Kasumi sighed as she got out of the train station and joined the rest of the students walking to their school.

Despite a grueling practice with Coach Hiraguchi and a dreamless yet uninterrupted good night sleep, she had made no real headway in processing what was happening at Shujin, nevermind what she could do about it. After all, this was way beyond anything she had ever known or ever dealt with. The sheer challenge in front of her was immense and yet…

As much as she was still overwhelmed by everything, there were some things that she could hold onto. She knew what Kamoshida was… it was definitely WRONG. After all, what reason could you possibly give that the people that you were coaching needed to be as hurt as them to get any worthwhile results? What reason could you think was good enough that you can spike a ball into a person's face, then carry on like nothing happened?

In fact, why was it that people actively let him get away with it? No one booed Kamoshida when he went back to playing, while she knew that even anywhere else, that sort of behavior on the court would attract vitriol for everyone. But everyone just seemed to accept Kamoshida's conduct just because he was the coach of the volleyball team, the only thing that apparently gave Shujin Academy any kind of prestige.

...And wasn't that the reason why she truly felt overwhelmed?

After all, all the problems she had, from the current slump she had in her gymnastics to…, it was still ultimately up to her to make the changes necessary to succeed. If she wanted things to improve, then she had to help herself. And even if her efforts were not enough (loathe as she was to have to admit), she at least had the support of her coach and her parents to help her through.

But the situation in Shujin… How would someone approach anything like that? One teacher was highly esteemed, the rest of the school practically saw him as a god. And it sounded like even if one person had a problem with their treatment, they were effectively on their own, with what seemed like the school itself conspiring to keep them for even voicing their concerns outside of it.

She had heard plenty of people complain about how they felt the world was against them. She usually scoffed at those people, always thinking that they just didn't apply themselves, and maybe if they had tried just a little harder, they could break through. But from what she heard for Mishima-San, what haunted her was the sheer despair on his face and his slumped shoulders.

He had given up hope, and as much as she wanted to, she couldn't tell him just to get better. That didn't work for… that didn't work for… That hadn't worked at all. Was there anything she could do? She bit her lip.

This whole situation… it had challenged her perceptions and beliefs… She hoped that's all that it did.

So deep in thought she was that she accidentally walked into someone standing still. Able to keep her balance, she looked up at who it was. Immediately, she recognized the haircut. "Mishima-san?"

"Y-Yoshizawa-san?" Mishima blinked before realizing what happened and immediately bowing. "AH! S-Sorry! I should have been watching where I was going!"

"M-Mishima-san, it's fine." Kasumi said as she tried to calm him down. "If anything, I should have been watching where I was going."

With that, she bowed towards him. "Please excuse my carelessness. I will make sure that it won't happen again."

Looking up, she saw that he looked about ready to tell her to get up and try to take the blame some more. Before he could, she immediately stood back up. "Maybe we can discuss who's fault it is when we make it school."

Mishima seemed to look around and remembered that they were still a bit far from Shujin. Then he processed some of Kasumi's word choice and blinked, trying not to blush. "We? You… you want to walk together?"

Kasumi wondered why Mishima was acting weird. "Well… I guess I just wanted to see if you were getting better. I'm pretty good at gymnastics, so I can tell when someone is trying to make their injuries look not as bad as they are."

"Oh…" While there was some disappointment in his eyes, they were quickly covered up. "Alright, if you want."

The two joined the rest of the crowd. As they walked towards the school, Kasumi checked out Mishima's stride and didn't see his movement hindered or staggered in any way. Thankful that there were no real physical problems that Mishima had, she couldn't but still wonder whMishima had chosen to pursue at drove him.

"Hey, Mishima-San?" "Y-Yes, Yoshizawa? What is it?" "Why are you doing volleyball?"

That question nearly sent him stumbling over his feet. Just managing to keep himself upright, he looked at Kasumi. She looked away.

"S-Sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

However, Mishima didn't accept the apology as he looked to be deep in thought. Finally, he let out a sigh. "I went into it because… I wanted to get better at something."

Kasumi gave him a look that told him to keep going.

"Well… I never really had anything I was good at. Like everything I ever tried to do just didn't work out or I just wasn't good enough. I felt like… like I was nothing. I guess when I finally got to Shujin… I was sick of it, sick of feeling like that. So… so I told myself that no matter what, I was going to do something and stick to it. I saw that Shujin was really well known for their volleyball team, so I tried out… and I got in." After that, Mishima sighed and tried to look at Kasumi, only to think again about it and keep his gaze on the ground.

"But look at me, a whole year on the team, and I still suck at everything. Serving, setting, spiking, running… I'm not good at any of them. Sometimes… Nah, nevermind… Must be nice, being someone like you." Mishima quietly mused to himself, though Kasumi heard.

