Dayuuum, sorry for the super late updating. There were a lot of games that I had to finish to satisfy my fangasms, so… Yeah.

Three anons: WELP .w. sorry for this, I hope this would satisfy you.

Kunagiri: Sup bro, been a while. I shall shower you with more lulz, soon.

Waifu: After much thoughts, I'll probably slip A2 somewhere around in this story (although it won't be as prominent as 84, which will be pretty subtle, perhaps). Upgrading Ace as The Lancer, maybe even The Aragorn. Do refer to TVTropes if you don't get what I am saying.

dikemon: Likewise, I am happy that you're happy with my story. I love the Japanese culture so much, especially the high school system. While it was often associated with romances, I personally loves the high school humors a little more than that.

Worry not, Eight and Cater, by their own as well as a pairing, stands as one of my most favorite, and I'll try to do much justice for them.

My apologize, there was a small explanation that I missed in the last chapter. Just have a little of importance to this story, but just making this clear:
-Ace's school was in Akita, which took about six to seven hours of travel by train to Tokyo.
-Deuce's and Cinque's school was in Chiba, which took about one and a half hour or so of travel by train to Tokyo.
-Eight's and Jack's school was in Saitama, which took about one hour to Tokyo.

Hopefully that small information could help you know a little about it. That's that and we're getting into the story now!

This is a work of a mere fan's fiction. Any similarities or likeness to any events or persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Final Fantasy Type-0 belongs to SE.

Chapter 2: Room 218

Okay, this was bad. Very. Her teacher was already in the room, and probably had already started the homeroom.

Browsing the internet from dawn till dusk was something that she always did for the whole school breaks, even until yesterday night. That could only end well, obviously. Like this one.

Late in her first day of the school, missed the freshmen assembly and all. Cater definitely was the role model for the every high school girls, yup. The only advantage she had was that she had known her classroom already, if you counted that as one.

Kurasame's gaze at Cater was deep, so deep that it almost made her cringe in fear. The teacher spoke no words, but merely with that gaze, he wordlessly ordered her to explain this entire fiasco.

Cater's response to that? She sheepishly scratched her auburn hair.

"E-erhm… Good morning, teach!"

A lot of students sighed at her lame retort, Eight and Nine both included in there. Some were reacting more polite, perhaps by giggling like Deuce and Cinque, or just kept linefacing like Ace. Cater was a little embarrassed at this, but what could she do? This was partially her fault as well.

…Except not. It was totally her fault.

Cater could only cower and gulp in fear while her teacher was narrowing his eyes further. Again, he spoke no words, but he definitely expected her to give a proper explanation for her lateness.

Damn, there was no helping it.

"I-I am really sorry!" she quickly bent her body and bowed her head in regret. "I-I had to help an old woman cross the streets around the station! A-And it took longer than I expected!"

…

The whole class went dead silent.

Bad blatant lie was bad. That was like something that would happen in an old-school shoujo manga, in which her life was pretty far from that, somewhat.

It was quite obvious: Kurasame didn't buy even the slightest of that bullshit. However, he didn't seem to be mad anymore. Not that mad anyway.

"You must be Cater, right?" he let out an exasperated sigh as he addressed her. "Go sit down on an empty seat."

Inwardly delighted, the redhead bounced her body up in response as she saluted a high 'Yes, sir!' on the air, before she made a quick stop to locate an empty spot for her seating position.

Before anything, though, Cater pulled her uwabaki from her bag to change her sneakers to that in a matter of seconds. That pace of her surprised the whole class but Cater herself was unaware of her friends' surprises. The redhead then proceeded to search for the empty seat again obliviously.

It took her a while to find it. The only empty seat was the backmost row of the leftmost column. Exactly just behind Eight.

Bowing her head slightly, the young girl immediately walked to the said spot in a normal pace. While she walked to her seat, though, she could basically notice everyone's attention locked at her. Some were plain curious of her, some were checking her out for the obvious reason, and some… were uninterested.

Surprisingly, one of those that were uninterested caught her interest while she passed him: the young male who sat directly in front of her. He wasn't looking at her, he was idly gazing at the bright blue sky in boredom, but Cater could swear that she spotted the most distinct feature of him.

Those… beautiful red eyes.

They reminded her of him.

Cater almost stopped dead on her track when she unconsciously had stared at them for a while, but when she snapped out of her reverie and she could feel the whole class was still staring at her, she quickly continued her pace.

