Sosuke sent off the scanned document, then leaned back in his seat and took off his glasses, rubbing his eyes. It is probably time for a screen break, he told himself, before putting his glasses back on and switching off his computer screen. He looked through the paperwork (that was to say, the hard-copy paperwork) on his in-tray, but none of it was urgent. All the same, in the interests of efficiency, he decided to complete some. There was nothing particularly compelling or unusual about the paperwork in question, so he breezed through them in relatively little time, depositing them in his out-tray. Eventually, his mind began to wander.

I wonder what things will be like, after Golden Week is over. It had been a frustration, ceding control over the assembly and the punishments in the form of having to agree with Mizuki (and, to a certain extent, Riko. Why she had not become part of this little alliance, he didn't know, but he wasn't going to question it). But he knew that it was a small sacrifice, for a much bigger gain. An uncertain gain, but all the same, a gain. It would be worth it in the end. It had to be.

Though, in some ways, he was already getting those gains. Such as finding out things about the school he had not previously known. The presence of the graveyard, the so-called 'Parade'. Though, how do I know they were not just making it up? Cursory search-engine explorations in his room in the dorms had yielded nothing. Yet something that big had to have left a mark, not just because of the shock it would have caused, but from a legal standpoint.

From a legal standpoint…

Sosuke sucked in a breath, and looked at his computer, but thought better of it. Instead, he got up, and left his office, and headed down to the archives, right in the basement. Since it was Golden Week, naturally there were very few people in, so he did not need to make up a reason to visit the archives. Naturally, though, he had a plausible story already prepared by the time he reached the archives entrance and headed down the stairs, but to his relief, there was no-one there either.

He headed straight to the computer by the door, and signed in. He opened an incognito search, and after some thought, entered the search terms 'Parade' '2010' and 'Hope's Peak', for all documents, before pressing enter.

A moment.

Then another, and another.

And, then….

11 results found.

Sosuke skimmed through the list, made a mental note of the locations, then cleared the search and signed out completely, and headed down the dark, slightly fusty aisles. He went further, and further-far past where most documents of the type and the time period were kept, right down into the darkest ends of the room, the parts where people rarely needed to go. Where the oldest documents, the odds and ends that were held onto 'just in case' were kept, where the relevance was, for the most part, purely historical value.

I suppose in that way, having them here is fitting.

Finally, he found the box that the archives had claimed he could find them, and looked through. Sure enough, the documents were right at the bottom-identifiable by how new they looked next to the things they had been placed with, even at 22 years old. Sosuke put the box back on the shelf, and took his mobile phone out of his pocket, finding the torch of it and then balancing the phone on the box such that he had a makeshift reading lamp, before proceeding to read.

The first few seemed to be a contract of some sort, between Hope's Peak and media organisations of the time, essentially imposing a gagging order on them, with threats of prosecution for those who did not comply. There were also individuals named, as well as a collective 'surviving students of the Reserve Course and their families and close associates'. The event they were not meant to talk about was simply referred to as 'The Parade'. The same name that Shino Hisakawa had used. Well, that is certainly an indication in their favour, Sosuke mused. But this alone cannot have managed to completely bury such an event under the sand. After all, social media was widely used even back then. Perhaps not to the same capacity, but that aspect of technology was certainly making leaps and bounds, back in 2010.

Still, it was rather damning, and Sosuke flicked through to the next document, another contract, again dealing with money-but referring to medical bills, apparently given only 'under the condition that silence from all connected parties about 'The Parade' is guaranteed.' Attached were some photographs, and Sosuke flicked through, barely registering any emotion at the close-up pictures of horrific injuries and scared teenage faces, even though intellectually, he knew they were horrific. He kept on flicking through all the documents, finding police reports, records of payments made for funerals and lawyers, detailed student records of the time, rows of names struck through and annotations made-this one, Sosuke recognised as potentially being the missing information from the censuses at Hope's Peak's library (that one simply listed the names of the dead). There were also short descriptions of who these students had been, and copies of their ID documents.

And then, finally, there were building plans and planning permissions for the South Building of Hope's Peak Academy. Or technically, two versions. One labelled 'OFFICIAL' which simply made reference to 'vandalism' and 'freak accidents' whereas the other referred to the 'disastrous incident known as The Parade'.

Well now, this is interesting. Sosuke had known that the building had been rebuilt during the 2010s, but the general narrative around that had been due to 'renovations' of what had been, even then, a very old building. As different areas of the school had indeed been going through the processes of updating during that time, it had been easy to believe. But it seems that this 'renovation' was more of a reconstruction. Well then.

