Kousuke was finishing up morning training, he had been doing a 20-k run to build up his stamina. He was trying to build up his stamina to reach Megumi's level when using the Jushin Kakusei. The move drained the user's energy after prolonged periods, using an Alpha required intense concentration spiritually. He had only just mastered it the day of the match, and he needed to get used to it for future use especially if he wanted to try other souls when the time comes.
Kousuke made it back to his home after his run, he felt like he could go another 5k with how much energy he had left. He was ready for the breakfast he had prepared ahead of time after he finished his workout.
Before he opened the door, he checked the mailbox next to it. He had a few letters, some for bills or junk mail, until he got one letter that took him off guard.
The letter was from Mana, the first since she left. He was ecstatic, and he immediately went inside to quickly read the letter. For him, this was the best present he could get on the morning of Christmas Eve.
"Kousuke, how are you? I know it's been years since we last saw each other. I'm so sorry about not contacting you till now. Truth is, I'm feeling better than I was when I left. I feel like this is the time to say I'm coming home, I can't stay away forever, you're my child I should be looking after you. I'll be home after your birthday, but I have a surprise for you. It'll be there soon. I hope you like it. See you soon Kousuke, I missed you so much. Love, your Momma, Hayashi Mana."
Kousuke teared up, he was happier than ever to hear she was coming back.
'She's coming back. Mana-Haha is finally coming home. I never thought this day would come.'
He put the letter away in the drawer of Akane's shrine. All the important items related to them would be put there for safety. After putting it away and wiping his eyes, he smacked his cheeks to smarten himself up.
"Alright! I gotta clean this place and make it look good. Since I don't use the bedrooms really except for storage I'll clean them up for Mana-Haha's return and make them into actual rooms to live in. If she saw I only slept in the common room like a bum she would be heartbroken. Alright, let's get to work!"
Kousuke cleaned the house up with immaculate touches. He had to make it look beautiful for Mana to come back, nothing but the best for her was the mindset he had.
He also needed to get furniture for the rooms, it would be a lot of work in a short time, but he didn't mind he was just happy to see Mana coming home to live with him again.
"Now then need to get beds and some dressers for the rooms. Mana will need to live comfortably once she gets over here. Maybe there are some sales at the furniture store I can find with it being Christmas. I can even find some professional cooking ware too if I have the budget. The stuff I have is good for basic needs."
Kousuke headed out to the stores after his cleanup, he used the money he saved for Christmas gifts to buy the necessities for Mana's return, including the new kitchen supplies for her to cook again with. He felt bad that he couldn't buy gifts now for everyone, but he hoped the others would understand his situation. He started to head home when he spotted Tatsuya on the first floor of the shopping district doing a photo shoot. Tatsuya noticed him, he waved hi asking him to come down so they could talk.
Kousuke was busy with the shopping but he had time to spare for a bit of a greeting at least. He headed down to the floor to say his greetings before heading out.
"Yo Senpai, what are you doing here? I thought you were off today?"
"I was. I had some shopping to do for my Mom's return."
Tatsuya was confused, it was mostly because he didn't know Kousuke's situation. Kousuke explained everything to Tatsuya in an abridged version not wanting to tell him everything. Tatsuya was moved by the kindness he had been shown. He covered his face with his arm to hide his crybaby-looking face.
"Senpai you're a good son. Your Mom's lucky to have you." Tatsuya commented keeping his eyes in an exaggerated expression.
"Thanks, anyway what are you doing here I thought you were home for the holidays?"
"Nah, I'm here to help my friend out. She was supposed to start her shoot earlier but the model didn't show up." Tatsuya's head lowered in embarrassment at having to tell Kousuke that.
Tatsuya pointed to the girl the photographer was talking to. She was the same age as the boys, and she was pretty with long chestnut brown hair and peach-colored eyes.
"That's your friend?" Kousuke was in disbelief. She was pretty, even prettier than Itsuki and Rina at that.
"Yep, her name is Erika. She had to do a last-minute shoot so I'm helping out to make sure it goes smoothly. Too bad the girl the agency hired is irresponsible so we're behind schedule."
"Can't you do the shoot with her? You're an idol, aren't you? It would be great publicity wouldn't it?" That seemed like the logical conclusion to the situation in Kousuke's head.
"Can't, I wasn't hired for this one, I'm only here as a consultant I'm not allowed to work with other models unless contracted. I feel bad for Erika cause she's worked hard to get here. Have to break her heart now."
