Spending the first hour at his new school in detention with some girl that he didn't know was not what Kirito had intended to have happen when he hadn't even gotten to see his dorm room, muchless see the inside of the school building.

Though to be fair, he deserved it for nearly knocking out another student without lifting a finger.

Wait… were those hovershoes? Six pairs of them in one place!?

"Kirito, what're you looking at?" Eugeo asked curiously and the blonde wandered over toward him with Alice sighing and on his heels.

"That's some of the lead students in the school," Alice patiently introduced to her boyfriend and his twin brother, "though three of them tend to cause a lot of mayhem so they're racing through the halls to get away at least once a week."

"But, those," Kirito spluttered, unable to help the geek in him at seeing six pairs of the very rare technology enhanced shoes. "Those are hover shoes! They're outrageously rare and so fucking cool!"

"Yeah, but we should get ouf of the way," Eugueo suggested a bit worriedly as they approached them, nearly reaching the full entrance. Close enough that they could hear their conversation.

"Trust me, you don't want to go back there Silica, he's murderous," the pink highlights girl laughed to the smaller brunette she was currently holding bridal style, "and I don't want my sweet little sister to get stuck in detention because I'm an idiot apparently!"

"What?! Rika! You did that prank? The one I could see outside as the window broke under the foam's pressure?!" The girl squealed in shock, "that's overkill, even for you!"

"Eh," she shrugged while the short blonde near her was whining about being let go by her sister, "I miscalulated cause I was out really late, and it'll be fine, Argo will just sweep it under the rug, right Argo?"

"Yeah, but only if my sis will let me go!" The short blonde whined in complaint but still performed a brilliant kick flip despite having someone holding onto her hood as they shot past him.

"I will if you would return the phone to the teacher- Wait!" she cut herself off and Kirito's eyes widened.

He hadn't noticed the quiet one, who wasn't looking up and was going straight at him.

"Shino-!"

Too late, the girl lagging behind, obviously working on something, snapped her head up, only for her and Kirito's eyes to widen moments before she had slammed hard into him. The board beneath her feet flew into the air and dissolved as she fell backward straight to the ground while Eugeo hastily stopped Kirito from falling backward himself.

The poor girl seemed to have hit her head against the floor, since she was looking really dizzy from her spot sprawled on the floor and stayed stunned lying on the floor while Alice winced and the girl with pink highlights was running toward her.

"Shino! Oh god, get up-"

"Got you now, Asada!" The teacher who had been following them screeched to a halt and grabbed the semi-concious girl by the wrist, not that the girl really reacted much beyond squinting and growling at him in muttered curses under her breath. "That's a detention for you young lady! And you too, young man!" he snapped at Kirito and he recoiled.

Seriously?!

"For nearly knocking out another student!"

Oh.

So here he was, in the detention hall with a girl nursing the back of her head and scowling into her desk. She looked about as prickly as anyone could get in this moment and part of Kirito didn't blame her. Not while she was pinching the bridge of her nose with her broken glasses resting on her desk and her other hand was gingerly touching the back of her head where her head had struck the ground.

He… wasn't sure he wanted to try and talk to her. They weren't required to be quiet or alone, as he had been told by the teacher with irritation, like something was protecting this detention from actually being a serious detention where he had to be silent and not do anything or write an explanation of what happened.

This situation was so bizarre that he really had no idea what was going on. Which was why he had pulled out his phone with the intent to text Alice. Yet to his surprise, the teacher just scowled but didn't tell him off for taking out his phone.

So he took it as his approval.

Blackie: Er, are detentions this lax all of the time?

FlowerStorm: Is the security camera on?

Kirito took a quick glance at the security camera, which he could see the lens contracting and expanding as it focused and on him.

Blackie: Yeah, it's even looking at me, y?

FlowerStorm: That's Argo.

Argo? Like Argo the Rat? The author of MMO today and half seriously known as the media queen herself?

FlowerStorm: Yes, Argo the Rat. Eugeo said you seemed suspicious so I guessed you doubted me.

FlowerStorm: Argo's the short blonde you saw earlier being dragged by her sister.

FlowerStorm: either way, just ignore her right now. She'll be texting you at some point today anyway. Just know that the detention you're in is only called a detention but it can't be enforced cause of Argo's influence.

Kirito's eyes widened. Argo the Rat was at this school? Was she running it or something?

Blackie: Is she running the school?

FlowerStorm: You're not blind Kirito, you've seen the media, if Argo wants something portrayed correctly, or if she wants something, she makes it happen whether it's fully legal or not. So long as the information is true, factual, and she's not lying in any way shape or form.