Sosuke turned back to the very first document, and then, picking his phone up again and kneeling down, he laid down the documents flat on the floor (since there was no table handy) and he methodically photo-scanned every page into his phone, saving them straight to a protected folder. Then, he put them all away, and headed back up into the light, dusting himself down and being as quick and quiet as he could. He did not breathe until he was back in his office.

Sitting back down at the desk, Sosuke took his phone out, and opened up 'Shh!'. His finger hovered over the group chat. Should he, shouldn't he? He suspected that they would be more than interested. But, there's no telling what they might do with this proof, after that debacle with Hisakawa-san. And if that could be traced back to me…He was not stupid, he had listened to Azuki's story. The leakage of the documents could easily be traced back to these law offices, and by extension Sosuke himself. No, he decided, exiting the app and putting his phone back in his pocket. No.

I'll keep this to myself, for now.

…

Minah picked a pink jacket off the rack and considered it. It was a nice style, but she wasn't too sure about the colour. Pretty as it was, she wasn't quite sure it was right for her. Hmmm. She turned to Mawa and held it out to her after a moment's more thought.

"Hey, this looks like something you'd like to wear." She suggested.

"Oh?"

Mawa grinned as she shoved the blouse she had been holding at Leah, and she took the jacket, holding it to her. She struck a fancy pose, adjusted some loosening strands of her fancy up-do, then struck another pose and grinned at them.

"What do you think?"

"I think you'd have to try it on to know." Leah remarked, unfazed.

"It might go well with that blouse though." Ai said. "They've got similar colours, I really think they'd look cute together."

"Yeah, I agree." Minah agreed.

"Cool. I'll keep ahold of them for now and then try 'em on in a moment. Kang-Chan, you got anything?" Mawa asked as she reclaimed the blouse from Leah.

"I've been looking, but nothing's caught my eyes yet."

"Really?" Mawa said, disbelievingly.

"Aw come on!" Ai said. "Most of the stuff here would totally suit you, you're so pretty."

"Ah, well….." Minah shrugged. She didn't particularly think she really needed new clothes, but she supposed it would be nice to treat herself once in a while. Besides, it was part of the fun, hanging out with her friends like this.

"I think there are some crop tops over there." Leah piped up, pointing.

"That's all Minah-Chan wears though." Ai rolled her eyes.

"Hey, don't knock it, if she likes it she likes it, right?" Mawa declared with a grin. "Besides, she'll rock any look she wants to, so why not this over any other?"

"Says the person who constantly changes her style."

"Hey, don't knock that, either." Mawa struck a mock-glamourous pose, making the rest of them laugh before they headed to the rail of clothes that Leah had pointed out.

They spent a while in that part of the shop, Minah finding a couple of pretty crop tops on the rack Leah had pointed out, as well as a black denim jacket and a t-shirt. Mawa found piles of clothing, and Leah and Ai had more than Minah, but much less than Mawa, which for some reason provoked a lot of amusement, but eventually even Mawa decided she'd found all she wanted to buy from that shop, and they all went to the tills.

"Teruya's probably going to kill me." Mawa remarked, referring to her twin brother in 99B.

"Why? It's not like you share rooms?" Ai pointed out.

"No, but watch how I sneak some of the things that won't fit into my wardrobe into his."

"What? Why?"

"Oh come on, I do it all the time. You haven't realised?"

"Nope."

Minah shook her head in amusement as they each went to different tills. It did not take the cashier long to complete Minah's transaction, and she would have been the first to have been done if not for the fact that just as Minah was about to pick up her bag and wait by the side, the cashier leaned in with a fascinated look on her face.

"Excuse me, you are Minah Kang, aren't you?"

"I…." Minah blinked, but quickly remembered to smile, "Yes, that's right."

"Oh my goodness!" the cashier squealed. They looked right and left, then lowered their voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

"I don't suppose I could sneak a quick selfie with you? My family will be so jealous if I tell them that Minah Kang stopped by today."

Minah sighed internally, but on the outside she was the very picture of amiability.

"Of course."

The cashier did a happy dance on the spot, then quickly whipped a mobile phone out of their trouser pocket, then Minah tilted her head as the cashier leaned over the counter to take them both in, the latter flashing a peace symbol while the former just smiled. It was over in moments, but Minah couldn't wait to get out.

"That cashier was a fan, huh?" Leah asked as they looked for the next shop to browse.

"Mhm."

