Sweat was running down his back, leaving a long icy trail. His chest was wrapped in an iron grip, and helicopter blades were desperately trying to dig themselves a passage out of his stomach. His legs could barely carry him, and wouldn't even think of walking. His father's hand on his shoulder was the only thing reminding him of moving in the noisy corridor, behind the dark skinned woman.

He wasn't scared.

He was terrified.

He hadn't chosen to be here. If he had any say in it, he would have become a hermit and hid in the depths of the Chinese countryside for the rest of his life. He did not want this school. He didn't not want those classmates. He was a real danger for everyone, and they wanted him to live among a hundred potential victims. Best. Idea. Ever. It was about as wise as giving a kindergartener an armed grenade.

He didn't know what his parents had believed to think even one second that coming here would solve his "problem". For now, all he hoped was that the kitchen only used electricity. That nobody would light a candle or a fireplace in his presence. And that he'd remember not to use the lighter he preciously kept in his pocket.

He vaguely heard the young woman speak with his parents before they left. They looked a little worried, but mostly relieved. Probably because they could finally get away from their freak of a son. He felt anger rising. He bit his tongue, tried to calm down. Stay zen. He couldn't take it out on them for being scared of him. He was dangerous, it was normal to be afraid.

She smiled at him kindly before turning around and leaving. She had other kids to greet. He waited until she disappeared around the corner to open the door to his new bedroom.

His blood froze cold when he realized there were two beds, and someone was currently reading, lying on one of them. A roommate? Really?

It was a pale giant with cinder hair. The bed looked almost too small for him. He was wearing the school's uniform with a scarf. This imposing appearance was completely contrasting with the tiny little book he was holding delicately in his hands. The title was Russian but the cover was decorated with a beautiful drawing of a bird with long burning feathers.

The giant looked up and stuck his purple gaze into his brown eyes. A small content smile was settled on his lips and didn't seem to want to leave anytime soon. "Hi!" he said as he put his book down.

He stood up and stretched. Now Yao had to look up to see his face. High up. It wouldn't be as intimidating if the Russian wasn't as large and if his little smile wasn't this creepy. Yao had had to deal with big guys like him but this one had something scarier, like some sort of dark aura surrounding him. It was fascinating in some way. "You are my new roommate, da?" he said like nothing was wrong.

Yao nodded. He wasn't going to show he was afraid. At least, now he could focus on him rather than on his fear of screwing up during class. The giant had a small laugh that sounded too innocent for his strong built.

"I hope we'll be very good friends! I'm Ivan, you?"

"Yao."

His head tilted to the side, without losing his smile. "Yao sounds nice." He laughed again. It sounded like the amused giggle of a child noticing their hamster is trying to leave its cage. "It sounds like a cry of joy," he said softly. "Yao! Yao! Like a party!"

"Um… Thanks?"

"You're welcome."

Yao was growing more and more awkward. The talk sounded strange. The voice of the giant named Ivan was too light, too delicate, too childish. And cute as hell. But it didn't fit the body it belonged to.

Ivan walked up to him and held his hand out. For a handshake, occidental tradition. Slightly hesitant, Yao shook it. His skin was strangely cold, in spite of the warmth of the room. The Russian frowned worriedly. "You're hot."

"What?"

"I mean you look like you have a temperature."

"Oh… No, really, I'm fine."

"Ufufu, good!"

They let go but the cold stayed for a few moments inside Yao's palm. Ivan was staring attentively behind his innocent face. It was impossible to know what was hidden under his calm little smile. "You are very, very cute, Yao-Yao," he said softly.

Yao chocked. "What?"

"I said you were very cute," he said again, calmly. He walked forth and caught his chin firmly. His smile grew more devilish as he steadily brought their two faces closer. "Say… Would you like to be one with me?"

"Wh… I… N…"

Yao was doing his best but he couldn't pronounce a single word. His breathing picked up, and so did his heart as if it was trying to climb up his throat. His head started to spin slightly and he felt a hot flash flooding him as Ivan's icy hands laid upon his cheeks. His face was growing closer still. He was going to kiss him. "I'm… I'm not feeling very good," he said, retreating.

Surprised, Ivan stood back and his concerned face appeared again. "Yao-Yao has a fever after all!"

