A new life, new friends and a new prison

by DylanMason210

Hachimitsu Academy. A prestigious institution that has remained as an all-girls school since its establisment, has finally allowed the first ten male students to set foot on it. When half of them cause a huge incident on school grounds, the lives of each male on Hachimitsu turns into a ride that none of them could have ever dream of.

2. Chapter 2: HADD

Hachimitsu's male population has arrived to the surprise and curiosity of its female students. But what will their presence mean for the school's future?

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights of any franchise presented here. All rights are in possession of Akira Hiramoto, Studio Fantasia and Hari Tokeino.

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Hachimitsu, Cafeteria

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"Even if I'm not alone on this, it's just as bad as I thought" Gekka couldn't help but curse in his head as he and Ryuichi walked through the cafeteria with their heads low, a slight shade of pink on their cheeks.

After arriving to the school, it didn't take long for the unusual group of five males and one female to part ways: After catching up to Rhett, he and Hagane went to the higher floors as the inexpressive boy, for one reason or another, seemed quite interested on watching the school's landscape from above. From her part, Torimi had quickly dragged Ryuichi off, saying that she wanted him to get acquaintent with the student body (everyone else knew that was an excuse to get him to talk with girls just so she could tease him about it though). And finally, Kurogane had to leave Gekka after receiving a phone call from the chairman (or so he claimed). That last one earned a raised brow from Gekka, but decided not to push the issue further.

Now, being by himself in this school was something Gekka knew would happen from time to time, but it didn't make it easier. Getting stares from the girls during the whole walk to the cafeteria was making him shrink in embarrassment, especially since none of them actually tried to actually speak to him. Just being observed from afar without any real interaction was even worse for him than actually trying to have a conversation with them.

So, after meeting Ryuichi on his way to the cafeteria (he said that Torimi had some things to talk with her friends, but that she would catch on to him in the cafeteria) he had hoped that being with him would at least make being surrounded by hundreds of highschool girls, who seemed quite curious at his presence, more tolerable or simply easier to ignore.

Unfortunately, Ryuichi was on the same boat as him. He had told him that, for some reason or another, the girls that Torimi tried to get him to talk to simply whispered among themselves without directly addressing him, just like they were doing right now. In the end, this attitude bored Torimi and she gave up trying to start a conversation between Ryuichi and the girls.

The stares they were getting from the girls got both of them to become self-conscious pretty fast, and not being able to find the other boys anywhere in the cafeteria only seemed to make them more anxious.

The girls didn´t seem to have any ill intentions however. They were not looking at them with either contempt or mockery. Instead, their eyes only denoted a mild curiosity by giving them a sideways glance, or amusement in the form of whispering and giggles.

Not that it made a difference to both boys. Not having a place to sit without being scrutinized by Hachimitsu's female population was certainly not a prospect that either of them felt comfortable with.

"Hey, Homura-san. Do you see any place where we can sit?" Ryuichi asked in a low voice.

"N-No. And I don't see the guys anywhere either"

Just as they were starting to think about just finding somewhere to eat on the stairs, a familiar head of red hair popped out from the far end of the cafeteria, a friendly smile on his face.

"Yoo! What's up?" Said Hagane, waving at them. As he stood from his seat so Ryuichi and Gekka could see him better, another boy with blue hair, which neither of them had met before, raised his head over the crowd of female students. Likely to see exactly who Hagane was calling.

Remembering his father's words about being 10 male students in Hachimitsu including him, Gekka quickly realized that, as of now, he had only met half of the school's male population. "Luckily the other boys are with them too"

As he and Ryuichi made their way across the cafeteria, the girls at the far end slowly seemed to lose interest on them as they slipped out of sight, which came as a relief for both socially anxious boys. But on the other hand, the other girls they passed by really took a chance to give them a quick glance, often accompanied with some quiet giggling and whispering.

While both Ryuichi and Gekka seemed to shrink under the scrutiny of the girls, Hagane seemed to handle it much better than them. Or simply didn't even notice it in the first place.

Finally arriving at the table, it was evident that most of Hachimitsu's male population had congregated on it.

On Hagane's side were him, Rhett (who seemed fixated on sketching something in his book) and two more boys.