"You could just say no, you know?" Mawa pointed out.

"Yes, but…." Minah sighed. "They mean well, usually."

This earned her a look from all three of her friends-clearly, none of them bought it. She didn't either, to be fair. It just was what it was. It served nobody if she was unkind. Even if she did wish it didn't happen-she was not the celebrity they wanted her to be. Just someone who loved her sport, and put all into it.

"Let's not dwell on it," she responded eventually. "This is our day, right?"

"Yes, that's the spirit!" Ai cheered. "Let's go!"

And for the next couple of shops, Minah didn't need to think about her celebrity status, and the four of them were just teenage girls enjoying a day out during Golden Week. But then, as they were about to enter another shop, they were stopped by two university age girls.

"Um, can we help you?" Mawa asked, eyebrows raised.

"It's fine, really…" Minah said softly, stepping forward.

"Ah, um…" the two girls looked at each other nervously, before the first spoke. "We just wanted to tell you that we're really, really big fans."

"Mhm," the second one said. "We've been watching you on TV since forever, you're the coolest."

"That's nice…"

Minah started to think of a polite way to extract herself from the situation, when suddenly the first girl blurted out:

"You're basically our role model!"

"Oh?"

"Y-yeah!" the second girl elaborated when the first went too red to say anything herself. "Like, Kimi used to think that fighting was something only delinquents did, and my mum always told me that only boys did things like taekwondo, but then we both watched you, and you were like pretty and beautiful but still really strong and powerful, so we both took lessons and…well, ever since then we've felt strong and powerful, too."

"Mhm." The first girl nodded earnestly.

Minah blinked, taken aback. Strong and powerful, huh? Even in this day and age, she knew there were so many girls like these two, who once had not felt like that, or who still did not, and believed they didn't. To know that in some small way, she helped to change that, well…that was why she still put up with things like this.

"I'm pleased to hear that. Keep working hard, and don't let anyone take that away from you, alright?"

"We won't!"

"I…um…"

"You can have a photograph, if you like." Minah said, smiling genuinely this time.

The girls beamed at that, and one took out her phone, and just like with the cashier, it was over in a few moments. The girls left soon after, going on their own way, but this time, Minah wasn't just relieved, she was pleased, too.

Yes, this is why I put up with things like this.

…

After a few more shops, including a stationary shop to restock on some school supplies, the four girls decided to look for a café or restaurant to go to ("It's Golden Week, we gotta treat ourselves!" Ai had declared). But the shopping centre was busy, and as such, most establishments were almost ridiculously crowded.

"This isn't faiiiiir." Ai whined.

"I know, right?" Mawa agreed. "How hard is it to find a single table? Well, I'd prefer a booth, but yeah, even a table."

"I'm sure we will find something, there're a lot of places here, right?" Minah pointed out. "Why don't we try the next floor?"

Mawa frowned for a minute, then her face lit up again and she nodded, leading the way imperiously to the lifts. While they waited for it, they made small talk with a sweet elderly lady who told them that they all reminded her of her granddaughters, who continued to chat as the lift arrived and then insisted on giving them all sweets before they got off the lift. Minah slipped hers into the pocket of her red jacket, while Leah and Ai ate their own. Mawa decided to give hers to her brother as a 'peace offering', the proclamation of which set them all off laughing again.

Eventually, they changed the subject to what they were doing for the rest of the week, and so it did not take very long for them to work out that Minah was hiding something about her Friday plans.

"But who are these other people?"

"Just Teranaga-san, and some reserve course students, and a few others from 99 and 98."

Minah did not feel like mentioning one of those people was Azuki. She didn't feel like mentioning any of them, really. They weren't doing anything wrong, far from it, and yet…they had agreed to be discreet. And as much as she loved her friends, she didn't think they could be discreet about something like this. They could not understand any of it.

"But…why?" Ai asked.

"Why not? I'm interested in getting to know people, that's all. It's just an informal get-together. I mean, we're just hanging out." Minah said, feeling inexplicably …..squicky as she said so.

"Yeah, but….are they your friends, or what?" Mawa asked.

"Well, Teranaga-san is." Minah said cautiously. "and Kagane-sempai is my TEP pairing."

"Well, that's a little more explainable." Mawa nodded with a frown.

"I still find it weird though!" Ai said. "But hey, you do you, right?"

"I have to admit I'm still curious." Leah said. "I want to know when you met these new people."

"Oh, just around the school…." And defending them from the unfair consequences of the riots….

"And Reserve Course students to boot…" Mawa said incredulously.

