When Hidaka arrived at the Student Council room, the assistant principle, Awashima Seri was there.
"Great, now I can say this only once." She cleared her throat as Hidaka walked up to Akiyama and stood next to him. "Look, I've been hearing about the trouble you all have been causing. I never expected members of the student council club to do this. If this keeps up you all will suffer the consequences."
"I do apologize." Akiyama bowed lightly.
"I hope you will get your fellow club members under control." With that said, she took her leave. The member's bathe in the silence until Akiyama sighed. Fuse wasn't looking at Akiyama.
"So why did you both get into a fight with the Minato twins?" Benzai asked. Fuse tensed up, refusing to look in Benzai's direction.
"It wasn't like that." Hidaka waved his hands. "Those twins started messing with Fuse and his friend first."
"I see…"
"Besides, one of them grabbed Fuse by the collar. Why are we the only ones getting in trouble?" Hidaka said.
"Principle Awashima is going after them too." Akiyama said. He looked over at Fuse and places a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright Fuse."
No response.
"Fuse?"
"I'm sorry… I didn't think about how my actions would affect the club."
"Ah, don't worry about that." Akiyama chuckled. "I'm just glad you're safe."
Fuse slowly turned around to face Akiyama. "You really aren't mad at me?"
"Of course I'm not." Akiyama smiled lightly and just like an infection, Fuse smiled too.
"Now that's out of the way, what's the game plan for today?" trying to bring back the joyful atmosphere, Hidaka asked about the jobs for the day. Benzai caught on to what Hidaka was doing and played along.
"We had nothing planned for today. After homecoming, it usually mellow until the dance in December." Benzai explained.
"Cool! Them I'm gonna go to basketball practice." Hidaka announced and hurried out of the room.
"The practice matches are coming up aren't they?" Akiyama murmured. Since Hidaka was gone his thoughts couldn't be confirmed.
At basketball practice, everyone was surprised at Hidaka arrival. They were all used to his now sporadic appearances that they all wondered what kept him going. Many believed it to be his spirit for the game. That was true for Hidaka and really shown on the field when he was playing. He was always the one to cheer up his teammates when they were down. Even when they lost a game, he was always cheerful, encouraging his teammates to work hard to win the next game. Thankfully, the coach loved Hidaka's spirit; because he put the tall boy through torment. Extra warm-up drills before Hidaka could even look at the black and orange sphere.
Once practice was over, Hidaka was hurting all over. He couldn't wait to get to his dorm and take a nice hot bath to ease the pain of his aching muscles. The halls were empty. The main school building was going to close down soon. Students were not allowed to be in the building during that time. Only the teachers have access.
Upon entering his dorm room Goto greeted him. "Welcome back trouble maker."
"Ugh, so you heard." Hidaka rolled his eyes. He was getting sick of hearing about the incident in the café. "I was defending an underclassman."
Goto sighed. There was no stopping Hidaka when it came to helping those younger than him.
-1st Year Boys Dorm-
Fuse and Enomoto were lounging around in the lobby when someone came up to them and gave Fuse a letter. Before they could question the person, they ran off. The duo returned to their dorm room to open it up. Fuse silently read through it.
"What does it say?" Enomoto asked.
"It's an invitation, to fight." Fuse said. "So those two twins want to settle this."
"Daiki you shouldn't do this." Enomoto just wanted this situation to go away. He didn't want Fuse to fight and get in trouble. They were already reprimanded today for what happened in the café.
"I'm not gonna let their giant superficial egos push us around!" Fuse crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it in the mini trashcan near the desk. "If they want a fight, I'll give it to them!"
Fuse stormed into the bathroom that was standard with every dorm room. Enomoto only hoped that a nice shower would help Fuse think about his future actions. He also took the chance to grab the letter out from the trash to read it himself. He tucked it into one of his binders for safe keeping, knowing he will have to use it later in time.
-3rd Year Boys Dorm-
In the lobby of the dorm, Akiyama and Benzai were just now entering the building. They stayed behind in the student council room to finish up their homework. Afterwards they went to kendo practice. The members of the kendo team let them practice. But they don't play in games. The duo would be far too exhausted with student council activities to be at their peck to play an actual game. It would give the team two extra people to practice with and Akiyama and Benzai will learn about the way of kendo. It was a win for both sides.
As they walked through the lobby, they felt a pair of eyes following them. It didn't take long to figure it out which it was emitting such a glare.
"Don't you two have something better to do?" Benzai shot a look at the twins who were sitting on the couch near the window.
The twins said nothing at Benzai's remark. Akiyama urged him to leave them alone. But Benzai wasn't finished. "And if you could stop bothering our underclassmen that would be great too."
"So that guy in the café is with your pathetic club." Hayato said. "Tell him to learn his place."
Benzai was getting fed up with this. It's their attitude that makes the underclassmen afraid of the upperclassmen. It doesn't help that other 3rd year students follow this mindset along with some of the 2nd years. But these two are the worst when it comes to that. They literally order student around in some cases. The twins used to rule the school along with their leader Jin. They had another friend name Zenjou, but he transferred schools. It was believed that once Jin skipped 2nd year and graduated early that the twins reign would weaken. Sadly that was not the case.
"That guy needs to learn that that he has no authority over us 3rd years. What we say is law." Akito said. "That Hidaka has some nerve stepping in when we were teaching him a lesson. The nerve of him."
"Hidaka was right to step in." Akiyama said.
"What is this even about?" Benzai wanted to know why they were taking it this far.
"It's about our pride as upperclassmen." Hayato said. "We are the eldest and they have no right to look down on us. Who do you think gives them the opportunities to join clubs and sports teams, the third years. The second years don't even get that power."
"So it's all about power and control." Benzai murmured. "I'll never understand why our class is like this."
"Leave Hidaka and the other student alone. That is final!" Akiyama said.
Feeling anger welling up inside, Akiyama dislodged himself from the confrontation as did Benzai. The two returned to their dorm with a newfound headache. Akiyama was worried for the future; there was this bad feeling in the pit of his stomach that he couldn't shake off. Things were going to happen. And they weren't good things.