It was a beautiful and crisp morning. The birds were chirping... The sun was just barely peeking out from behind the mountains in the distance... And Kenji Harima had been in yet ANOTHER street fight before school.

Harima started walking to school, leaving behind the idiots that thought they could take him laying there. As he was walking Miss Suou pretty much APPEARED next to Harima causing him to start. She smirked in a quirky way when she noticed this. He sighed. "What do you want Miss Suou?"

"What makes you think I want anything?" She crossed her arms defensively.

"Because I can't come up with any other reason why you would talk to me." He replied, and although he said this as nonchalantly as he could, anyone could see that it hurt. Mikoto was surprised at this, and she voiced it saying quite firmly, "You forget, MR. HARIMA, that we don't HAVE to associate ourselves with you, we CHOOSE to. And I'm walking to school with you as a CHOICE. Take it, or leave it."

Harima was silent for a while as he studied Mikoto's face, as though trying to find reason to not believe what she had just plainly stated. Then, after finding none, he sighed heavily, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and jerked his head to indicate which way they should be heading.

After some time walking in silence Mikoto couldn't stand it anymore. Turning to look at Harima she noticed he looked scarier today than he normally did. And was that dirt on his shirt? How did he get so scruffed up? She studied his face, but it gave away nothing. 'He was probably in another fight,' she thought. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her handkerchief to wipe off the dirt and scrapes on his face. When her gentle hand first touched his face, he stiffened. 'What was he expecting?' Mikoto asked herself bitterly, ' Did he think I was going to hit him?' She looked up at his face and saw the intensity of his stare was more than the usual, and decided better than to push him on it. If looks could kill, he would be the last person alive. 'I'm glad he's not mad at ME, but who is he mad at?'

"Rough day?" She asked quietly as she gently cleaned his face, in hopes of making him look more presentable at school AND to get more information as to why Harima-kun had been so PLEASANT as of late.

"S'pose you could say that," he mumbled just as quietly tilting his chin up so Mikoto could clean the scrape on his jawline with her handkerchief. "More like.. I've been doing some thinking," he mumbled more absently.

"Hmmm? Really? What about?" 'This could get interesting,' she thought, and that she smiled victoriously as she managed to get a piece of stone out of a scrape on that went from about an inch from Harima's beard to just below his temple. He winced as she did so. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tenma running towards her and Harima. Oh boy, this was going to be a pain to explain to Tenma later, but right now she needed to help Harima. Not only with this problem he seemed to be having, but also with all the scrapes and bruises. The one that went up the ridge of his nose looked like it REALLY had hurt. She reached towards him.

Whether Harima would have confided in Mikoto or not, we will never know, because the next thing that Mikoto did changed EVERYTHING.

She removed his sunglasses.