"They are like us, you know. The only difference is a title." Minah said quickly.

"Geez, we know that!" Mawa said, holding her hands up in surrender. "It's just a bit unusual, since they're always in one place and we're always in another and we don't mix usually…because well, title is kind of a big difference, though yeah, I guess we're all teenagers at the end of the day…."

"Hey, isn't that Fumi-kun?"

The debate (veering quickly out of control, to Minah's eyes) was thankfully halted as they looked to see where Leah was pointing to. Across from them, a figure with bright blue hair was leaning over the balcony with a camera, filming and gesturing at the light displays hanging from the ceilings and the shoppers that could be seen on the ground below. Some of the cadence of his voice reached them, cheerful and enthusiastic, but the actual words were lost in the hubbub of the shopping centre.

"Do you know, I think it is him." Minah said, after a moment of consideration. "I wonder what he is filming."

"Let's go and ask!" Ai declared.

"Oooh, lets!" Mawa agreed gleefully, bouncing on her heels.

"No, don't do that!" Minah burst out, startling them both.

Mawa narrowed her eyes at Minah.

"Why?"

"Because, he's clearly busy making a video, right? He won't want to be disturbed."

"Aw, but he talks to people all the time on his videos. He even blows kisses at them." Mawa protested.

"Even so, I think we should leave him be." Minah said firmly. "Knowing what Sawada-kun is like, he'd prefer just being able to make his videos in as much peace as possible."

"Well, yeah, but…..he's Fumi-kun at the moment, not our plain old stuck-up Sawada!" Ai pouted.

"They're one and the same though." Leah, who had been quietly analysing the situation until then, piped up.

"Exactly." Minah said instantly. "Being in the spotlight is hard enough as it is, and we should all to a certain knowledge be able to understand this, yes?"

"Actually, yes." Mawa looked thoughtful now. "I get what you're saying. I'd love to be in a video with Fumi-kun though…"

"Well, his channel is doing a lot of the Centenary coverage, right?" Minah pointed out. And potentially more besides, but no need to mention that.

"Oh yeah!" Ai perked up suddenly.

"Exactly, so let's just forget him and go actually look for somewhere to eat!" Leah concluded.

"Fine, fine!" Mawa and Ai said in unison.

They continued to walk, in the opposite direction to where Azuki was filming, and looked for somewhere to eat. For the first few places they tried, they were met with the same luck they had been on the lower floor, but then they entered an American-style diner that was only half-full, and somewhat inexplicably playing Chaotic Love Revolution through its speakers.

"Guys, I think we've hit the jackpot!" Leah declared.

"Actually, we've gone one better than that!"

Before any of them could ask what Mawa meant, she had raced ahead to a booth and peeked around it.

"Mawa! What the hell are you doing here?" a male voice squawked.

"Could ask the same of you, Teruya!" Mawa grinned, before straightening up and gesturing to Minah, Leah and Ai.

Shaking her head with amusement, Minah walked over to see that Mawa's twin brother was sitting in the booth, along with Hiro from their class, and none other than Sho. The latter grinned broadly and leant back.

"Why, hello ladies, want to join us?" he asked, winking at them, though to Minah it seemed a little more directed at her.

"Oh my god, why? I'm already related to this one, in case you didn't notice!" Teruya mock-groaned, pointing to Mawa, who simply simpered prettily, blinking her wide purple eyes at the boys.

"Hey, come on, more the merrier, right?" Sho said.

"You're terrible, but there is always room in our life for pretty ladies, right?" Hiro said.

"Oh, come off it." Mawa said, blushing slightly.

With great groans, Teruya budged up while Sho and Hiro did so willingly, and the four girls took their seats. As Minah slid in next to Sho, the boy gave her another wink, more subtle this time but definitely aimed at her. Unsure of how to react to that, she smiled and nodded politely.

"So, have you ordered anything yet?" Leah asked.

"Nah, not yet."

"Coolio, we'll order with you." Mawa said.

"I'm not paying for it though!" Teruya declared hotly.

"Ah, don't worry, I'll treat the ladies!" Sho said smoothly.

"Oh, really? That's ever so kind of you, Nakajima-kun!" Ai said delightedly.

"Of course, of course."

"Geez, you're such a flirt!" Hiro laughed.

"Me, a flirt? Never!" Sho said, pretending to be wounded.

"It's fine, we love you anyway!" Mawa declared. "Right?"