No, it was probably mere coincidence. Red eyed boys might be rare, but it was not the most unseen thing in this world.

As soon as Cater had sat on her chair and introduced herself, Kurasame ticked the attendance book. With her coming, that simply meant that his class was complete. Now, to the next subject…

"I am sure most of you aren't familiar with each other yet," he addressed to entire students altogether. "But is there anyone of you, by any chance, would like to nominate yourself as the class representative? One male and one female."

Quite frankly, Kurasame was fighting the urge to add 'Except Nine' there. He DIDN'T want to imagine how dreadful the class would turn if he was chosen.

Just when he finished his offer, someone immediately raised a hand, surprising the rest of the class. It was Deuce.

Ah, Kurasame was deeply pleased by this turns of event. Really, what should he say if it was Cinque instead of Deuce? Maybe it would be worse than how Nine would lead the class. No, not maybe. It definitely would be worse.

"Very good, Deuce, you may lower your hand. Any other girls would like to nominate themselves?"

Deuce put her hand down again as instructed. Kurasame then looked around his students, only to found that nobody actually objected to Deuce's nomination. Perhaps this was the wisest choice as well, this certain Deuce of 1-B was obviously full of spirit and determination and Kurasame felt that she could be entrusted with this job.

Or maybe girls these days were just generally lazy unlike Deuce.

"Anonymously, the female representative has been chosen." Kurasame stated flatly as he turned his eyes to the other population of this class: the males. "As for the males?"

What a surprise, nobody raised a hand. It was always this way with the male exhibit on every year.

Although the positive side was that Nine had little chance to get elected. God, this was going to be the only thing that Kurasame would pray with all his might. He had survived the crocodile's mouth that was Cinque as the class representative just now, but he still yet to get through the tiger's mouth. Yeah, by that he meant Nine.

Nonetheless, Kurasame sighed wearily again.

"I am going to count to three. If by the count of three no boys nominated himself yet, I'll have everyone of you nominate a person that you wish to be the class representative. One."

Wow, he resembled someone who was holding a gun on their heads just now. But it was always the most effective way for him, personally.

"Two."

There were chatters and discussion on the air at that point, mostly about who they should chose. Despite their inability to take the first step, Kurasame was rather glad that everyone would like to have a wise leader than to someone half-assed.

Or they were simply too lazy, again.

"Three. I'll ask again for one last time. Anyone?"

No boys were holding a hand out. Glorious, kids these days. For the umpteenth time today, Kurasame sighed again.

"Then Deuce," the teacher demanded politely. "Do you mind lending me a hand here?"

With a determined nod, the said girl rose from her seat as she strode over to the teacher podium, before she grabbed the chalk that the teacher offered and she assumed her position before the green-colored chalkboard.

"Starting from you, Yasunori." Kurasame pointed at one student who sat on the front row. "Who is your nomination?"

The said boys scratched his cheek confusedly, probably because he wasn't really familiar with his classmates yet. After a while, though, he let out a response.

"Ace!"

Eight amusedly quirked an eyebrow at that. What a coincidence, huh? He was the one that Eight gonna nominate himself. Ace himself, though, choked on a surprised yelp from the side and he blurted a noticeable 'What!?' at that.

Deuce nodded as she wrote Ace's name on the board. Kurasame then pointed at the next student. "You're next… Kaede, was it?"

The black haired girl blushed a little before she let out a nervous response. Well, she was going to name a name of a boy that she wasn't too close yet, so that was understandable.

"A-Ace!"

Hearing that response, Deuce wrote another point for Ace on the board. Kurasame continued, pointing the next student.

The cycle continued until every student spoke their mind. And guess what? There were no other names but one: Ace's.

Ace himself? Only groaned and put a palm on his face in exasperation. Boy, Eight pitied the poor dude, but being the one to score the highest score, that much would be expected from Ace by his classmates. Kurasame even though the same thing, actually.

"Then Ace, if you would."

"…Yes, sir."

Eight couldn't unheard Ace's reluctance in that as the latter walked slowly to the main stage, his head dropped in defeat. He soon stood next beside Deuce, who politely nodded at him.

"Should anything urgent come up to me," Kurasame suddenly cut the whole class attention. "These two would be the first one to get my information."

The whole class nodded at Kurasame's word. The blue haired teacher shifted and scooped his books in his arms again.

"Class dismissed. Your terms effectively starts tomorrow. Should you have anything to ask to me, I'll be at my office most of the time."

