A/N: I've had quite a few people asking me what pairings this story has. Only now have I realized that I never told you. Heh. My bad! ^.^' Well, anyhow, this story is basically Rimahiko, Kutau and Amuto, and I'm still considering the possibility of Yuukari. Well, on with the show!

~*~

Detention

That afternoon, Nikaido waited in the room that the detention was being held in. He and Sanjou had decided to supervise it together, because it would take both of them to keep the Powers under control. The other teachers were useless when it came to them. Most of them just looked the other way, and the rest of them had given up. Well, except for one, but nobody paid attention to her anyway.

They had been waiting ten minutes, and so far, only two people have turned up. Neither of them were Powers; they had been the two fighting on Amu and Rima's behalf.

After a further ten minutes, both teachers were about ready to purchase a gun and hunt the Powers down, shooting them in the head one by one.

"They're skipping detention," Nikaido said in disbelief.

"I would have expected this from Tsukiyomi, and probably Souma and Fujisaki too, but I would've thought that Hotori would turn up," Sanjou told him.

"They can't keep doing this. I won't allow it," Nikaido said. All of them were in some of his classes at one point or another. He found that his smoking habits had a direct correlation with their attitude in his class. That's it; their attitude. It needed changing. The fights were all because they couldn't stand each other, right? Well they would just have to learn.

"You won't allow it? That's a laugh," Sanjou commented.

"How so?" Nikaido asked, turning to her.

"They practically have the whole school on their side and all the teachers wrapped around their little fingers," Sanjou sniffed. "We're the only ones left, ever since Amakawa-san had to leave."

"He couldn't help that," Nikaido said, albeit a little bitterly as well.

"Well, the Powers could stage a revolt. With the entire school behind them," she explained.

Nikaido snorted. "Yeah, but only if they can all agree on something for more than a few seconds. They hate each other. It's what's keeping the school in balance. But it's also what'll ruin us."

"Yeah, that damn coward of a principal keeps cutting our budget because of them, doesn't he?" the violet-haired woman crossed her arms, irritated by the mere thought.

Nikaido smiled grimly. "So we need to change things."

Sanjou thoughtfully rearranged her glasses. "Yes, if we want to keep our jobs, that is."

"But how?" he asked.

She paused for a moment before answering. "We need to call in some help. I think we need the Captain in on this one."

Nikaido looked at her. "You just want him to get some credit if we succeed, don't you?"

"Is there something wrong with that?" she snapped.

"Well, he'll probably help... a bit..." he said, hesitantly.

"Every bit counts. These high-schoolers will kill us soon. You're smoking a pack of cigarettes a day as it is. Imagine if this goes on?"

"Hey, not an entire packet!" he defended himself quickly. At Sanjou's glare, he shut up.

"But we have a problem..." she admitted.

"Hm?"

"If they won't even come to detention or follow orders... how are we going to do this?"

"That's a good question, Yukari-san, that's a good question," he nodded. Sanjou blushed and hit him on the head with a nearby notebook.

"It's Sanjou to you!"

"Yes yes, of course."

"But how are we going to go about setting them straight?" she asked, exasperated.

Nikaido sighed. "I think we're going to have to take them out of regular classes for this," he warned.

"Which means we have to have the full cooperation of the other teachers." Sanjou tapped her fingers against the table.

"And Tsukiyomi isn't at school half the time in any case."

"They're all always getting into fights. Except Mashiro; she gets the other students to do that for her, which makes the fans of the other Powers reciprocate in kind..."

"The other teachers will never agree to it," Nikaido said sadly.

"They have to," said Sanjou, eyes flashing.

"Why?"

"If they don't, they're going to have a war on their hands; one that the police won't interfere with."

Nikaido sweat-dropped. "Isn't calling this a war going a little too far?"

"No." Another glare sent his way made Nikaido suddenly feel a lot more agreeable.

"Yes, of course. Not too far," he said hastily. Well, if anybody could do this, it would be Sanjou.

"We need... a meeting," she said ominously.

"What? No! Can't we do this some other way?" he pleaded.

"How else do you expect to get this done?"

"Well... fine," he said, dejected. "But you're calling it."

"Coward."