"I… No… I… I'm just hot… I just need some fresh air…" Yao turned around and hurried out. He needed to get out of here. Fast. He felt like it was important. He was going to locked himself up in the bathroom, wait it out…

Suddenly, his legs refused to obey. They froze as he was about to walk out the door. Horrified, he looked down, only to find out his feet were trapped in two ice chunks stuck to the floor. He pulled and pulled and pulled but they wouldn't budge.

Ivan closed in behind him and laid his hand on his shoulders, gently. "No, my Yao-Yao won't run away this time…" whispered his sweet voice, drawing shivers out of the Chinese boy. Petrified, Yao watched as he placed himself in front of him with his toxic little smile. "If you are hot, Yao-Yao, why don't you take some of your clothes off?"

"No! No, no stop! Qǐng!"

"What is it? Is my Yao-Yao hiding something from me?" His voice was still giving him shivers, filling him with terror and some other feeling he couldn't really describe. Yao was usually brave. But right now, he was literally frozen in place as Ivan slowly took away every piece of fabric covering him. "Yao-Yao is mine, right? So Yao-Yao shouldn't hide anything from me!"

No! No, he couldn't see him! He should never see him like this! No, this was wrong! He couldn't see this! No way! No! No!

Yao's eyes shot open. He sat up. The room was dark, except for the time glowing red on the radio. Ivan shifted in the other bed, probably dreaming about sunflowers and vodka.

A dream. Just a dream.

He laid back down, hugging close his Shinatty-chan. But he couldn't go back to sleep.

Even in his dreams, that damn Russian should never, ever, ever find out about his stupid secret.

The PCD classroom was quite peculiar. As large as a small gymnasium, it was separated from the rest of the building by the playground's length. To get in, you had to cross two iron doors separated by an airlock. Just what you needed to feel awkward while entering.

The lessons used to happen in a normal classroom, inside the building. But several accidents, including but not limited to a fire, a flood and the emission of a smell of rotten egg in the entire building for several hours had convinced the principle it was necessary to take precaution measures. Just to make sure not everyone would die because someone sneezed at the wrong moment.

The floor was made of light wood that sounded like it was hollow when one stepped on it. "Like a dance studio," Lily shyly commented. The ceiling was high and, like a gymnasium, showed the girders carrying the roof. Tables and chairs were cast against the walls instead of being arranged in the middle as they would be for any kind of lesson. A door in the far left opened on a stockroom full of various objects, from simple paper sheets to baseball bats. There was also half a dozen fire extinguishers in a corner. Another door, opposite to the first one, led to a small projection room.

The first years were waiting, wearing the sportswear Luna had given them when they came in. Mei and Faustina were thoroughly biting their painted nails while Vash was talking his sister out of doing the same thing. Kiku was playing statues again, the Italian twins were getting rid of the stress by talking loudly with extensive gestures to anyone who'd listen, Feliks seemed like he was daydreaming, just like Tino whose arm Peter didn't want to let go of. Let's just say they were nervous.

Tension reached its peak when Luna came back from the dressing room, a file in hand. With a large smile, she gave them small sheets of paper and pens.

"Surname, first name, age and power if you know it. Oh, and everything I'd need to know if you have health issues. And please hurry."

Kiku, Vash and Peter started right away. The other kids shared incredulous looks. Seriously, even in a class about supernatural powers, they had to fill in information papers? According to Luna's serious look, they did.

"Like, that's lame…" Feliks sighed.

And for the first time, everyone agreed.

Eventually all the papers were done and given back to Luna. The young woman suddenly had a very scary smile and walked to the center of the room. "Good, now, you're going to run ten laps around the room! No slacking off! Then you'll do one sprinting, another one sidestepped, one heels high and one knees high. And when you're done, get in the middle so you can stretch, alright? Let's go!"

This time, the look they shared was stunned. But Luna didn't give anybody any time to whine and drilled their eardrums with a whistle she seemingly pulled out of thin air.