With that, Kurasame left the class, as calm as ever. A lot of students, who were pressured by Kurasame's figure, were now stretching and relaxing around on their respective seats. Some of them directly went home, but most of them started to converse with each other to know their classmates better. Ace was about to do the former, but when someone called his name, he made a quick pause. Turning around, he directly came in contact with Deuce, who was smiling softly all the time.

"Ace-san," she offered him her hand. "I know it's not going to be easy, but I will try my best to help you. We can do this together, okay?"

The young blond blinked his eyes in a little surprise at that first, before he took her hand and initiated a handshake with her.

"Aah," Ace smiled back. It was not as obvious and as wide as Deuce's, but the smile was warm nonetheless. "I'll be counting on you too."

Ace didn't know that with that response, he just acquired hundreds of 'jealousy beam' from almost all of the boys of the class.

"So, um… Can I have your e-mail address?" the brunette asked Ace politely. "I-I mean, if it's okay with you? So that I can contact you in case anything urgent come up?"

Wow.

That was pretty blunt, Deuce.

Eight himself was already cool with this improvement. Sure, he couldn't say anything much about this, but by just looking at both of Ace and Deuce, you could already tell the aptness between the two. But still… Just look at those boys' jealousy over Ace right here!

"Oh, sure."

…In which Ace didn't give a single fuck at. He casually grabbed his phone from his pocket before the two class representatives traded their e-mail address.

Eight amusedly stole a glance to the burning side of the boys. Hot damn, they were indeed burning, not literally. The hotness of the killing intention around them was more than enough to burn bacons. He could also practically overhear them cursing for Ace's misery, or death, even.

Out of sudden, much to their dismays, Deuce suddenly giggled, laughed softly, even.

"Ace-san, you-" she put her free hand around her own chin, holding it gently while letting her subtle giggles erupted. "-have such a cute e-mail address…"

Ace earned his stoic expression back, minus the fact that he shifted his attention aside with faint blushes all over his face. Or for the lack of better terms, he seemed to be rather embarrassed of her exclamation but he refused to show it directly.

"...Whatever. It can be easily remembered that way, anyway."

M-my god, was that that popular 'tsundere' attitude!? Only to be replied with more giggling on Deuce's part!?

Maybe Ace really would have the best of future in this school.

Well, whatever. Some people were really meant to be with each other, Eight supposed? This was his call to leave the class as well. He hadn't packed his things yet, after all. He snatched his bag and shouldered it to leave the room.

Only to feel someone crashed into him from his back.

The brunet slowly turned his attention to his back, only to meet the piercing gaze of a girl.

"Hey, watch it!"

Her grumpy statement entered Eight's ears in bad taste. It was the-girl-who-was-late who just crashed into him. Cater… if he wasn't mistaken?

Eight himself only replied Cater's unsatisfied gaze with a stare of his own. Something like 'Are you freaking serious?' kind of stare. Certainly, that wasn't the best way to leave an impression to him, girl.

"I'll try when you can watch it."

He was rare to retort back with such cynical sentences, but he would fight fire with fire, that was for sure.

"Gee, papa," the redhead disapprovingly countered. "Thanks for the advice. I'll remember that. Do you need me to bring you a coffee now?"

Eight twitched. This girl… sure was a stick in the mud.

"I am terribly sorry for being more mature than you, little miss." Eight replied coolly, even after touching the subject that he was actually not so pro at himself.

Cater winced. This guy… sure was a jackass.

"You're a jerk."

"At least I didn't make a scene on my first day."

Neither of them knew that split second was the start of their epic rivalry. Cater, captured by her anger, started to trash Eight with words, which Eight returned with deadpan replies, which actually rather unusual for him.

Neither of them knew as well that they were turning into the center of the attention, not that they cared. The bickering two's attentions were too lost against each other.

Blue eyes glared at red eyes for the longest of time. Eight did not stir on his spot, but so did Cater as well.

At least until they threw their face elsewhere with a 'humph!', at the same time. Cater, holding her backpack with her, swiftly exited the class from the rear entrance. Eight, as easily expected, exited the class from the other entrance.

Everybody else was left dumbfounded by their interactions, just for your information.

Post that, Eight didn't head directly into his new room. He had stumbled into his best friend on his way out. Jack, being a true bro he was, quickly invited Eight to venture around the school together, which the brunet replied positively. The two young males strolled around from places to places quickly: the cafeteria, the practice buildings, and of course, the club rooms. Every school clubs, though, wasn't open yet… Tomorrow, probably?