Closer to Rhett was the one who had peeked over the heads of the girls to see who Hagane was speaking to. The boy had light blue hair that matched his eyes, and fairly normal (if somewhat handsome) features.

At his side was someone that both Ryuichi and Gekka, on looks alone, could easily relate to a delinquent: Slicked back blonde hair, no tie and having the first buttons of his shirt open. Regardless, neither of them commented on it, not wanting to immediately judge him for his looks alone.

Across the table were three more boys, all with rather 'peculiar' looks.

The boy to the left had a rather gangly appearance, with long black hair flowing down to the base of his neck, and rectangular glasses.

The one in the middle had almost all of his face obscured by his white hood, and what little could be see of his face denoted an extremely pale skin. This and his rather skinny physique gave off a sickly air about him, and it wouldn't surprise either of the two new arrivals if he had some kind of long-term illness. He was also the shortest boy in the table, even shorter than Gekka, and he wasn't exactly the tallest of people.

And right next to him was the most…odd looking of the boys. He was large, clearly the largest and tallest boy on the table, although not as tall as Kurogane. Also, in contrast to the other two boys rather skinny looks, this one was overweight, if not outright obese, with a large head and ears (or at least, large earlobes) and soft facial features which covered a minimal portion of his 'face'.

As both boys came closer, Hagane quickly realized that they didn't have any seats for them, so he grabbed a pair of chairs from the closest table (which was completely empty) and put them on the side of their own table.

For some reason he didn't quite understand, the three "unusual" boys, who up to that moment were intently looking in the direction of that empty table, didn't seem to take Hagane walking in front of them very well, sending him death glares and growls as he snatched both chairs.

He couldn't help but worry a bit about it. "What? Did I do something wrong?" He then followed their line of sight, trying to see exactly what had gotten their attention for the last 10 minutes since they arrived there "They've done nothing more than stare at…something all this time. I wonder if they're looking at the girls or…something else". Finally, he decided to leave the issue for later as both new arrivals took a seat. Neither of them seemed to take notice of the things that were bothering Hagane.

"Thank you, Mochizuki-san!" Ryuichi was the first to speak "You really helped us here"

"Don't mention it, it's not that big of a deal" He dismissed with a hand wave.

"W-well, we were starting to think about just eating by the stairs until you called out to us" Gekka admitted while scratching the back of his head, a little bit embarrassed "We really thought there were no empty seats here".

"Really?" Hagane asked with a raised eyebrow. Ryuichi simply nodded in confirmation while taking a bento out of his bag, Gekka following suit.

As they gave their respect with a 'thank you for the food' before eating, they looked at the rest of the boys, wondering why they haven't touched their plates until now. It was then that they realized that the five boys they'd just met were now staring at them.

Or more precisely, staring at Gekka.

It made the shy boy really uncomfortable as over half of the people in the table bore their eyes on him, looking at him up and down. The glasses boy' stare was particularly unnerving, his eyes completely fixated on him, like he was studying Gekka in great detail, as if his mere presence on the table was some sort of unexplained phenomenon in need of answers.

The rather awkward situation didn't go unnoticed by Hagane and Ryuichi, while Rhett seemed to prefer sketching on his book, either not realizing the situation around him or simply ignoring it.

After some tense seconds of silence, Gekka finally spoke up "Umm…I-is something wrong?"

Hearing his voice, the glasses boy seemed to blink before pushing up his glasses, an air of realization around him "Well, your voice is masculine enough to warrant the use of that uniform" He concluded.

"…?" The answer this statement got from Ryuichi, Gekka and Hagane was that of confusion, not getting exactly what the glasses boy was referring to, especially with the rather odd way in which he said it.

"…Masculine…enough?" Hagane repeated, squinting his eyes as if trying to find a coherent meaning to that phrase. He then turned to Rhett who, after a few seconds of seemingly ignoring his stare, put his pencil down to look at him.

"Hey man, do you know…?" He wasn't exactly sure if Rhett was even paying attention on the first place, but he thought it would be worth a shot to ask if he was at least could try to make sense of that phrase.