They started moving, with more or less enthusiasm. Kiku, as a student paragon, was doing his best and running like he was at the Olympics. At least for the first few seconds, for his mishandled body snapped at him and made him slow down. Tino looked like he had chosen to mother Peter and was encouraging him and helping him to keep up, which he managed pretty well. What the younger boy didn't have physically, he had in will. As for Vash, he was treating Lily like a porcelain doll and managed to encourage her while asking every three seconds if she needed to rest. Romano decided he wanted to look manly and tried to run in a cool way in front of Mei and Faustina, but he tripped and ate the floor. When he got back up, pouting as red as a tomato, the two girls giggled and said he was "just so cute", which achieved to make him depressed. And Feliks and Feliciano had started talking about pasta, fashion and ponies when Luna chased them with her whistle to force them to go faster.

It wasn't even a warm-up. Luna was pushing them to their limits, making them run as much as possible. When she'd notice one wasn't about to collapse from exhaustion, she'd give them one more lap to finish them. Once they were done, exhausted, extenuated, dead to the world, the teenagers fell to the ground to stretch as Luna read their papers. Apparently, most of them had no idea what they could do. That wasn't helping, but at least the class would be fun.

"Alright everyone! Are you ready to start?" It was dead silent in the room. The few students still alive glared at her. A smirk showed up on her lips. Of course they didn't like it, but tiring them physically was the best way to wake up their capacities, while keeping them easy to control. The idea was to have a clear mind to focus on one thing at a time. "Well it looks good… We're making three groups. Kiku, Peter and Faustina, you're going in the corner by the main entrance. Feliks, Mei, Vash and Lily, go sit down by the projection room. Tino, Lovino, Feliciano, go wait for me by the stockroom."

The kids obeyed, too tired to protest. Tino almost had to carry the Italian twins all by himself. The two brothers looked like they were going to pass out.

Kiku, Peter and Faustina opened wide eyes when their teacher came back from the stock room with a large wheeled mirror and paper sheets. Luna caught her breath before explaining. "You three already know your own capacities. Looking younger, giving life to origamis and enter mirrors," she said, pointing at each of them.

The two boys gave the young girl an impressed look, which made her blush a little.

"You've found out about those capacities by accident, from intense emotions," Luna continued like it was no big deal. "That's the first step. Now, your goal will be to learn to use your power intentionally, which means without any outside disturbance. Questions?"

No one spoke.

"Perfect. Kiku, come here."

She sat the Japanese boy at a table and gave him a white paper sheet. "You are going to make an origami. Preferably something easy to animate, like an animal. Then you'll try to give it life through visualization. Can you do that?

"Uh… I think I c…"

"Good. Get to it." She left him with the paper, dumbfounded. Slowly, the Japanese boy tried to stay calm and started to carefully fold the paper into a crane.

After she left Faustina with her hands on the mirror's surface, trying to remember how to get in, Luna had to face Peter's enthusiasm as he looked up at her with eyes filled with hope. She knelt to his level, uneasy.

"Er… Peter? Listen… Your capacity is a bit peculiar so I'd rather if we worked on it together later. Is that alright?" At the little boy's disappointed face, she quickly added: "But I'd like you to help with the others for now. You'll be my assistant, how does that sound?" He nodded and forced a small smile. She felt sorry for him. She knew how much he wanted to get his old appearance back.

Suddenly, she had an idea. She called Lily and gave Peter a keychain. "Peter, I'd like you to bring Lily to the school library. Take the most interesting book you can find. When you're done, don't forget to close the door. Oh, and then, please go to the biology lab and ask Mr. Bondvik for a mouse."

"A what?"

"A mouse. You know, the little animal that has a long tail and likes cheese. Ask him for one. And specify that it has to be alive, alright? And if you could hurry, it would be perfect."

Peter and Lily shared a stunned looked before obeying.

Luna smiled as they left. Then she looked at Feliks, Mei and Vash and thought for a little while…

"DVDs?"

Luna happily nodded. The three students were standing in the projection room, unsure. Smaller, it looked a little more like a classroom. There was a projection screen in front of the tables, right above a DVD player already on. They heard Luna whine about "idiots who never turn the devices off after using them" as she slipped the first disk into the player.

"Wow, that's, like, awesome! We're gonna watch movies?" Feliks exclaimed as he sat on one of the desks.

Luna had an amused chuckle but didn't answer. Vash and Mei sat down as well, not as excited as their classmate. Luna turned the projector on, the light off and around after asking them to tell her if anything weird happened.