Speaking of clubs, Jack stopped abruptly at one moment to ask him the exact question.

"So~" he cheerily asked the smaller teen. "You're joining clubs, buddy?"

Eight shifted his gaze at his partner. It was faint, but he flashed Jack a grin that was rather confident. His eyes flashed the same level of fervidness as his lips.

"Most probably," Eight sighed contently for a bit. "Although I haven't really decided what. You?"

Much to his surprise, Jack slumped his shoulder down and his face showed his exasperation at Eight's counter. As always, though, his emotion was only halfway serious.

"Man…" Jack sighed as well, although it was one of the weariness to Eight's relieved one. "I want to join baseball so much but Pops kept forcing me to join Kendo."

Eight gave a slight 'ah' at that. Indeed, Jack's father, or more exactly his grandfather, owned a dojo and it had become the family's tradition to keep it alive. Good thing was that the dojo was probably one of the best in Japan.

…Which Jack needed to inherit, huh? Eight couldn't help but chuckling a little at that. No matter how you looked at it, Jack would never befit to walk the path of sword with that demeanor of him. It was definitely a mismatch, Jack would be better off as a stand-up comedian than that.

"If you're that confused," Eight stifled his laughs. "Just join both."

"Eugh, if only that's going to be so easy…" Jack quickly intercepted, whining. "Pops would gimme hell if my grades aren't to his liking."

…

Jack, weren't you like… pretty popular for your laziness? And still are?

…Nope, he wouldn't say that out loud. He just gave him a single nod.

After that, the two continued to travel around the whole school to enjoy the feature, chatting and laughing together while at it.

"Gee, Eight~ You sure do bring a lot of things with you here~"

"…This is the least I could afford, you know."

In front of the male dormitory, the goods that Eight had asked to sent had just arrived. Two big boxes consisted of Eight's clothes and daily needs.

"Well~" Jack chimed, grinning. "Lemme just put my bag and I'll help you carry 'em to your room~"

"You don't really need to, actually." Eight countered with a small smile in return. "I can bring it in by myself."

Much to Eight's surprise, Jack didn't obey. The taller man made a good use of the differences of their heights and he rested his arm playfully on the brunet's head.

"Come on now, dorm mate~" the blonde's grin widened. "No need to act all toughie and ask your old pal Jack for a hand~"

Eight grumbled under his breath. Goddammit, Jack! He really hated it when someone made a game out of his height.

And apparently, Jack forgot what would he 'gain' when he made fun of Eight.

Swiftly, Eight grabbed the arm on his hair before he swept it onto his shoulder, surprising Jack a lot. And as fast as the previous motion, the brunet easily flung Jack to the hard concrete by performing a shoulder throw at the said guy. Jack's back hit the ground with a loud thud as he clutched his blond hair in pain.

Eight himself merely tapped and wiped his own shoulder casually, as if he just had taken out trashes. Shifting his gaze at his best friend, Eight condescendingly smirked.

"My bad, can you help me carry these boxes inside, Jack? I am sure we can use someone with sore back like you."

One of these days, Eight would try to not to use any form of sarcasm. One of these days…

"D-Damn, man…" Jack whined in pain, still rubbing his pained head. "Sometimes you can be pretty harsh…"

"You brought it on yourself."

Despite his words, Eight still offered a hand for his best friend to take. Of course, Jack did take his hand to aid him to stand. It was still a bit painful, but Jack managed to stand on his two legs.

"So, uh..." Jack brushed the dusts off his pants. "Where's your room again~?"

Unsurprisingly, Eight had stepped in to grab one of the huge box and had lifted the box with one hand just after he had helped Jack to stand.

"Second floor. Room 218."

With that, Eight then breezily walked in through the dorm, leaving the still-pained-Jack to carry the other box, in which the guy barely could. Moreover, Eight might be walking, but his pace was way faster than Jack. Luckily, Jack could still keep up with his face, albeit he needed to run to tail his friend.

After a short walk, the two had stumbled into a door labeled with a big and shiny '218' in front of it. Tiredly, Jack put the box down from his shoulder.

"Man," he let out a tired sigh, stretching his sore shoulder while at it. "Guess you could take it from here, right?"

"Yeah," Eight nodded in affirmation. "Thanks for the help, Jack."

As always, Jack beamed back with a big grin.

"No problemo~ No problemo~" he gave his partner one thumb up. "…Although I would prefer it if you didn't perform a judo throw at me, Eight."