Rhett simply stared at him for a few seconds before giving an answer "They thought Gekka was a girl" He explained matter of factly.

As Ryuichi and Hagane blinked, both gave a "Ohhhh!" in understanding. Both of them could, at least partially, see their point: Gekka's appearance was somewhatandrogynous, and for some he could pass off for a girl with his rather delicate features, but his voice was still rather easily to identify as belonging to a boy.

While the two boys were now a bit more at ease knowing what got the rest of the table so…fixed on Gekka, the target for said attention wasn't amused one bit by it, confusion fading from his face and replaced with anger.

"I'M A BOY!" He yelled while slamming his hands on the table

This actually surprised the rest of the boys. The blonde boy's expression quickly went from startled to disappointed/indifferent though.

"Eh? Well, you look like a girl" He put bluntly "I mean look at you, your face looks too much like a girl's. And you have almost no muscle either. How can you be a boy?"

Both statements caused Gekka to look at the blonde boy in shock, which quickly morphed into outrage. Just as he was about to give him a piece of his mind, another voice interjected for him.

"Well, look at your friend with the hood. He's even less muscular than Homura. Do you take him for a girl too?"

Immediately, all heads turned to look at Kurogane, who was standing right by the opposite side where Ryuichi and Gekka were sitting, holding a chair in one hand, and a plate of food on the other.

"Well, of course not. I mean look at him, he's clearly a guy" The blonde boy defended

"Yes, but you did mention the lack of muscle as a way to tell if someone is a guy or a girl. So that means every guy who doesn't have enough muscle to fit your standards can qualify as a girl to you?"

"No" By the looks of it, Kurogane was starting to get beneath the boy's skin with his scolding "I mean, just look at him man. He looks like a girl, and everyone here thought so"

The rest of the boys nodded in agreement, earning a frustrated groan and a puffy cheeked glare from Gekka

"Well, judging by looks alone, you could very well be a thug" Kurogane replied in the same blunt tone that the blonde boy had been using as of now

This declaration drew shocked gasps from the five boys who believed Gekka to be a girl, while Hagane and Ryuichi sent a scolding look his way. Gekka simply blinked, unsure if he should be grateful for Kurogane having his back on this, or tell him that he's being just as rude as the blonde boy.

Said boy on his part adopted an exaggerated outraged and offended look on his face.

"Hey, you shouldn't judge other people on their looks alone!" He exclaimed as if Kurogane had committed a serious offense "And besides, I'm not a thug! I'm too good looking to be considered one!"

Kurogane simply sent him a plain look "Not judging people on their looks alone?" He parroted back at him "Funny, because that's exactly what you were doing with Gekka, calling him a girl by his looks and how they don't fit your standards for 'masculinity'".

Kurogane swiftly placed his food on the table, not breaking eye contact with the blonde boy for even a second. As he took a seat, he leaned forward a bit, as if not wanting the boy to miss what he's about to say next.

"So you don't think it's wrong to superficially judge people unless someone else does it, right?" The way in which Kurogane narrowed his eyes at the blonde boy after saying the last bit helped in hammering his accusation of said boy being an absolute hypocrite.

"And 'too good looking'?" Kurogane added with a mocking sneer "Bitch please! If you were at the very least decent looking, at least some girls would've come forward to talk or socialize with you, and I don't see any of them even looking at your direction"

The blonde boy could simply stare at Kurogane in disbelief, offense and hurt. His words had cut really deep on him, but there was a huge confusion on his mind whether to take greater offense about how he not-so-subtly implied him to be a superficial hypocrite (despite the fact that a part of him acknowledged that his comments about Gekka and his own answer to being called a 'thug' did come off as hypocritical) or about how he insulted his, on his own opinion, 'dashing' looks.

Before a full blown fight could happen, Ryuichi stood up from his chair, bringing everyone's attention to him.

"That's enough Kurogane-san!" He exclaimed, catching the attention of not only the boys on the table, but also from the girls in the nearby tables too "You are being too hard on him!"

"Are you saying that he wasn't being rude to Homura?" He blinked

"I'm not saying that, but you are being even worse to him than how he was to Homura-san. There's no need to take things so far just for something like this" Ryuichi defended, before sending a look to Gekka, asking for his opinion.