The three kids shared a look and focused on the movie.

Ten minutes later, terrified screams raised from the little room as the students watched the horror movie the teacher was showing them.

Now came the most difficult part. Luna headed towards Tino and the Italian twins who looked a little better. She gave them a shimmering smile as she walked to them.

"So, who wants to go first?" she chirped.

Tino immediately knew something was up and stepped back. Lovino also guessed what was going on and hid behind the Finnish boy. As for Feliciano…

"Ve! Sure, I do! What are we going to do? Pasta? Pasta sounds good!"

The three students were each tasked with something: Feliciano had to run around the room without stopping, Tino had to befriend the adorable mouse Peter and Lily had brought back, and Lovino just had to jump on one spot. Luna had then left, pretending she had to go get something.

After a few minutes, all three of them had stopped doing the exercises they deemed pointless. And since Luna wasn't back yet, they started chatting.

After about fifteen minutes of talking, they started to worry about their teacher being gone for so long.

The bell rang the end of the first hour, but still no teacher around. Kiku and Faustina were still focused on their exercises and the others were enjoying their movie with panicked screams. Peter was listening as Lily read her book out loud, in a corner.

After another half-hour of waiting, the Italians and the Finnish boy wanted to go see what was taking Luna so long, when suddenly everything went black.

Everything.

Even the windows that should have let some of the morning sunlight in were suddenly dark. Total darkness. The students could have sworn they had suddenly gone blind. Tino, Feliciano, Lovino, Lily, Peter and Faustina screamed as one. Kiku stayed calm, though.

The light slowly came back until the kids were surrounded by purplish darkness that reminded them of a haunted house. Lovino felt like he had to yell "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!" just so he could express a little bit of his fear as his twin just clung to him, crying and calling for help.

Suddenly, red light exploded in the entrance, and a dark, menacing silhouette emerged from it. It had claws longer than Wolverine's, and as if that wasn't enough, it had a large butcher knife in each hand. Its face was hidden under a slenderman white mask and it wore some sort of long coat hiding its body entirely. It didn't let the student stare at it any longer and dashed towards the twins.

Lovino hid behind the first thing that could serve as a shield, which was a shaking Tino with a mouse in his hands. As for Feliciano, he ran away immediately. The thing followed him with heavy footsteps and terrible roars. Completely panicked, he rushed to the door which happened to be locked. Terrified, he started to run again, the monster following him.

As the creature was about the catch him and he thought he was about to die, probably more from asphyxia than from bloody murder committed by a killer monster, he was surprised when his legs started moving even faster without tiring him more. He didn't stop to ask why, though, and kept running faster and faster to try and get away from this menacing thing.

Realizing its target was fleeing, the creature stopped and turned to Tino and Lovino with a menacing glare. Paralyzed with fear, the two teenagers could only walk back against the wall as the monster closed in. Tino whispered a barely audible "help".

He had only just said this word when his mouse jumped from his hands and onto the masked monster's face to burry its teeth in its skin.

The thing let out a terribly feminine cry and fell over.

"Ouch! Ouchie! Ok, ok! Fine, I give up! Ouch, Tino, call your mouse back!"

The light came back immediately and everyone could see, instead of the hideous creature… Miss Luna Chrones, dressed in a long black coat, cardboard claws and plastic knives, fighting with a rodent that was trying to eat her face. A white hood had fallen to the ground. Everybody stared, stupefied.

"No really, get that thing off me, please!"

They needed a few minutes to strip their teacher from her horror show outfit. Back in her usual clothes, it was hard to believe it was the same monster who attacked them earlier. Apart for the teeth marks on her face, it was like she never even left.

"Uh… So, ma'am? Would you tell us why you did that?" Faustina asked, fists on her hips and angry faced, obviously upset.

"Ahaha, you didn't like it?" the dark skinned teacher said.

Silence.

"Uh… Ok…" She cleared her throat slightly and stretched her back before explaining with a clear voice. "It is difficult, nearly impossible, to trigger consciously the first manifestation of your power. Capacities usually stay dormant until puberty and only manifest, in general, as a reaction to a powerful emotion."

"It's really just like the X-men, then," Peter commented.

"… So I tried to use the emotions most easy to generate: fright and surprise. Normally, we shouldn't need more than three sessions for the whole class to know what it can do. This was already nice results!"