"No."

Those three words made Mishima pause as he looked over. "Huh? What do you mean? Like-"

At that, Kasumi frowned as she turned to face Mishima. "I was six when I first started to do rhythmic gymnastics, and believe me, I wasn't the best. It took me ten years to reach where I am now, ten years of sweat and effort. So please don't try to say that it is just 'something special about me' that helped me get where I am. Hey, Mishima-san?"

Mishima blinked as he looked up. "Y-Yoshizawa-san?"

Kasumi thought for a moment what she wanted to say. "I know it must be hard, feeling like you spent so long without feeling like you're improving. I… Either way, you clearly have a goal, somewhere where you want to go. I have somewhere I want to go too, but it's still pretty far away. But I'm trying to get there, and I believe that you can get where you want to go! Whatever challenges or obstacles or heights you have to go through-"

Fully turning to Mishima, she pumped her fists. "DON'T GIVE UP, MISHIMA-SAN!"

After a while, she eventually realized that she had attracted attention from the rest of the students that were walking near her. Struggling not to blush, she smiled sheepishly at Mishima. "Sorry, I guess I got carried away."

"...Do you really mean that?" The tone and expression on Mishima's face made her pause for a moment.

She nodded. "I'll be rooting for you, Mishima-san."

The boy was silent, his expression unreadable, before he started to sniffle and furiously wiped his eyes. Kasumi blinked, her smile slightly dimming as she wondered why Mishima was reacting the way he was. 'Please don't tell me that I messed up again.'

Before she could say anything, Mishima muttered something before quickly running off. Kasumi stayed there, wondering what just happened. As she processed this, the whispers from the rest of the students began to reach her ears.

"Dang, Mishima striked out." "What did you expect? Trying to ask out Yoshizawa like that, she's way out of his league." "Give props to the guy for even trying."

Are you serious? Can't they can't give it a rest? Can't she just be nice without someone trying to interpret it as something else? As she stewed, someone said something that made her pause.

"First, he gets caught by Sakamoto and that new guy, then he strikes out with Yoshizawa. Wouldn't want to be in his shoes." "Hey, speaking of Sakamoto, I saw them trying to talk with some of the Volleyball team during the rally." "What? What, they were trying to hit on them?" "The male volleyball members." "...Hey, they could still have been hitting on them."

Sakamoto had been looking into the volleyball team during the rally. Then she remembered who else had been with him. Immediately, she began to hurry to the school, thinking of all the places Ren could be at.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TAKE YOUR TIME~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as the lunch bell rang, Kasumi was out of her seat, absentmindedly grabbing her lunch as she left her classroom. For the first time that she could remember, food and filling her stomach had taken a backseat to something else (though hopefully she could spare at least five minutes towards the end to at least eat something.) She had to find Ren and talk to him about what he was doing since their last meeting.

However, she looked around the crowded hallways and frowned. How was she going to find him in this crowd? While she could try to find him around the first years' floors, it was doubtful that he would remain in the same place for long and she would end up missing him.

Just then, some of the crowd parted, and Kasumi saw a student with a head of bright yellow hair, and she quickly realized who she was looking at. Immediately, she began to discreetly follow behind Ryuji Sakamoto, hoping that he would meet up with Ren. On the way there, she began to notice something about the blond-haired punk.

Though Sakamoto looked like he had been dealing with it, she could tell that he was ever-so-slightly favoring one of his legs, disguising his limp. Thinking of all she knew about Sakamoto, she knew that he was once part of the Track team, and how the school shut it down when Sakamoto had apparently attacked Kamoshida and the Volleyball Coach defended himself. Now Kasumi wondered how exactly Kamoshida defended himself if Sakamoto was still injured even after a year.

However, if he had been bringing Ren with him to do whatever after school… she would certainly make him regret it.

Seeing Ren join Sakamoto, she continued to tail them until they both went up to the roof, closing the door behind them. As she could hear some muffled conversation between the two, she carefully walked up to the door and stood in front of it. Quietly, she took a few deep breathes as she composed herself.

'Don't screw this up… Don't screw this up…'

Pursing her lips, she nodded to herself as she firmly clasped the handle and turned it. The conversation stopped as both Ren and Sakamoto turned to face her. As she stepped outside, she observed the two of them.

Sakamoto definitely didn't trust her. He made no attempts to hide his intentions or her thoughts of her. Strangely, despite the animosity, it strangely relaxed her knowing that he was probably going to tell her soon enough why exactly he didn't like her.

Ren… Ren looked like he was unsure what to feel seeing her there. At that point, Kasumi had to take that as a positive thing. You could only build something better when the person actually wanted you around, or at the very least, tolerated your presence.