The boy seemed conflicted, looking between Ryuichi and Kurogane, unsure as to which side he should take. After a few seconds of internal debate, he sighed and looked at the tallest boy with sympathetic eyes.

"I-I'm sorry Kurogane-san, but…Ryuichi-san its right. T-there's no need to go that far" He stuttered, trying to put it as gently as possible, not wanting to upset the boy who was just trying to help him.

The blonde boy looked at Gekka, surprised that the boy whom he was just referring to as a girl was actually defending him now. Despite the fact that he still didn't think that he had done something so wrong to warrant this character assassination from Kurogane, he still felt some semblance of guilt for the way he treated Gekka.

Kurogane simply sighed in defeat, lowering his head "…Okay"

After their little dispute had been settled (for now) the blonde boy turned to Gekka, his expression softer than before "Umm…Sorry 'bout that. Just curious, that's all"

The boy in question didn't seem completely convinced, but nonetheless accepted the apology with a nod and a small smile.

Now that a possible fight had been avoided, the blue-haired boy addressed the rest of the new arrivals "So…you guys just enrolled here?".

"Oh! Umm…Yes, we did" Ryuichi stuttered, and quickly realized that none of them had introduced themselves properly "I-I'm Kumagai Ryuichi, pleased to meet you"

"I'm Homura Gekka" The (rather androgynous) boy bowed in greeting

"Kurogane Seijuro" The tallest boy finished with a nonchalant tone

After the new arrivals had introduced themselves, the blue-haired boy did the same for the ones that were on the table beforehand "I'm Kiyoshi Fujino. But you can call me Kiyoshi" Then he gestured to the blonde boy by his side "This is Shingo Wakamoto, but prefers to go by Shingo" The blonde boy waved at them with a small smile.

"We met them at the school's gates" Hagane stated to Kiyoshi before he could continue to introduce him and Rhett, pointing at the emotionless boy and himself.

"OH! Okay" He then moved to gesture at the boy at the other side of the table "The boys across from us are Takehito Morokosu, but he goes by Gakuto" The glasses boy made a small nod of acknowledgment "This one is Jouji Nezu, but likes to be called Joe" The hooded boy coughed a little before nodding in greeting "And this is Reiji Andou, but prefers to be called Andre" The last boy (by far the fattest and weirdest looking boy in the table) responded by giving them a friendly smile.

Hagane breathed a sigh in relief as of now, all the boys finally knew each other. But before he could try and start a conversation in the group, the three boys on the other side of the table (Gakuto, Joe and Andre) and the two boys right beside him (Kiyoshi and Shingo) simply returned to looking at…whatever had caught their attention since they sat in the table, having barely even touched their food as of now.

Kurogane also took notice of this, sending a look towards Ryuichi, hoping that he would catch on. After a few seconds, the boy lifted his head after he finished eating, now confused as to what Kurogane was trying to tell him. Gekka was on the same boat, not knowing what was going on, simply looking at Kurogane, and then at the rest of the boys, his curiosity slowly picking up and wishing to know exactly what they were staring at.

Kiyoshi finally broke the silence that engulfed the table "You know, I heard there were a lot of girls on this school. And to be honest, that's why I sighed up"

"…Okay?" Hagane replied with a raised brow, not sure as to how he should take that. The rest of the 'new arrivals' didn't think much of it, minding their own business.

Kiyoshi then turned to them "That's the reason why all of us enrolled here to be honest"

At this point, Gekka had also joined Hagane in staring at the boys in confusion, while Rhett, Ryuichi and Kurogane simply decided to let Kiyoshi speak, sending him occasional glances.

"Hey guys" This time Shingo addressed the rest of the boys, now catching everyone's attention "Did you joined this school for the girls too?"

At this, Gekka's cheeks turned red. He was clearly caught off guard by Shingo's question "W-Well, n-no…It's not l-like" He stuttered, trying to convey his reasons to be in this school.

"Honestly, no" Kurogane interjected. Gekka looked at him for a few seconds before breathing out in relief, thankful that the tall boy had saved him from having to answer Shingo.