-------

The principal of the school, a rather overweight man with large bags underneath his piggy eyes, a moustache that he thought made him look sophisticated but in fact looked like the result of haphazardous shaving, scowled at them. He wasn't pleased that a meeting had been called that wasn't his idea, especially since it meant he would have to stay even longer at the school than was absolutely necessary.

"Sanjou-san," he said gruffly, folding his thick fingers over his pronounced stomach. "What is the reason for this sudden meeting?"

The woman adjusted her glasses in a businesslike fashion. She'd always wanted to be a businesswoman, even in her childhood. They had always seemed so glamorous, composed and proper. She dressed and acted like one even now, although the highest success that she could hope to achieve in a school would be teaching a student that pi was, in fact, not edible.

"It's about the Powers, sir," she stated quietly. Every occupant in the room stirred uncomfortably.

His nostrils flared. "Sanjou-san, I expect my teachers not to bow their heads to the students' desire of giving everyone and everything some kind of ridiculous nickname. They are not special. 'Powers'!" he sneered derisively.

Sanjou stiffened, obviously offended by his last comment. "Then what am I supposed to call them, sir?" she asked tersely.

He waved airily at her. "That does not matter. What matters is what you wish to say about those blasted students."

"Well," she started again.

"Today, please. Everybody would like to go home and rest after this inconvenient meeting, Sanjou-san," he interrupted. The woman forced a smile so that she wouldn't slap him. After all, she liked to think that she had better control than the students she would be complaining about.

"I really think that it's useless to just turn a blind eye to their activities and fights, and all the trouble that they're stirring..."

"Trouble?" he narrowed his eyes.

She breathed in deeply, composing herself. "Yes, trouble. For example-"

"What kind of trouble?" demanded the principal, interrupting the answer.

"They've been causing fights to erupt all over the school. The students are beyond control; every eighth of the school despises the other seven-eighths. There's not a single class in which the students don't have an argument and disrupt their education..."

"Arguments? About what?"

Sanjou refrained from looking at him as though he were an idiot. Barely. "About the Po... the students we were discussing, sir."

He sat back, frowning deeply. "Well? Go on. Hurry up. My grandmother could talk faster than you, which is saying something seeing as she's dead," he chortled slightly at his own joke.

"As you say, sir," Sanjou said politely, fantasizing about taking a chair and hitting him repeatedly over the head with it. "Recently, we - that is, Nikaido-sensei and I - had placed all the... aforementioned students in detention, the exceptions being the Ice Q... Rima Mashiro and Amu Hinamori. They-"

"Why?" he questioned, giving her what he thought was a speculative look. Sanjou just thought that he looked rather ill.

"Because they had all broken into or indirectly caused physical fights to break out," was the tired response.

"And?"

"I... We think that this has gone on for far too long and is compromising whatever integrity was left of our school."

"We?"

"Nikaido-sensei agrees as well, don't you?" She discreetly stomped on his foot. He managed to hold back a hiss of pain and keep smiling, although it was rather pained now.

"Of course. Too long. Compromising integrity. Yes," he nodded, fervently hoping that she would refrain from further violence.

"Well what do you want us to do?" the principal asked Sanjou, completely ignoring her partner.

"Well, since the problems and fights breaking out revolve around the fact that they hate each other-"

"Yes, we know that. So what?" he asked grumpily.

"We thought that we should take them out of normal classes-"

"Why would we do that?"

A vein throbbed alarmingly in her temple. "Because they wouldn't do any work and just encourage disputes when they are supposed to be studying."

"Why don't you just keep them back?"

"Well you see, when we put them on detention, they just don't bother turning up," said Sanjou, crossing her arms so that she wouldn't give into the temptation of wrapping her slim fingers around the principal's thick throat. "Hell, Tsukiyomi doesn't bother turning up to school half the time."

"Then how will you get them to go with you during class?" For once, this was actually a sensible question.

"We'll threaten to phone their parents or to suspend them." Sanjou rubbed her temples. "That should work for some of them, at any rate."