Kousuke felt bad for Erika. Even Tatsuya had shown his hard work with his idol job and school. It made him wonder how much she put into getting this gig before Christmas.
Tatsuya looked at Kousuke again and then at Erika. He had an idea that hit him instantly.
"That's it! You can do it with her!" He said with enthusiasm.
"Huh!?"
"Come on, you're good-looking, and if we use you it'll be a better scenario for the agency. We barely have a few male models including me and this would be a big help. Come on what you say." Tatsuya asked with a puppy dog expression hoping that would help change Kousuke's mind.
"Like hell, I'll do it. I'm no model and what if Itsuki finds out? I don't want to get frozen by an angry snow princess, you know how quick she is to temper when I do anything that attracts too much female attention."
"Oh, don't worry about that I'll call her to explain. Besides you guys aren't an item yet, she won't kill you for helping my friend out." Tatsuya tried selling the idea to get Kousuke on board.
'Yeah, that's what you think. She almost froze my nuts off when Natsume showed off her swimsuit to me during pool hours. And if that's not enough if she sees me doing this kind of stuff she'll probably drop a giant snowball on top of me. God, why can't I catch a friggen break for once?'
Tatsuya persisted hard, he refused to take no for an answer. Eventually, Kousuke gave in, he wasn't getting out of it no matter how much he wanted to.
Tatsuya introduced him to the photographer and Erika. The photographer was excited, she needed to wrap the session soon before the President of the company lost her cool. Kousuke was brought a wardrobe for the shoot. Because it was last-minute minute the options for him to use were limited to jeans and short sleeves with a few vests. His body fit into them tightly due to his build, he was uncomfortable in clothes like these, not exactly his style of wear.
The crowd in the shopping area was excited watching the shoot. The people who knew Kousuke from the cafe got excited too, they thought he would bring more business to the stores.
Kousuke had no idea what he was doing, he was stiff in the poses and looked embarrassed, and all he wanted was to go home to focus on the redecoration of the house.
The photographer let them take a break while she discussed the photos with Tatsuya. Kousuke sat down to catch his breath after all that, it was mentally exhausting for him to do this.
'Man, how does Tatsuya do this? I've only done it for one today and I feel exhausted.'
Erika walked over to Kousuke offering him an iced coffee, and he accepted her kindness in full.
"Tough isn't for a first-timer," Erika asked.
"Yeah, this isn't my forte, I'm more of a martial artist than an idol like Tatsuya. How do you guys do this all the time?" Erika giggled a bit, she thought Kousuke was being funny.
"You get used to it after a while, I stumbled badly my first time too, Tatsuya's been my friend since childhood so he's helped me out big time when I joined. He may be a brat at times but he always looks out for his friends when they need it. It's one of his best qualities."
Kousuke could see that Erika was appreciative of Tatsuya helping her out, she loved her modeling job. He felt bad for complaining like he did earlier.
"So why did you sign up? Or do you know why he did?"
Erika looked at the coffee in her hands, she remembered the reasons for them both and had fond memories.
"We're both orphans. We grew up in an orphanage when we were young, I don't have any powers so I was useless to parents who wanted someone with abilities. Tatsuya was gifted. He was an Esper so anyone who wanted him would be useful to them. But he wouldn't leave the rest of us behind unless we found homes. Eventually, everyone but me at the time did, and he stayed behind to help me out. After some time passed the Agency adopted us, Tatsuya's ability allowed him to help with music, artists would ask for his help in fixing their soundtracks."
"Sounds like something he would do. But how did you get into it? Also, can agencies adopt kids?" He asked with suspicion as something like that sounded offbeat for what he was used to in his world.
"Ours could yes. They had a starter program to help children with housing and work till they turned eighteen or were adopted. The program isn't there anymore but we got lucky when it was. I got into it cause of how confident it made me. I was very self-conscious about my looks but doing the small gigs helped me. Since then I kept at it. I feel happiest because I can inspire people to love themselves too. At least that's what I think. Sounds lame I know but it's how I feel."
Kousuke felt dumb even more. He was bashing the modeling shoot without thinking about what it meant to others. Kousuke admired Erika's love for the job, it gave him a new outlook on it and Tatsuya a bit.
"Oy, Senpai, Erika, we're ready for the last bit."
"Coming." Erika grabbed Kousuke's hand, Kousuke was caught off guard but he didn't attempt to yank his hand out of respect for Erika.