His answer, however, caused the rest of the 'peculiar' boys to snap their heads at him, disbelief and shock all over their faces. Kiyoshi and Shingo sported similar looks as well.

"I also had another reason to enroll here" Ryuichi stated, this time causing the boys to snap their heads at him. The kind boy jumped ever so slightly at their reaction.

Hagane and Gekka exchanged a glance, unsure whether it would be correct to answer honestly or simply bluff it off. Their non-verbal conversation continued for a few seconds before both sighed, the red-haired boy deciding to answer for the rest of the boys.

"Same here. We had other reason to enroll here, not just for the girls" Ryuichi looked at him with a smile, while Gekka and Kurogane raised a brow at how he said that the girls were 'not the only reason' why he enrolled.

"Well, I guess being surrounded by gorgeous girls is a good motivation to enroll here. But at least he doesn't make any other reasons to join this school revolve around it" Kurogane thought to himself.

Silence once again fell over the table. Gekka was feeling quite uncomfortable with how the five boys who were at the table before him (sans Hagane and Rhett) gave him the stink eye. No, that was an understatement. For their expressions, these five boys considered their words of not enrolling in Hachimitsu solely for the girls to be an absolute blasphemy.

"What kind of nonsense are you lot prattling about!?" Gakuto yelled at the top of his lungs, pointing an accusing finger at each one of the five boys outside his 'group'. Ryuichi, Gekka and Hagane flinched at the tone of his voice, while Kurogane simply narrowed his eyes at him. Rhett didn't even seem to notice what was going on.

"This school is the promised land that awaits in every boy's dreams! Hundreds of beautiful girls for each one of us, panty shots and nip slips are the order of the day! And you say it isn't your reason to enroll here to witness the wonders of the female form firsthand!?"

After finishing his tirade, Gakuto sent a look at each one of the boys he had just yelled at. His words about "nip slips" and "panty shots" made Gekka's face to turn bright red, while Ryuichi took a few more seconds to catch on after Gakuto was finished screaming at them. Quickly, both boys were equally flustered, their faces red and staring at the glasses boy in disbelief.

None of the boys who just got yelled at knew how to answer, and even considered the option of just leaving the table and go sit somewhere else, especially Ryuichi and Gekka.

Despite how this conversation was making him feel self-conscious, Gekka pushed right through his embarrassment. And gave a clear answer.

"I…I didn't even want to e-enroll here in the first place" He said while pouting, looking away. Some of his embarrassment had subsided, but his cheeks were still quite red "I wanted to enroll in Morinomiya's Academy"

"Y no teniai que gritar y hacer tanto show por esta wea, weon. No eh pa'tanto" (And you didn't have to yell and make a scene for this shit, idiot. It's not a big deal" The shy boy thought to himself

This caught the glasses-boy attention. Stunted into silence, his eyes told this answer was the most shockingly ludicrous thing he had ever heard.

"Oba-san also thought this school was the perfect option for me. I wouldn't have minded if she put me in Morinomiya's to be honest" Whether Ryuichi's words reached Gakuto's ears, it didn't show. He simply stood there, frozen in place.

Hagane poked Rhett's shoulder to get his attention. It took about 43 pokes, at one point even poking in rhythm to "Old MacDonald had a farm" and "Shave and a haircut" until the emotionless boy finally seemed to notice him, giving him his classical deadpan stare. Hagane non-verbally tried to convey his intention of him being the one who gives their reason to enroll in Hachimitsu. After a few seconds of gestures and expressions that ranged from pleading, to annoyed, then hopeful, and defeated, Rhett at last catched on what Hagane was trying to say.

He turned to Gakuto, his poker face never leaving "Hahimitsu Academy holds a remarkable prestige. Graduating from here would be beneficial during our period of choosing a career path"

Hagane looked at him with a happy smile, while Kurogane simply shrugged as if to say 'Yeah, that's pretty much it'.

This was nowhere close to an adequate answer for the rest of the boys though. Much less Gakuto.

"Ludicrous! That kind of reasoning is unfit of superior cognitive functioning! You are a disgrace for the Homo sapiens sapiens species! Commit sepukku!" He yelled once more, this time drawing no more than a few indifferent looks from the boys he was addressing to.