"Uh, nothing really happened…" Lovino grumbled.

When she heard this, Luna smiled. Nobody dared to move when she walked up to a table, grabbed a weird device from it and came back fidgeting with the screen. "Feliciano," she called. The boy walked forth with a distracted "ve". "What a nice sprint you did when I almost caught you."

"Vehehe, you scared me, ma'am!

"Precisely. Look at the speed it saved."

Curious, the Italian boy took a look at the screen and tilted his head, unsure. "Ve… Sixty kilometers per hour… Is that good?"

"It's more than the world record of speed. No human being can run this fast." Then, when she saw Feliciano's still concerned face, she added: "Yes, it is good."

"Ve!"

"Besides, this was the first time, by accident. If you train, you'll be able to run even faster.

"So that's my power? ... I would have liked something that helps making pasta more."

Luna chuckled at his slight disappointment, and then turned to Tino as he cuddled the mouse who tried to save his life. "Tino? Do you know why your mouse jumped on me earlier?"

"Uh… I think?" he said, hesitantly. "I asked for help and Aurajuusto…"

"Who?"

"Huh? Oh, that's its name, it sounds nice, doesn't it?" The Finnish boy smiled as he pointed at the mouse trying to climb his shirt.

"It is a nice name," Kiku said. "What does it mean?"

"Blue cheese!" the blond boy proudly said. No one dared to say it was weird. But they were thinking it really hard. "Anyway," Tino continued. "Aurajuusto felt I was in danger and protected me. Even if I'm not sure wh… Wait, that's my power? Being protected by little critters?"

"Well… Sort of? It works with other animals as well and…" Luna stopped, as the Finnish wasn't listening, all too glad about his capacity. With a sigh, she turned to the last kid in the group, which was none other than the sulking Lovino a few feet away. "However, I am disappointed your power didn't manifest," she said. "But I suppose we should play more on surprise for this."

"Ha! Good luck with that!" the boy mocked.

"Why?"

"I'm never surprised! You can ask Feli, he tries all the time and it never works!"

"Ve… You kinda jumped pretty hard, last time, fratello."

"Shut up, bastard, that's not because I was surprised, that's because… Whatever! I just don't get…"

"SURPRIIIIIIIISE!"

Antonio had been waiting in front of the PCD room for a while now. Luna had come earlier, in the middle of a chemistry lesson, and asked him to help her with what she called an "emergency". Well, he was bored right now, and he didn't know why he should stay and wait when he was done with what she asked him to do.

He opened the first door, and then the second one, pretty silently. Back in her usual clothes, Luna was explaining something to the students who listened attentively. Well, she probably didn't need him anymo… He spotted Lovino among the others and a little smirk showed up on his lips. He tried to get closer to the group without being noticed by his target.

Just a little joke, he could do that, right? After all, the Italian boy wasn't going to hold a grudge against him for this, right? Besides, he was so cute when he was angry, he looked like a big ripe tomato! Yes, tomatoes are very cute. Especially the ones that yell at you while growing even redder… Wait, tomatoes didn't do this. Oh well, whatever, he was almost there!

He heard Lovino bragging about never being surprised was he reduced the distance, as slow as a spy turtle. That was probably very cute as well, a spy turtle that is. He would have said a ninja turtle, but copyrights, besides "spy" sounds better. What was he thinking about again? Oh, right, it was fun seeing how proud the Italian boy was under his frail appearance. And it made tricking him all the more appealing.

He sneaked behind the brown boy as silently as possible and, after making sure he hadn't noticed him, he pinched his hips and yelled. "SURPRIIIIIIIISE!"

The joke worked better than expected. Lovino jumped up to the ceiling.

Literally.

One moment he had his feet on the ground. The next, he was flying fifteen feet above them and screaming. And he reflexively grabbed a girder holding the roof.

Antonio froze for a second. Then he turned to the teacher and said with a concerned face: "Oops?"

Everything was that idiot's fault! Everything! He'd throw his fist into that son of a bitch's face if he could let go of that girder! But for now he didn't know what he should do. He had wrapped all of his limbs around it and was holding on with desperation. Don't look down, he thought. He knew all too well what would happen if he did. Everything would start to spin around him, he would close his eyes and start screaming and crying in spite of his Italian pride! It wasn't fair! Why did he have to be scared of heights?

