A month after their rescue Akoya and Ibushi stood, hand in hand, outside of Binan High. Students stood talking in clusters around the campus, joking about a show they had watched the previous night, complaining about yet another day of class, worrying about a test in third period. It was all so frustratingly normal.

None of these students had their lives ripped apart by a kidnapping, savage attacks, or attempted sexual assault. None of them had to deal with being used by aliens, had their mistakes broadcast across the universe, or turned into heartless monsters, almost irreversibly, against fellow students who were now their friends and saviors? Why did these students get to live lives that were mundane and free from such terrible events?

A few students seemed to notice them and pointed at them before whispering fervently in their cluster of friends. Other broke away and approached them.

"Gero! Arima! You're back!"

The calls of their names caused others to catch on to their presence and within seconds they were encircled by dozens of students.

"Where have you been?"

"I wish I was rich enough to take a month-long vacation during school!"

"You missed so much work! Did you get private tutors?"

"Were you ill?"

Akoya stepped closer to Ibushi, squeezing his hand tightly. Neither were comfortable with being surrounded after what they had just endured but Akoya was more sensitive to it since he had to fight against capture from both sides during his failed capture.

"It's…a sensitive subject…" Ibushi explained, trying to disperse the crowd. "Class will be starting soon and we missed quite a bit just as someone said. If you wouldn't mind letting us pass so we can speak to our teachers about what we missed?" The students let them slip out but grumbled about not getting to learn where they had been. "I'm sorry about that," he whispered to Akoya when they were far enough away from the group. "I didn't think they would swarm us like that."

"I didn't either. I didn't even think they would notice we were gone."

The pair walked in silence to Ibushi's classroom. Stepping inside, they walked up to the teacher and Akoya waited at the front row of desks while Ibushi asked about times when he could come in to make up up his missed work.

When he was finished, he returned to Akoya's side and they headed for Akoya's classroom.

As they neared the room they could hear voices inside.

"They didn't say. I've heard they were on vacation though."

"No they weren't!" a different voice called out. "Didn't you see how he looked?" There was a shuffling sound and the voice was closer the next time it spoke. "I've had my suspicions for years but now I know for sure! Arima is dating Gero! And he got Gero pregnant!"

There were gasps and noises of confusion.

"But how?" a young voice asked.

"Gero is a girl! I've always thought so! There's no way a guy could look like that! Gero's been a girl this whole time and come to our school to get close to Arima and Kinshiro! Well she got a little too close and ended up pregnant!"

"And why did she go away for a month? That's not long enough to have a baby? And she certainly didn't look pregnant before she left?"

"Their dads found out how close they were getting and were encouraging it until she got pregnant! Then she had to get an abortion and she needed to rest and Arima was hiding in shame."

Ibushi hadn't noticed the tears starting to slide out of Akoya's eyes but he heard the loud sobs and he saw the other dart away from the classroom. Furious at the fictious and hurtful rumors being spread right in front of him, he stormed into the room. The rage burning in his eyes made the boys in the room shrink back.

"A-Arima," one tried to begin.

The voice was recognized as the one insinuating Akoya was a woman in disguise and hiding a shameful secret.

"You!" he roared, stomping over to him. Grabbing the front of his uniform, he yelled directly into his face. "How dare you? How dare you spread such filthy lies?"

"W-What?"

A scared smile spread across the boy's face as he tried to think of what to say to appease the normally apathetic Student Council member.

"I heard everything. Akoya heard everything." The fury was still blazing in his body. "You better have a good excuse for this because I know where we were. I know what actually happened to us. I know what actually happened to him. You would be traumatized if you went through what he did. Like he is. You wouldn't have been able to come back to school for another month at least. And if you had come back to such vicious lies being spread about yourself, you would have murdered the person spouting them."

"W-Well what happened to you?"

Ibushi's eyes darkened as his voice dropped to a deadly dark tone. The boy shivered as he replied. None of the boys in the room moved, all frozen in place.

"Akoya was kidnapped and held for ransom. I was kidnapped alongside him for trying to protect him. And guess what?" The boy shook his head, too terrified to answer him. "His father refused to pay. So our captors decided that they would still get their money's worth with us. And what's Akoya's redeeming quality?" Again Ibushi paused, waiting for the to fill in the blank. "Oh come now. This one is easy. Even you know this one. You commented on it earlier."

Swallowing thickly, the boy responded, "H-His…a-appearance…?"

Face still dark and nightmarish, Ibushi smiled a twisted smile and nodded.

"Exactly. They sought Akoya for his body and used me as a stress relief so all these new scars you see? They're courtesy of two men that are now in jail." Throwing the boy into the wall on the other side of the room, Ibushi left the room. Tossing a final comment over his shoulder he said, "Don't speak about things you don't know."

The boys laid where they were, terrified eyes watching him leave.

AN: I know Arima is a little out of character but I couldn't see him just standing there and accepting that with a smile on his face.

Also, I don't think being mistaken for a woman or getting an abortion is shameful. I can see rumors like those being spread around Akoya before and hearing them again being upsetting for him, especially after all he went through.