Leah and Ai readily agreed, but Minah was a little cautious as she smiled. Not just because she felt that 'love' was a more serious word, for more serious relationships (romantic or otherwise), but because she noticed how Sho seemed to puff up slightly at the praise, and how he was mostly looking at her. She had a good inkling as to why, because they had a link that they didn't have with any of the others, but all the same.

They chatted for a while about inconsequential things, jumping from topic to topic with ease, breaking off only to examine the menus and then later on give their orders to a bored looking waitress.

"You know, we saw your class couple today." Teruya said after the waitress had left.

"Did we? Oh yeah, we did." Hiro said after a moment.

"You saw Grace-san and Murayama-kun?" Leah asked, agog. "Did they say hi to you, or were they lost in their own world as usual?"

This generated some sniggers from the boys and a few giggles from Mawa and Ai-Shuuhei Murayama and Emlyn Grace were very well known in Hope's Peak, particularly amongst the two 99th classes, for their lovey-dovey tendencies.

"Well, we were across the road from them so probably they wouldn't have seen us anyway," Hiro shrugged. "But they were looking in the window of a bridal store."

"A bridal store?!" Mawa and Leah spluttered in unison.

"Are you sure?!" Ai asked.

"Do you know anyone else who wears those fancy cloak deals?" Sho asked wryly.

"No….."

"Well, there you go."

"Emlyn Grace does not strike me as a suit guy. Or a wedding dress guy, for that matter." Ai said after a moment of flabbergasted silence.

"I'm more bowled over that they were looking at a bridal store." Mawa emphasised.

"Really? It's these two we're talking about." Teruya retorted.

"They could just be looking for the fun of it. We're still in high school, after all." Minah said reasonably. Though, knowing what she did about those particular classmates of her, it was entirely possible they were looking seriously.

"Pfff." Was the response from Mawa.

"What about you anyway, Kang?" Hiro asked suddenly. "Got any love interests on the horizon yet?"

"You're just hoping it'll be you." Ai told him smartly.

"No, I haven't." Minah said honestly and quickly, hoping to save them from any potentially awkward moments. "I want to focus on experiencing this school and Japanese culture as much as I can. I can worry about romance later, after I graduate."

And hopefully by then we'll have managed to make Hope's Peak change for the better.

"Oh?" Sho tilted his head curiously, grinning. "Not even interested in that boy who's always commenting on your social media?"

Minah sighed patiently, having had this question in many forms many times before.

"No, Nakajima-san. InSu's just a friend."

Sho simply rested his chin in his hand and raised an eyebrow at her. What's that meant to mean, Minah wondered, feeling a little baffled.

"Can we talk about something other than romance now please?" Mawa complained. "I'm single and lonely, I don't need to be reminded of that fact."

"Sure, sister dearest." Teruya teased.

With that, they swiftly switched to talking about school-more specifically, the Izuru Kamukura birthday party in June that most of the school was excited about, and the recent riot.

"I feel like they got off pretty lightly, like, what the hell?" Teruya said.

"Well, suspensions for those who actually did something wrong is fair enough," Minah said instinctively. "But most of them didn't do anything wrong."

"Uh, yes they did? They were the ones causing a disturbance." Leah said.

"The protest was peaceful, though. There's nothing wrong with that."

Minah willed herself to sneak a look at Sho, but only a little. Should she ask him to speak up too? Would that be indiscreet? Or would something like this count towards their efforts? She took a breath, steeled herself. These were her friends, her classmates. She could do this. She straightened up and waited for what would be said next.

"Well, yeah, but they went crazy, caused a proper mess." Hiro added.

"Ehh, either way, some of those guards went overkill, you know? I saw some guard kick a student-that's not cool, is it?" Sho said, sudden but still somehow languid.

"I…guess you have a point there."

Oh, thank goodness.

She caught Sho's eye, and he winked at her, again. A clear signal of recognition. As subtly as she could, she nodded, but did not have to worry about being spotted, because at that moment, their orders arrived, and all talk of the riots was swiftly replaced with food chatter.

And finally, she could breathe.

Yes, the Chaotic Love Revolution referenced here is the Police Piccadilly song. What can I say? I'm trash for them. As you should well know. But anyway, this won't be on the playlist as I wouldn't really say the song is the theme of the chapter, nor does it really fit a wider theme/mood/character of the story. I literally just put it in because I could. So, yeah.

Speaking of the playlist-you are welcome to suggest contributions to me as well. I can add them in when I next get the time and I will credit you-and hey, I may even find something new to enjoy.

Anyway, as always, hope you enjoyed the chapter, and please do leave feedback if you can!