"Kasumi-senpai, what are you doing here?" Ren asked as he forced himself to look straight at her. Kasumi also felt the weight of their last conversation suddenly hover over them. After thinking about how to proceed, she mentally prepared herself.

"I was hoping to find you." Kasumi admitted, resisting the urge to play with her ponytail as she noticed that Sakamoto was staring hard at her. Ren looked over at Sakamoto before looking back at her.

"Why? I thought that… you know…"

Right, of course he had to ask about that. She thought about what Ren said to her the last time they spoke. She weighed what she had heard and what she observed. She eventually came to her answer.

She wanted to believe Ren. She didn't want to believe she was wrong about him.

"I don't want to give up on you, Ren. But... that's why I have to ask, why are you talking to the Volleyball team?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Sakamoto sniffed as he interrupted. Kasumi frowned as Ren simply looked back at her.

"Senpai… can I ask why you are interested in what I'm doing?" Ren asked, now a little suspicious, while Sakamoto's body all but told her out loud that he was just waiting for an excuse to push her back out of the roof. Kasumi stated at the two before collecting her thoughts.

"You're trying to find out something about Kamoshida, aren't you?"

"OI! That's none of your business!" Before either Ren or Kasumi knew it, Sakamoto shot up to his feet and stomped over, scowling at her with his hands in his pockets. "If that's all you want, then you can go ahead and leave!"

Leaning back, Kasumi wondered what exactly she had done to deserve Sakamoto's ire. She was failing to think of any time that she even interacted with the dyed blonde. As she hesitated, Sakamoto got angrier.

"HEY, DIDN'T I SAY BEAT IT! TELL YOUR PRECIOUS KAMOSHIDA THAT WE KNOW WHAT HE'S DOING!"

...What did he say? Your precious Kamoshida? Kasumi blinked. She only walked with Kamoshida that one time during her first day, and now she was thankful she didn't have to interact with that man now seeing what he did. Was Sakamoto SERIOUS?! She immediately gave in to whatever instinct bubbled up.

Her hand met face. Sakamoto stumbled back as she realized what she just did. Did she just…

"OH NO, I'M SORRY! Are you okay?" She asked, hands hovering over a hunched over Sakamoto. Even if he upset her, that was no excuse for her to go and slap him.

"Don't worry, Kasumi-senpai. Ryuji took harder hits than that." Ren assured her as he checked on Sakamoto. Strangely, she wasn't exactly comforted by that.

Eventually, Sakamoto recovered enough to stand up straight, rubbing his cheek. "Geez, Yoshizawa. I thought you did gymnastics? How did you slap me so hard?"

Kasumi frowned. "What is that supposed to mean, Sakamoto? Just because I do gymnastics, I'm expected to be weak? Let me go ahead and ask my coach to teach you some routines and the conditioning needed to do those routines!"

Sakamoto blinked before holding up his hands. "Hey, hey, don't worry. Just being slightly out of it…"

"You have a coach, Kasumi-senpai? Then I'm guessing you weren't impressed with what Kamoshida did during the rally, huh?" Ren asked, which she nodded.

"If Coach Hiraguchi saw Kamoshida do that in front of her," She saw how both boys looked pleased at her lack of an honorific connected to Kamoshida. "Then I know she would be right in front of him and box his ears in."

"HA HA HA!" Sakamoto laughed loudly, and even Ren couldn't help but chuckle a little. "Man, if that is true, then maybe I will take you up on that offer."

"Then you were hoping to find something to accuse Kamoshida with?" Kasumi asked, and the mirth the two displayed immediately dried up.

"Yeah, that's right. That douche has got to go, he's got too much to answer for. For what he's doing to the Male Volleyball team…" Sakamoto's angry expression became downcast. "And what he did to the track team."

"And to you?" Kasumi asked. As the two looked at her, she gestured to Sakamoto's leg. "I noticed that you were favoring your leg and your balance is off. I heard that Kamoshida had to defend himself from you, but I'm already guessing that's not the truth."

Sakamoto sighed as Ren gave him a look of sympathy. "Yeah, he was a slave driver. He just kept adding more and more onto us, hoping that everyone would eventually break. No water, no rest, just constant work. Eventually, he decided to try to get some of us mad. He said some things about my mom, mentioned some things about my… and then I just lost it."

He gently tapped his knee. "Now I'm here with a broken knee, the track team disbanded, and Kamoshida gets to walk away claiming self-defense."

"...What is wrong with this school?" Kasumi whispered in horror.

"Join the club." Ren said. Looking over, she was struck by the look of horror in his eyes. Somehow, it just seemed more solid, more visceral to her that she wondered what he was seeing.