"Gakuto is right though" Shingo spoke up, getting their attention "Come on guys, think about it. This school is like every boy's dream. I mean just look at all the girls here".

This seemed to pick Ryuichi and Gekka's curiosity, while Rhett simply returned to sketching on his book, Hagane on his part rolled his eyes in annoyance and Kurogane leaned his face on his palm, boredom taking over his face.

The two (at least in the face of the five 'just enrolled here for the girls' boys) nicest members of the 'non pervert' group looked curiously among the girls. Just like what happened by the doors, the only kind of student that Hachimitsu seemed to offer were attractive, gorgeous girls, and while Ryuichi's current lack of interest in pursuing a relationship (due to having to look after his baby brother) meant he didn't see any reason to make such a fuss about the girls, Gekka could see why the rest of the boys (or any boys their age for that matter) would find themselves basking over being surrounded by these girls.

The Hachimitsu Academy girls' uniforms consisted of a camel blazer over a white, long-sleeved plain button-down shirt, a red lace cravat on the collar, a red plaid school skirt, and black dress loafers. Some of the girls however choose to wear a cream jumper over the shirt in the place of the school blazer. A few girls wore the uniform without a cravat.

Gekka and Ryuichi's faces flushed deep crimson red after catching glimpse of a girl setting in her chair, lifting her leg and exposing her white panties in the process. Hagane quickly decided against looking in the same direction knowing they most likely had seen something they shouldn't.

Instead, the red-haired boy sent a glance at Kurogane, his body language screaming 'boredom'. But right behind the tall teen, a girl who had opted to not wear her blazer was stretching her arms upward, pushing her impressive breasts forward. Hagane did his best to concentrate on the bored teen just to not get caught looking at said girl's 'assets', earning a crocked brow from said bored boy.

"I had to see it to believe it" *cough* *cough* "The male-to-female ratio is 1-100" Joe said with a rough voice and a cough.

"Outrageous. Absolutely outrageous" Gakuto added with a rather hungry-anxious tone to his voice, Kurogane already taken a mental note about his habit of adding "Gozaru" at the end of all his phrases. At that very same moment, one of the things he had rambled about being what makes this place "the promised land that awaits in every boy's dreams" came to happen as one girl, right across their table, bent over while leaning on her table, unbeknownst to her giving the five 'pervert boys' a nice panty shot when her skirt lifted up, exposing her pink underwear.

"I had so many dreams before I enrolled here, you know?" Shingo remarked while the 'non pervert boys' seemed content with just letting them talk by now, trying (with varying degrees of success) to mind their own businesses. Rhett in particular put his pencil down, having finished his drawing and immediately starting with the next one.

"Like losing your virginity before April was even over" Kiyoshi said in answer to Shingo. This caused Ryuichi to look at him with a scandalized face, and Gekka to choke on his orange juice.

"Never mind my virginity, I haven't hardly even talked to a girl yet" Shingo answer denoted how his incapacity to get girls to talk to him (which Kurogane had mercilessly called him out on) bothered him, and Kiyoshi couldn't help but look at him in sympathy.

Quickly catching on Ryuichi staring at him and Gekka coughing like mad in the process.

"Umm…hey guys…?"

*cough!* *cough!*

Now seeing the poor boy struggling to breathe while at the same time trying to get the juice going through the right pipe got Hagane patting him in the back. After a few pats the boy was now breathing normally, albeit with some occasional coughs and tears on his eyes.

"T-*cough* thanks man"

"No problem" Hagane gave him a small smile.

"Oh! Umm…So-sorry that I didn't noticed you had a problem Homura-san" Ryuichi apologized while scratching the back of his head.

Before Gekka could speak, Gakuto hastily interrupted them.

"Would you lot hold your tongues!?" His yell earned a flinch from Ryuichi and Gekka, Hagane simply sent him an annoyed glare "You're making me incapable of concentrate!"

"Huh? Concentrate on what" Shingo said with an indifferent stare.

"Are you jesting!? You know what! On watching for downblouses which carry on a magnificent breast flash, and upskirts that develop into accidental panty shots!" Gakuto yelled once more before snapping around and looking at the girls once more.

