"Karma," Asano greeted him as he approached the lunch table. "You're late. What happened? Did a teacher hold you back for praising your work?"

The smile on his face was fake. The wave that he gave him was fake. Everything about Gakushu Asano oozed superficiality, and Karma should have known that from the very beginning. "You told Nagisa to get out of the way," he stated without preamble.

To his satisfaction, Asano's smile vanished. "What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said." Karma leaned forward, placing his arms on the chair right across from Asano. All the table's occupants looked from the class president to the batch's prodigy. "You're probably going to deny it, but that's completely fine. You and I and he know the truth, and that's what matters. Thank you for the lunches, class president, but I won't be eating with you any longer." Karma pushed the chair back and turned to go.

Asano grabbed his arm. "Akabane," he said, all cheerfulness. "You're making a mistake."

"Excuse me?"

"You've been with us for weeks, now. You know what we have to offer. You can't tell me you didn't like it."

Karma's lips firmed.

Asano spread out his hands. "You've been with us long enough for us to know that you had a fair amount of enjoyment, sharing our, shall we say, admiration for our prowess. The student body respects us, and by extension - you."

"True."

The headmaster's son blinked, caught off-guard by that concession.

"I'm not stupid enough to deny that I liked it," Karma said. "The admiration you get from the students here borders on worship."

"I'm glad you see the truth of that, Karma."

"The thing is," Karma said, "it's the same ballgame I've always been playing."

Asano raised an eyebrow. The others at the table looked at each other in confusion. Karma chuckled. "You do know," the red-head said, "that all the adoration and amazement you've been getting has only been based on your scores and academic excellence?"

"Which is no small thing."

"Agreed." Karma made eye-contact with his audience. "But see, if ever one of you was to, I don't know, slip-" And with that, the red-head pushed a glass cup from off the table "-you'd completely shatter."

The students shrieked and squealed as the shards of glass flew. Asano barely blinked. "Is that not true for everyone? If you fall, you can hardly expect someone to catch you."

"That's the standard I held for everyone. If my grades were ever to become less than satisfactory, you'd drop me in an instant. That's exactly what it is, in your class and in all others in this school." Karma's face weaved back into stoniness. "You all think you're so special. But really, you're just like everyone else."

The whole table gasped.

"I'm see no reason to prove myself to people I don't care about. Therefore," Karma continued, straightening his back, "you have nothing to offer me."

In front of the whole school, he turned away from the A Class, walking toward the wide-eyed blunette waiting near the cafeteria doors. He'd watched the whole thing.

Asano's words were like venom when they flew out. "And you think that he does?"

Karma's eyes met Nagisa's. The smallest of smiles flickered over the red-head's lips. "Yeah. He does."