FlowerStorm: The girl's a con artist. You learn pretty quick here, Kirito that she makes her and her friends untouchable.

Blackie: Are you one of her friends?

FlowerStorm: No, but she finds me interesting so she protects me too, just not to the same extent. Just talk to her when she messages you, she'll decide if you're interesting enough or not.

FlowerStorm: and since she's dating a computer nerd herself, you'll be fine. Oh, and mention that you're a twin.

Kirito's eyebrows furrowed.

Blackie: wtf? Why?

FlowerStorm: because she's one too Kirito. But I didn't say anything since she's taken, literally, by two people.

Kirito rubbed at his forehead, this school was beginning to confuse the hell out of him. First he nearly knocked out a girl in the entryway. Second, he's been thrown into the most lax detention he had ever seen. Third, he found that Argo the Rat of all people went to his school; and fourth, he found out that she was a twin but she was taken by multiple partners.

Fantastic. He had no shot here.

The door opening lifted his attention from his phone to the door where the brunette with pink highlights from earlier was cautiously poking her head into the room, rather tentative for the fact that this was a 'fake' detention.

The teacher seemed to grit their teeth unlike their coworker who merely turned the page in their book and ignored the other girl's arrival completely.

Shino grumbled but sighed and gestured subtly for the girl to come in without looking, even if it looked like she was pretty irritated with her.

The highlight girl quickly trotted down the rows of seats till she was standing beside the other girl's desk. She rummaged through her bag and pulled out a glasses case, looking rather sheepish as she did so.

"I'll fix your glasses tonight," she murmured apologetically and Kirito awkwardly turned his head away to give the duo a bit more privacy as the Shino girl shot him an irritated glare.

She was probably still mad at him for knocking her down and narrowly avoiding knocking her out for that matter.

"You better," Shino sighed toward the other girl and there was the sound of a glasses case opening before her companion spoke in turn, sounding rather sheepish and apologetic.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to let you smash into him…"

Kirito's phone vibrating distracted him from their conversation.

?: That was a pretty crazy entrance to da school, Kirito Kirigaya

He could only assume this was Argo.

Kirito: I'm a tech geek with a computer background, I was distracted by the hovershoes since I've never used one before.

Kirito: who's this?

?: Your senpai~

Kirito: I'm a second year, I have a lot of those.

?: True, True~ Alright fine,

?: Name's Argo, or at least that's the name you're gonna get out of me without telling me something interesting.

Kirito: Er, I'm a twin? I have a twin brother Eugeo who's a crazy good artist?

Argo: Fair enough, I'll have to get Alice back for telling you how to convince me ;)

Argo: Akira Argo Yuuki, third year with my twin sis A-chan.

Kirito: That's your name? Really?

Argo: You don't call a lady's name dumb, Kiri-boi

Argo: Especially one who can easily keep that detention of yours going as long as they want~

Kirito straightened up, she had his attention.

Argo: Good boy~ Just so you know, my first name means wisdom, so it's pretty fittin unlike you, 'valley of somethin'

Kirito: Hey! My name's fine, okay? Geez, no need to judge it so harshly.

Kirito: But… Did you say you can adjust how much time is left in this thing?

Argo: Mhmm, just have to waltz in

Argo: But I'm not gonna till ya apologize to Shiichi and I decide you're interestin enough

Argo: So good luck, don't do anything I wouldn't do~

Fuck.

Seriously? He was going to be in here until he made things right with the angry girl in the desk next to him and until Argo found him interesting enough?

How the hell was he going to do that?

Kirito glanced over at the other desk, which had a much different situation going on now, which he had missed entirely during his conversation with Argo.

The highlight girl was sitting in a chair right next to the injured ravenette's and looked pretty comfortable there. Sitting there with her with Shino's head resting on her shoulder in an exhausted fashion while spinning a penlight around her fingers with the arm resting across the back of the other girl's chair. He could hear the tapping of something plastic against the desk periodically and could see the smallest bit of what looked like a rubix cube? Which was confirmed when the brunette with pink highlights brought the cube up toward her fase. Examining what pattern the colored cubes were in in the current moment while the other girl-

Wait, this Shino girl had an optik. Which weren't out for public use and even the military and other national organizations didn't have access to it with how easily it could be put in the wrong hands.

It was glowing solidly, meaning that she was in VR right now while living through the boredom of this "detention," but Kirito was focused on other things.

If she had it then she had to know the inventors, right? And when he looked up a little higher and glanced at the brunette's face, he saw another optik, though hers was teal and was shield shaped. Whereas Shino's was pink in the shape of a bullet.