He did his best to make the shoot better for Erika's sake, he didn't want to trample on her hard work by being a sourpuss.
"All done. Thank you for your help, Hayashi."
The photographer told him with gratitude.
Kousuke was relieved, he couldn't wait to get out of the clothes and go home.
"Wow, you were good Senpai. I'm glad you could help out, thank you."
"No, it's ok I'm just glad things went well for you guys. But can you do me a favor, stop calling me Senpai. Just Kousuke is fine."
"Ok then, Senpai hehe."
'Tatsuya, I swear you're just doing it on purpose now you little punk.'
The two begin to talk back and forth with each other, with Tatsuya mostly messing with Kousuke's patience. Erika was watching, she was entertained by their reactions.
"Sup, I'm here everyone."
Everyone looked to see who it was. The model arrived, and she looked like she had just woken up. Koutetsu could see that Tatsuya wasn't happy with her showing up in a half-dashy outfit.
"Sorry I'm late, was at an early Christmas party. Man, I sure drank a lot last night. So can we start this little gig or what?"
The model wasn't interested at all. She looked like she couldn't care less about the work, more so Erika looked uncomfortable seeing her.
"Tch, they hired her. No wonder we had a late show." Tatsuya said with disgust in a usually carefree voice.
"You know her Tatsuya?"
"Yeah, that's Shoko. She's pretty famous in the modeling world. The problem is she's an irresponsible party hound who always causes problems. She hasn't been fired yet cause she's a big sellout in all the magazines that she gets featured in. How could the President think hiring her was a good idea?"
Kousuke saw Tatsuya's face, he had never looked irritated like that before in school, and he could tell that Tatsuya didn't like this girl.
Shoko walked over to Erika, and she tried to hit on her even when she wasn't comfortable with it.
"Nay, Erika, why don't we hurry this up and get some drinks later?"
"I'm sorry but no I'm not old enough for that. And your breath smells of it. Can you please step back?" Erika asked while trying to nudge Shoko off her.
Shoko wouldn't give up, she cornered Erika against the wall continuing her advances.
Erika was frightened, she was not comfortable with the display of behavior Shoko was giving her.
"Come on, it's only a few and we can get food later too." Tatsuya was getting more irritated, he was not about to have it with the disrespect. Kousuke stopped him, and he gave him a look that read 'I got this' for him to understand.
Kousuke tapped Shoko's shoulders, Shoko turned to look at him. She was annoyed that she was being interrupted.
"Huh, what do you want?"
"Get lost. You're making a scene." Kousuke ordered her.
Shoko wasn't intimidated. She slapped Kousuke's face in a show of disrespect.
Tatsuya was about to rush her when the photographer stopped him. Erika was worried, she didn't want to make trouble for Kousuke after he helped her with the shoot.
"Who are you to tell me what to do? Beat it I'm not into brutish guys."
She gave a wink to Tatsuya, her shamelessness knew no bounds.
Kousuke remained calm, he wasn't going to let her provoke him into hitting her. Instead, he scared her with a simple trick. He changed his eyes into the beast's eyes like they were when the Kakusei technique was active. He even changed the vocal tone of his voice to make him sound scarier.
"Get lost, or I'll rip out your guts!"
Shoko quivered, she ran off terrified and humiliated with her manager following behind. Kousuke reverted, he breathed a sigh of relief that it was over.
Tatsuya ran up from behind, thrilled that Kousuke did that.
"Kousuke, you're awesome how did you do that?"
"I just rearranged my eyes and voice to how they looked when I used the Jushin Kakusei. It's simple but effective."
Tatsuya enjoyed it. He was thankful that Kousuke helped out his friend without causing trouble.
Tatsuya and Erika bid farewell to Kousuke. Because he couldn't be paid for the shoot, Tatsuya gave him a pair of the latest earbuds the company was going to release for a New Year's special. Kousuke took it in appreciation and headed out.
Erika was in awe-struck by him. Tatsuya could see it and decided to mess with her a bit
"Oho, is little Erika getting a crush right now?"
"Huh, who me? No not all. Don't tease me please."
"Hehe, oh come on I can see those cherry cheeks you're crushing on him bad haha."
"Tatsuya!" Erika screamed at him in frustration.
"Itai!" Erika slammed her heel onto his foot Tatsuya jumped in pain holding onto his injured foot.
Erika looked back at Kousuke, she was admiring him for helping her out. And how great he was at defending her.