Eight laughed at that. "I'll try."

"Well, then~" Jack once again crossed his arms behind his head cheerfully. "I'm off to my room. See ya later at dinner, Eight~"

Jack quickly strode away while waving at his friend. Surprisingly, he didn't seem to be in pain anymore, since he was able to move at his normal speed.

Eight returned his pal's gesture before he dragged the two boxes with him inside. Of course, Eight being the polite person, knocked the door first in case there was someone else already inside: His yet-to-be-known roommate.

Well, he originally preferred to be roomed with Jack, but apparently, to help every student got along with each other, the school put a rule to randomize the dormers. Not that Eight disliked it, though. Once again, he needed to put a good first impression, to his new roommate this time.

"Good afternoon. I'm coming in."

…That actually wasn't too polite because he directly opened the door to enter, but whatever, he did it with his own style.

As soon as he was able to see his room, he was simply mesmerized by how good the furniture arrangement inside was. There were two well furnished desks as well as two big wardrobes, and as for the sleeping spot, there was but one bunk bed for that. Still, Eight could already tell he would enjoy his dorm life with this kind of room.

However, he did notice there was already someone else here, who was rising into a sitting position on the bottom bed. Eight didn't really know who he was, but he had shiny gold hair. The other teen was looking at him through his thin framed glasses in a small surprise, the small novel in his hand was opened widely.

…Or did Eight? He swore he had seen that book before, from sometime not too long ago, even.

Carefully, Eight squinted his red eyes at the other man. He knew that he wasn't being very polite, but apparently, the blonde did the same thing at Eight. Before long, though, the golden haired boy closed his book tightly, smiling slightly at him.

"Eight, correct?"

He recognized that voice, alright. It was him. The name did flashed by his memory just a moment ago, but he couldn't bring himself to say it as fast as how he wanted to.

It was the freshmen representative, as well as 1-B's representative, Ace.

"A-aah," subconsciously, Eight nodded. "Nice to be your acquaintances once again, class representative."

Had he gone too formal on that one? …Maybe he should just drop all his formality since this was his classmate.

On correspondence to that, Ace managed a small chuckle. "Please, I prefer it if you call me by my given name."

Eight scratched his back hair in return, chuckling back in return. Although, sadly, he couldn't help but ponder on how he and Ace were stumbled with each other, a lot. Let's see… There were the freshmen opening ceremony as well as the classroom's event, and then… this…

Sure, he liked the terms 'tied with red strings', but definitely NOT with a guy.

"Need a help with that?"

Ace's question broke Eight out of his trance as the golden haired male rose from his bed, pointing at the boxes beside his roommate's figure. Surprised, Eight turned his head at the said boxes before he returned his attention at Ace.

"Thanks for the offer, but that's not necessary," the brunet smiled a little. "You know what they said about wardrobe invader."

Eight's joke got Ace there, for the teen was laughing a little as a response.

"Don't tell me," Ace's boyish laugh erupted. "that you bring porn magazines with you in that boxes."

"Who do you take me for?"

Eight was laughing in return as well.

Awkwardly, that was.

Because he actually slipped one between his clothes in one of the boxes.

Next: Chapter 3: First Day, First Rivalry

So much for the high school romance, much? Eight swore that this Cater girl was getting into his nerves even more. And she just needed to shove that into his throat at every second passed!

As for Ace's and Deuce's conversation, Japanese prefers to use e-mail to contact each other to SMSing or phoning, apparently, especially at the beginning of a friendship. Moreover, they apparently found that SMS were more expensive than e-mailing. The two most used are probably DoCoMo's and Softbank's e-mail.

Hopefully, there wasn't anything else that I missed to explain in this chapter, although please do point it out via PM or review if there was anything that I did miss to iterate. By the way, by Five Man Bands terms, the characters here are probably going to be something like:

The boys:
The Hero: Eight
The Lancer/ The Aragorn: Ace
The Big Guy: Nine
The Smart Guy: Trey
The Heart: Jack
The Big Brother Mentor: King
The Sixth (Seventh) Ranger: Machina

The girls:
The Hero(ine): Cater
The Lancer: Deuce
The Big Guy (Girl): Sice
The Smart Guy (Girl): Queen
The Chick: Cinque
The Cool Big Sis: Seven
The Sixth (Seventh) Ranger: Rem

Again, refer to TVTropes if you need a description. Final words, I sincerely hope you can give me a feedback on this one. Hopefully I'll be update my stories quickly this year.