"Hey, Senpai?" Ren's question made her look back and nod to him to keep going. "You talked to Mishima yesterday, right?"

"And today." Kasumi casually confirmed, before seeing Ren and… Sakamoto-san looked at her with hope in their eyes. "Why? Is there something you wanted to ask?"

"Yeah!" Ren stood up. "We haven't been able to ask him anything. But maybe you can ask him to confess!"

Kasumi frowned. "I'm sorry. He was also very tight lipped to me too."

Ren did his best not to let his frustration show. Sakamoto-san just turned around and kicked the fence behind. "DAMN IT! WHY WON'T ANYONE STAND UP!"

The mood surrounding the two got to Kasumi as well. Without anyone else to collaborate their claims, it would be easy to sweep anything back under the rug. Even the one idea that she came up with, going to her father, wouldn't work since even he couldn't allow mere 'hearsay' on Good Morning Japan.

Was this really all they could do?

"...We'll think of something. We can't give up." Ren eventually said. Both her and Sakamoto-san looked up at him.

Despite him being several inches shorter than them, at that moment, he seemingly stood taller.

Sakamoto-san grinned. "Yeah, you're right, Ren. We can't just stop here."

While Kasumi smiled, it didn't reach down inside. 'When things were looking down, why was it Ren that helped both of us up? It should have been me, I'm the older-'

She stopped herself from completing that thought.

"We should think more about this tomorrow, then? Maybe we'll have an idea by then." Kasumi suggested. The other two had to nod to that.

Just then, her stomach rumbled loudly, startling Ren and Sakamoto-san.

"What the heck was that?!" Sakamoto-san shouted as he looked around. Kasumi tried not to mind as she took out her lunch and set it out. As she finished, she was about to dig in, when Sakamoto-san gasped.

"What the- are you actually going to eat all that?" His jaw dropped as he tried to process her portion sizes. She forced herself not to blush.

"As an athlete, I need all the energy I can get. I'll burn all of this in practice anyway." She said as she took her first bite.

Sakamoto-san shook his head. "Pretty sure even I didn't eat this much when I was in the track team…"

As she finished her bite, she looked at the other two on the roof, who hadn't taken out any food. Then she put two and two together. "Do you two have any lunch?"

"...Damn it, knew I forgot something when I left home." "I just didn't feel hungry right now, Kasumi-senpai."

Taking the lids of her lunch boxes, she took some of her own food, plated them on the lids, before handing them to Ren and Sakamoto-san. "There, you better eat up. We still have a long time before school ends, so you better keep up your energy."

"You know, you probably could stand to-OW!" "Thank you, Kasumi-senpai." Ren thanked her, Sakamoto-san following suit after rubbing his head.

As the two took their own bites, Ryuj-san smiled as he chewed. "Wow, this is great!"

Ren grimaced. "Ryuji, don't talk with your mouth full. It's gross."

Kasumi stopped to smile. "Thank you. I'm not that confident about my cooking being good."

"Kasumi-senpai, trust us. Your cooking is great." "Yeah! If this is what you consider 'not good', then you got way too high standards."

As the rest of lunch went on, she looked between Ren and Sakamoto-san. It wasn't hard to see how the two seemed to be relaxed around each other, joking and lightly hitting each other in amusement. It was nice to see, but she was all too aware of how it felt like the two even forgot she was there.

Something else was going on here. There was one in their conversations where they would drift to something, only for their eyes to shoot to her and to immediately switch to another topic. Still, she wondered what exactly was so important about a caste…

Either way, as they left the roof and they went to their classrooms just as the lunch period, Kasumi was sure that they were hiding something. Ren was hiding something. Hopefully, he would trust her enough to let her in…

But it was one thing to know it, another to accept it, and that consumed her thoughts as she left Shujin that afternoon, completely unaware of her surroundings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TAKE YOUR TIME~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Kasumi entered her classroom and walked up to her seat, she noticed that Ann Takamaki was already at her seat, looking completely miserable and keeping her head down. Weighing her options, she eventually decided to come up next to her. "Everything okay, Takamaki-san?"

"Eh, Yoshizawa-san?" Takamaki-san looked up before looking away. "I'm… fine. You don't need to worry."

Why are you worrying, go away now. Kasumi understood the message, and quietly sat down. Eventually, the rest of the students filled in, but it was then that Kasumi realized someone was missing.

'Where's Mishima-san?'

Just then, Miss Kawakami entered the room. Everyone in the class immediately noticed her thousand yard stare as she stiffly walked up the front of the classroom. Standing there, Kasumi realized that her teacher's eyes were wet, just short of falling down her face.

"I… I have terrible news. Mishima Yuuki was found unconscious at school yesterday. He's being treated at the hospital… and they don't know when he will wake up…"