And the other guy saying "oops"… Not but really. You say "oops" when you step on someone's foot, when you drop something at the grocery store, or when you start to flirt with a girl before realizing it's not a girl. But right now, "oops" was hardly appropriate. Because he was just showing how dumb he was and getting people into trouble! He heard Luna calling him from down below. "Lovino, are you alright?"

"Do I look alright, damn it? Help me the fuck ou…" Fuck… He just looked down. He felt the void calling him, his hands slipping from the beam. Reflexively, he gripped it even harder and bit his lip not to scream. He didn't want to know how he managed to jump this high. All he wanted was to feel the ground under his feet. Suddenly, he felt something change. He couldn't tell if it came from him or his perch but… Impossible! His hands and legs were digging into the metal beam!

"Lovino! Don't panic! Try to calm down or you are going to…" He wasn't even listening, trying to catch himself as well as he could. But every time he grabbed the girder, his hands dug into it even faster. It wasn't even deforming, his limbs were literally going through the matter! He was growing more and more terrified, and the more afraid he was the faster his arms and legs were losing their tangibility.

Sort of understanding what was happening, Luna turned to Antonio, an urgent glow in her eyes. The Spanish boy's eyes widened with fear. "I can't! It's way too far, I…"

"Antonio, we don't have a choice!" the teacher urged.

"But I…"

"Do it!"

Since talking didn't seem to do any good, the brown haired boy closed his eyes and focused. First, nothing happened. Then a transparent form, sort of like a glass dome, appeared right under the Italian. Antonio tensed, unfamiliar with such performances. He opened an eye to check on the young boy he was trying to save. "Okay, Lovi, you can let go," he said between clenched teeth.

"Don't call me Lovi, you bast… CHIGIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" His hands just went through the beam and so did his legs. Antonio prepared for the collision but, instead of landing on his force field as he should have, the Italian boy went through it as well, as if there had been nothing there.

"¡Mierda!" Antonio dropped his focus and the dome disappeared. Only one solution now: he threw himself under the younger boy and caught him before he touched the ground. Well, actually, he tried to catch him and his body broke his fall. He felt a crack and a terrible pain when the Italian boy's body hit his.

Terrified, Lovino had closed his eyes and was only more surprised when he saw who he had landed on. He cried out and slapped the idiot crying from pain. "Why would you do that, dumbass?" he yelled, hopping mad.

Antonio didn't answer, and Lovino realized he had passed out. Concern overwhelmed him and he slapped him again, trying to wake him up. But as much as he yelled, hit, insulted him, he wouldn't open his eyes.

Around them, nobody dared to move, afraid of making the Italian even more angry. To everyone's surprise, it was Feliciano who gathered enough courage to go and pat his twin's shoulder. He turned around brutally but didn't do anything more. "Fratello…" Feliciano said softly. "You are going to hurt him if you keep hitting him."

Lovino didn't answer but didn't try to do it again. Luna chose this moment to escape her stupefaction. "Lesson dismissed! You are all going to help me bring Antonio and Lovino to the nursery!"

Lovino protested as the young woman held him under the armpits to help him up but repressed a pained whine: his right arm and leg had taken the whole impact and beautiful nearly black bruises where already spreading on them. He was surprised he hadn't felt them while abusing his savior.

His brother grabbed his healthy arm to help him as Kiku gently held the bruised one. The rest of the students helped Luna pick Antonio up and keep him in a horizontal position. Peter, too small, couldn't help anyone, so Luna called him and asked him to go find Raivis Galante, a second year student, in Math class. He immediately ran there as the students slowly carried the victims to the nursery.

"Hey, miss! Like, the movie's over and we totally flipped and it was, like, totally awe… Hey? Miss?... Like, they're totally gone!"

"Uh? But then what do we do?"

"Lily's not here either?! What the hell happened?"

"Well, maybe the lesson is, like, over?"

"…"

"…"

"So, what do we do?"

"You do whatever you want. I'm finding Lily."

"You know your sister is a big girl, right? She can take of hers… And there he goes… Boys…"

"Like, yeah…"

"But, aren't you a boy too?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Nothing…"