"What are you going to do with the children once you've got them?" This time it was a new voice that had piped up. It belonged to a rather old woman who looked to be about fifty and had been claiming she was thirty-four for years. None of the students and very few of the teachers actually took her seriously, with her odd ways and looks. She was more obese than the principal, loose flaps of skin hanging everywhere, the reading glasses perched on her small nose making her eyes look even beadier than usual and her mop of dark hair cut short. Deep red lipstick and heavy makeup completed the look of, well, a rather ridiculous woman. She was supposed to be Saeki-sensei, but her students just called her by her first name; Nobuko.

Nobuko was the only other teacher that didn't just ignore anything related to the Powers or deem it as too bothersome. Another thing was that although the students ridiculed her on a daily basis, she actually cared about them and their futures.

"We'll try to teach them camaraderie or something of that sort," said Nikaido, doubtfully.

"We, and the School Captain, will be giving them lessons on friendship and perhaps hire a counselor or two to sort out any issues we may have," Sanjou said, stomping on Nikaido's foot with the heel of her shoe.

"The School Captain?" The principal frowned, rubbing his chin in what he thought was a thoughtful way. It just made him look rather constipated. "Why him?"

"Because," Sanjou said slowly, making sure her temper was in check, "he has the support of many of the students, even the ones in the Po... the fan clubs for his ability to actually get things done and act without prejudice. Besides, he's their age with the difference of being responsible."

"Are you saying that you can't handle a group of teenagers yourself, and want to employ another teenager to help?" he sneered.

"It'll make it easier..."

"If your plan doesn't work, you'd have accomplished nothing except helping them to skip classes without ramification!" roared the man, slamming a fist on the table. Having known this would happen and making sure her anger was reined in and stored someplace safer, Sanjou stood her ground unflinchingly.

Nikaido on the other hand, hadn't been paying any attention to the conversation and had been bowled off his feet by the sudden rise in volume. He sat up, glasses askew and shaking his head to clear it of any dizziness.

Sanjou ignored him. "Look, sir, just give us a chance," she said, leaning forward and bracing her hands against the table. "Give us a few weeks or something and if there is no improvement, you can have them back terrorizing the students, teachers and public if you wish."

The teachers looked at each other. To have the Powers taken out of their classes would be a blessing, even if it was only for a few weeks. Any class with one of them in it as a fellow student wouldn't concentrate, throwing them either admiring or hateful looks. Any class with two or more in it at a time was a disaster.

Nobuko spoke up for the teachers, even though they looked at her in distaste when she did. "We support this plan, especially since the Powers-"

Sanjou coughed loudly, eyeing the principal's reddening face.

"... the, uh, troublesome students...?" Nobuko glanced at Sanjou and, seeing her approving nod, continued. "Especially since the troublesome students don't do any work in class when they are there. Except Hotori-kun, but none of the other students concentrate with him around," finished the lady.

"Hotori-kun, sensei?" Nikaido asked, grinning. She blushed but refused to answer.

The principal scowled. "Fine," he said shortly. "You have three weeks to make a noticeable improvement. Good luck, you'll need it." The last part was said sulkily, in the tone of a five-year-old who had to share his food because his mother had demanded it of him.

"Thank you, sir," Sanjou said contritely, even though she was secretly fantasizing about ways to kill the man in a satisfying manner.

There was the scraping of lots of chairs being pushed back and the speedy departure of a horde of teachers. Sanjou dragged Nikaido semi-upright and out of the room, using her other hand to take out her phone and dial a number.

"Who are you calling?" asked Nikaido while he was trying not to fall over again at the speed they were going.

"The Captain," she said.

"Why?"

"To tell him about our newest project."

Nikaido stared at Sanjou for a long moment before bursting out into laughter. "You hadn't told him before you volunteered him to the principal?" he chuckled.

Behind her glasses, Sanjou's eyes gleamed. "This way, he can't refuse."

Nikaido stopped laughing. "Sanjou-san?"

"Yes?"

"You're scary."

He regretted those words the moment she fixed him with a powerful glare. "Say that again," she threatened.

Sweat broke out on his forehead. "Uh... you're a strong, independently minded young woman who should be admired greatly by poor, pathetic men like me?" he hazarded.

"That's what I thought you said."

~*~

A/N: If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Um... I think the Powers will appear in the next chapter, and the fairly obvious identity (just use the method of elimination of possible characters) of the School Captain will be not-so-dramatically revealed. Stay tuned!