KOF School

Goenitz

Iori arrived at the fourth floor and saw Goenitz sitting on the guardrail, staring at the road once again.
"Goenitz-sensei!" Iori exclaimed. "Don't do it!"
"What's in it for you?" Goenitz asked, glancing over his shoulder. "You just got me suspended from my job. Isn't that disgraceful?"
"Sensei, that disgrace is nothing compared to the one you have caused me and my family," Iori gently countered. "The whole world is watching me lose my mind in that video."
Goenitz ignored that. "I don't deserve to live. No one even liked me from the start. Humanity has no faith."
"Sensei, whatever it is, suicide isn't the answer," Iori pointed out.
"You're right..." Goenitz murmured. "It isn't the answer. It was never the answer."
Iori heaved a sigh. "Yes, sensei."
"It isn't the answer... but the question itself."
"What?" Iori muttered, confused.
"And the answer to that question is yes," Goenitz said, scooting forward slightly.
"Sensei, no!" Iori ran to pull him off.
"Let me go!" Goenitz grumbled, struggling to free himself. "What do you know about a hard life? You've got it good, don't you?"
"Sensei... please, only my family knows how much we suffer. I don't think you can call my life a good one, not until a few weeks ago, at least. We've had our share of hard times too," Iori countered, not giving up on trying to pull him. "I just don't talk about my problems. Even I didn't think much of my problems until it blew up into the form of that frenzy the other day. I didn't lose it because of nothing."
Goenitz struggled harder when Iori successfully pulled him to his side by a few inches. "Let me go! What do you know about hard times? You have a family, friends, and whatever you can ask for."
"Sensei, I still have my share problems," Iori pointed out.
"What do you know about problems?" Goenitz snapped. "What would you know about growing up as an orphan, with no friends because everyone thinks you're weird? I was the only curly-haired blond and everyone said that my parents abandoned me because I looked like ramen. And you know what the caretakers would do? They'd put me in the box of shame, as if I'm the one who brought disgrace upon myself for being the way I am."
"Sensei... I may not have went through hard times like that, I still do understand your pain. My mother... my mother died at childbirth," Iori quietly said the last bit. "My father suffered from severe depression because of that and you don't know how it was to be with him through all of it. I was mocked for my hair too, with some calling me Akuma just because I had red hair and light blue eyes unlike everyone else. My past principals always suspected me of having it dyed because they never believed me. Even here, I had to give a letter to Bernstein-sensei. At least your hair is still of a usual shade, mine's not."
Goenitz was caught off-guard, staring at him in surprise. Iori quickly took the chance and pulled him down to safety, heaving a sigh of relief as soon as they fell to the ground with a thud. "Sensei, ending your life isn't the answer and I know someone who learned it the hard way. So what if you get suspended from work? Take that time to fix yourself, Sensei. Take it as a holiday to relax and go over your everything and come back a better person. I'm sure Bernstein-sensei will forgive you too."
The others finally arrived and were confused to see what was going on, seeing that both Iori and Goenitz were sprawled onto the ground.
"What happened here?" Kay asked.
"What's going on?" Zayn added.
"Niisan, are you okay?" Aiko went next.
"Yagami, why are you hugging Goenitz?" Kyo said at last.
Iori sighed and got onto his feet, dusting himself off. "I had to stop something bad from happening before it could."
"What?!" All four of them exclaimed in unison, not understanding a thing that was going on.
"Let's go back to class," Iori sighed, turning around.
"No, wait..." Kay groaned, sinking to the ground, breathless from running. "Give us a break... we ran up three floors after you."
Iori gasped, seeing how he himself had done that too. Tiredness suddenly overtook him, making him sit down next to Kay too. All of them decided to take a breather.
"We're sorry for getting you caught, Goenitz-sensei, but we had to," Iori sighed. "I really didn't think that it would be you who took that video, we thought it would have been one of our classmates."
"Yeah, it was Leona who brought Bernstein-sensei and her dad," Kay added. "I thought we were gonna confront you personally. But she caught you first, taking matters into her own hands as she went to call them."
"Leona..." Goenitz scoffed. "Gaidel's daughter..."
"Who's Gaidel?" Iori asked. "I thought she was Heidern-sensei's daughter?"
"No, she was adopted," Goenitz shook his head. "Gaidel's her real father, my old friend. He went missing when the three of us went hiking together in a forest and she still believes that it was my fault that we lost him. Well, maybe it was, but I'd like to think otherwise."
"I'm not even gonna ask what happened between you guys," Kay sighed and got up. "Anyway, let's go. Bet the others are wondering what we're doing."
"And I don't even have a reason to be here," Zayn smirked, tucking some of his hair back.
Kay pulled his brother up and waited for the others to get up before following them downstairs. Goenitz looked at the view from the fourth floor one last time before going down the steps with them.
"I don't understand... why did you save me even when I tried to destroy you?" Goenitz asked when he caught Iori alone.
Iori sighed. "Like I said, someone close to me tried to end their life only a few weeks ago and I think it's safe to say that I'm still recovering from it. I know what it feels like to not have been there to stop someone from hurting themselves. I hadn't been there to save them, though luckily they survived unharmed, but at least I was here to save you."
He bowed slightly and ran after his friends to go back to class.
Goenitz felt like trash to have tried to destroy him twice.

I know, there's some suicide in this book but I have a reason. First, I'd rather have Iori's father attempt a suicide rather than die from a curse like the original canon story of KOF. Goenitz too. After all, he did kill himself by stepping into his own wind back in '96. This is just a homage to it. Masaomi's is just a sign of depression since both Iori's mother and Aiko's died during childbirth, much like the curse due to the pact that the Yasakanis made with Orochi. So yeah. Also, I'm not that cruel to kill the characters without a reason, see how I saved both of them and gave them a second chance at life ❤️❤️