to get ugly, but before it could Kuwajima Jigoro, the art teacher, intervened.
“What is all this ruckus about?”
Every classmate ran off, one of which was filming the whole incident. Kaigaku cursed under his breath.
“Nothing grandpa, we were just joking around”
“This does not look like joking, it seems it was mostly one-sided”
Kaigaku opened his mouth, but closed it again because he had no useful reply that would save him from Jigoro’s strict punishment.
“Leave Inadama”
“But I-”
“LEAVE! BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND”
His voice was loud, and even startled Zenitsu.
“Are you alright Agatsuma”
“Thank you mr Kuwajima”
Zenitsu pulled himself up and brushed all the dirt off from his pants and hands. He was about to leave when Jigoro decided to stop him.
“He is not a bad kid, he is just lost”
Zenitsu stopped for a moment, but he decided to leave without uttering a word to his teacher. He knew that he would never hear the end of it if he decided to really badmouth his precious grandson. The only reason he has a soft spot for him is because his parents died and Jigoro was his sole caretaker. It was not fair, Zenitsu was also an orphan, and now he had to pay the price for both his and Kaigakus loss.
He was late for his maths class, and he knew he would never hear the end of it from Mr Tomioka, but he didn’t bother rushing. His jaw hurt too much and his clothes were too dirty, he knew the people would laugh and wanted to avoid it as much as possible. But alas the inevitable happened. He went inside the classroom and everyone stared.
“You are late again Mr Agatsuma”
“I am sorry Mr Tomioka, but-”
“I do not want to hear it Zenitsu, stand in the hallway and don’t bother interrupting class again”
Zenitsu bit his tongue as he heard the bitter laughs coming in the audience, he was too nervous to speak and just decided to deal with it and went into the hallway. But before he could a student replied.
“Sir, if I may, Zenitsu was not able to come into class today because I, as class president, decided to send him to the infirmary. You can clearly see that he was hurt”
Tomioka Giyuu looked at the diligent student, Kamado Taniro. Kamado Tanjiro is the school's golden boy. He is class president and smartest student in the school, well under Tsuyuri Kanao of course. Zenitsu was extremely confused as to why the golden boy decided to lie on his behalf.
“Very well Mr Kamado, I apologise to Mr. Agatsuma.”
“It is fine, sir”
Zenitsu was about to sit down when Giyuu stopped him.
“It looks like you are still injured Mr Agatsuma, I suggest you head back to the infirmary”
“But I-”
“I do not want to hear it, go!”
Zenitsu headed to the infirmary, but before he did, I made a quick glance at Tanjiro. Zenitsu really wanted to know what he was writing. He headed back before anyone noticed who he was looking at, but it was already late because Inadama Kaigaku already knew. And he was not gonna let Zenitsu walk another day on earth without feeling guilty because of it.