Though… Now that he had enough time to properly look at her, he recognized the girl with pink highlights in her brown hair.

The fluffy brown curls with highlights of pink on the underside, brown eyes, freckles, rather friendly features, the almost lab coat like simple unbuttoned white button down over her shirt, all of those together were icons for a particular person.

Kirito almost choked.

She had to be the daughter of the CEO and founder of the Shinozaki Corperation and was their lead innovator, making the girl next to him the creator of the optik.

Meaning that she was Rika Shinozaki, a high school age top tier engineer.

Since he was seeing her sharing a seat with the other girl and worriedly checking over her head, plus how he had heard the other girl's name in different parts, the other girl had to be Shino Asada. The actual coder and software engineer that made the actual software of the groundbreaking device alongside Rika's girlfriend.

Wow, Alice hadn't been kidding when she had said that this school was full of prodigies like her, him, and Eugeo.

Argo the Rat, Rika Shinozaki, Shino Asada, who else was here?

He had to look into their connections later, just to make sure that he had an idea of everyone that could be within that large friend group that he had seen earlier before he had been dragged to detention once Shino had fully regained consciousness.

Wait…

Oh god, he had almost knocked out the software engineer of the optik and Rika Shinozaki's girlfriend…

The sound of his choking on the realization got the brunette's attention, and Rika turned her head slightly to look over at him. Those brown eyes were a bit confused and mildly concerned, before they filled with amusement and he could see her smirk around Shino's head. Though it was hidden a moment later as she obscured the smirk by pressing her lips to her injured girlfriend's head.

Shino however shifted her muted silver eyes from something only she could see and side eyed him. "What? Have something to say?" she drawled flatly as she lifted her head and straightened up properly. Her optik blinking a couple times before it's light dimmed slightly, meaning she wasn't using it right now.

"Give him a sec, I think I starstruck him," Rika teased with a smirk, completely unphased by his surprise. "Oh at least one of us did~"

Shino rolled her eyes and propped her chin up in her hand. Before idly typing something on her laptop, making the thing hum to life since it had gone to sleep soon after Shino had sat down. "I hate new students."

"First off, that was rude," Kirito defended himself, "and second, I was just surprised, I'm a computer specialist, namely VR builder, so the optik's not just a cool device or anything. It's the future of VR gaming, so excuse me for being surprised at seeing the inventors, sheesh."

"Hey, another computer nerd lik you and Caylee, Shi-Shi," Rika joked and lightly nudged her girlfriend. "That's a lot of computer nerds~"

"Caylee's a hacker," Shino deadpanned, "and works with Asuna and Kuroshiro. I'm an engineer and invent things, bringing a shell to life, Rika."

"I know, I'm just messing with you," Rika hummed casually and put down the rubix cube while Shino grunted and rolled her eyes. The brunette then swapped her penlight to her other hand and offered Kirito her hand in a handshake, "you already know who I am so I won't repeat that, but I'm a third year, and Shino's in your year so you'll probably be classmates."

"Great, because I want to be classmates with the boy who nearly made me crack my head open," Shino grumbled and turned her head away from him.

Kirito shot her a glare and took Rika's hand before introducing himself, "I'm Kirito Kirigaya, just joined the school with my twin brother."

"Welcome to the coolest school in the country," Rika said with a grin and shook his hand with more strength than he had expected of an engineer, mechanical or not. Though he didn't really get time to think about it since the door swung open and a younger girl came rushing in.

"Sis!" the smaller brunette ran into the classroom with her hair in pigtails while a bird, a falcon of sorts, was sitting calmly on her shoulder throughout the whole thing. "You didn't let her doze off till I saw her, right?"

"Relax, Silica," Rika soothed the younger girl with a smile and gestured to Shino, "she's been awake the whole time plus I checked for a concussion, okay?" she ruffled the girl's hair despite her whine and her bird's squawk while Kirito looked at the door.

Where a short blonde with a yellow hooded jacket was leaning against the door jam with a smirk on her face, hazel green eyes side eyeing Kirito in particular with a smirk around the white stick of a sucker.

That must've be Argo, meaning he had passed her test of sorts. Thank god.

"Whatcha think, Argo?" Rika confirmed his suspicion of the other girl's identity and gave the girl a grin, "seems cool to me, even if Shi-Shi thinks otherwise."

"I never said that, I just said that he's an idiot," Shino sighed. "That doesn't mean he's not interesting enough to pass Argo's 'entrance test,' I just have no interest in interacting with him for a while."

"Sides in GGO, ya mean," Argo smirked and Kirito's eyes widened, "'ight, S-i-non?"

Wait, what?!