Chapter 1

No Control

Sitting in the principal's office, I determined that club activities are the worst.

I had gotten off free for the past two months with no club activities - as if I had time for that with the ridiculous amounts of homework forced upon me paired with the neverending list of chores that frequently greeted me whenever I got home right after school. But those days of hurrying home immediately after school were long gone.

Or at least, that's what this old man was trying to tell me.

"Fujioka, club activities are a requirement to graduate from middle school." the principal had been trying to reason with me since I had arrived in the stupid office and sat in the stupid chair, but his points were getting irritatingly repetitive and I wasn't about to concede.

"Sir, with all due respect," I suspected that I was getting on his nerves and tried to brown nose a bit. "with my responsibilities at home and my responsibilities at home, I simply cannot take on the burden of additional club activities. There is simply not enough time in the day."

The principal was looking a bit irritated, but hey, it wasn't my fault that this requirement was idiotic. "Fujioka, I can't make exceptions. There are tons of students who have responsibilities at home but still manage to do club activities. Even if you don't want to commit to one specific club, you can simply attend the occasional club meeting."

I knew several kids in my class who had done something similar. Those Gokudera and Sawada kids weren't tied down to any club in particular, but would visit the baseball club to visit their friend... simultaneously earning their club activities hours.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Bouncing from club to club seemed worse than committing to just one... it was the mark of someone who didn't belong, who didn't want to be dedicated to anything... while that was a fitting description for me, I certainly wasn't about to attach myself to it.

"I don't want to flit from club to club sir," I tried to make my excuse reasonable. "I don't want to be an outsider on their meetings."

His face turned a shade redder. "Fujioka, you must take on a club! There is no excuse!"

I inwardly groaned. There goes my easy way of life. "Alright, alright." I wasn't about to lose my somewhat-untarnished reputation among the staff just to get out of work. There's no way I'd get student recommendations to halfway-decent high school. "I'll do a club, but not anything related to food, gardening, the arts or sports. An emphasis on that last option: no sports."

I caught the principal's eye roll as he began sorting through the different club applications that he had prepared for me, probably tossing out the ones that I had mentioned. It had likely been inconvenient for this meeting in the first place and he wasn't about to push his limits with me now that he had gotten some sort of agreement.

After a minute of him rustling through papers, only one application survived his sorting. Reading the title, his skin paled a bit, but he wordlessly passed it to me nonetheless.

My throat closed. 'Disciplinary Committee Application Form'.

On my way home that day, I pulled the application out of my bag and skimmed it over. When I had begged the principal for an alternate club - "Anything else! Even the boxing club!" - he had adamantly refused to offer me any other option, saying that 'it would be good for [my] behavior to be among model students'.

I scowled. That awful Hibari as a model student? I shuddered, imagining him late at night, pouring over his textbooks, sticky note and highlighter in hand, doing some drastic revision.

I mock-gagged, shoving the application back in my bag. I couldn't imagine myself as being a member of that group any more than a studious Hibari.

Just as any other Namimori Middle School student, I had been a victim of the Disciplinary Committee time and time again. Occasionally, even I would confess that I had been given a justified punishment - like Kusakabe issuing me a detention for wearing my uniform improperly - but it would depend on the deliverer of the punishment.

If Kusakabe had caught me late to school, I would have gotten a detention. Now that is reasonable.

If it had been that wretched Hibari... I would have gotten a concussion. That? Not so reasonable.

I couldn't picture myself as a strict enforcer like one of them - violent like Hibari or otherwise - no matter what. Though I didn't explicitly go out of my way to break rules, I didn't exactly prioritize sticking to them.

I sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

What did I do wrong to anger the gods?

My mom was disgustingly pleased when I asked her to sign the application form. "You're finally getting set on the right path, my dear child!"

"What kind of path did you think I was on?" I muttered under my breath, not exactly in the mood to argue about the 'virtue of my life path'.

She heard me regardless and tried to look innocent. "Nothing against your lifestyle, it's just... I think your karma was in desperate need of some altering. Joining a group that is centered around order and enforcement will definitely encourage your spirit to self-cleanse! Maybe you should start doing feng shui like I do and you can further right your soul, honey!"

"I am not rearranging my soul, let alone my room." This discussion topic was far from a new one. "And you aren't going to rearrange anything for me."

The woman pouted at my outright rejection, but suddenly had an idea that had her bouncing back. "Well, even if you aren't all for the feng shui idea to fix your spirit, you can go on a self-enlightening journey soon. Maybe next summer, I'll book us a flight to the Himalayas... or maybe we should just walk, in order to stay within the boundaries of mankind and not irritate the gods into thinking we were arrogant and over-stepping our human limitations-"

"We can't walk to the Himalayas, there's a sea separating us from the mainland of Asia."

"We can swim!"

I was done with this conversation. "I'm taking the application. Don't rearrange my room or rearrange our schedule to go to the Himalayas. Please leave me and my corrupted, un-cleansed soul alone. Thank you."

Unsure of who to submit the application to, I gave it to Kusakabe - the vice-chairman of the Disciplinary Committee - in the hall.

He didn't blink an eye.

"We'll contact you, Fujioka-san." he stepped around me. "Thank you for your application."

Why did I feel like I had sold my soul?

Maybe I should have cleansed it when I had had the chance...