At this point, even Rhett couldn't help but look at Gakuto, his quick glance carrying a good deal of incredulity for those who knew how to read his expressions beyond his deadpan face. Just how much of a pervert was he? And the rest of the boys who claimed to enroll in Hachimitsu solely for the girls didn't seem any better.

Kurogane, Ryuichi and Rhett were mostly impervious to the images that the glasses boy was trying to instate into their heads. One for lack of interest, the other because of innocence, and the last one because of apathy. Hagane and Gekka though, were a different story.

While neither of them was as consumed by their own hormones as the five 'pervert boys', both were still teenage boys, and so couldn't help the images that flushed through their minds at Gakuto's words.

Hagane's imagination (kind of) explicit, with girls in sexy poses that showed either their panties that fit snugly against their butts, or seeing them halfway changing from behind and catching a glimpse of their lingerie bras. And in some cases, their naked breasts as there was no bra.

On the other hand, Gekka's imagination was… odd to say the least. While some images of girls in 'sexy' poses did flash through his head (none of them as explicit as Hagane's though), they quickly faded as his mind began wandering somewhere else. And the new images that took over his imagination replaced every bit of arousing that he might have had before, and instead let them be replaced by another emotion.

Fear

He hugged himself tightly, shaking in place a bit as this new images made themselves present on his mind. Despite this, he made his best to hide this from the rest of the boys, slowly releasing his arms and trying to reign over his increasingly trembling body.

"Hey" Kiyoshi spoke up, inadvertently catching everyone's attention before they could notice the state Gekka was in "Have you even talked to any of the girls?"

"Nary a one!" Gakuto (as usual) yelled his answer.

"S-*cough*-same" Joe said with a cough

"M-Me too…" And finally Andre answered with a small blush.

"Well, seeing you guys only have getting a glimpse of their underwear in your minds, it doesn't surprise me in the slightest no girl wants to talk to any of you" Kurogane simply couldn't stop himself from making a snarky remark. And in fact didn't even tried to in the first place.

While this got the five 'pervert' boys shock and ire spreading like a wildfire among themselves before directing it at a nonchalant Kurogane, his blunt mocking of the boys' predicament had the unexpected and much more beneficial side effect of distracting Gekka of his own thoughts. Enough to stop trembling in fact.

Hagane and Ryuichi simply exchanged a glance at each other, unsure what to think at this moment.

While the five boys berated Kurogane for his mocking, he simply gave them a blank look, his whole demeanor just screaming "Zero fucks given here" despite the barrage of attacks directed at him. Kiyoshi and Andre were the firsts to give up trying to get back at him, Joe following close behind. Gakuto and Shingo were too stubborn to stop something that at this point should have realized was futile though.

"What about you guys?" Kiyoshi addressed the rest of the boys who had remained quiet through all the yelling at Kurogane "Have you ever talked to a girl before?"

"Well, yeah" Hagane blinked "My last school was co-ed so…it was kind of inevitable"

This caught the 'pervert boys' attention. Gakuto and Shingo froze in place, turning to look at Hagane with the same disbelieving eyes that Andre and Joe sported. While Kiyoshi wasn't as shocked as them, he was still caught off guard at his answer.

"My last school was co-ed too but…I-I never could-"

"Same here" Kurogane interjected.

Hagane shook Rhett's shoulder a bit until he looked up. "Idem"

After this, all attention was upon the last two boys who hadn't given their experiences with the opposite sex. And judging by their previous behavior for being stared at by the girls, as well as their reactions throughout the conversation, none of the five 'pervert' boys expected them to have any experience when dealing with girls.

"Well, yeah. I have spoken to girls before. My best friend is a girl after all" Ryuichi said scratching his cheek with his finger.

If hearing Hagane saying so casually that talking to girls was normal shocked them, Ryuichi's longtime friendship with a girl was like a bucket of cold water (or, by Gakuto's logic, liquid nitrogen) being thrown over them.

"Oh yeah, I remember her. I think her name was Torimi, right?" Hagane commented "Have you known each other for long?"

"Yes! Though I was 3 years old when we met, or so she says, so I don't really remember much of our first meeting" Ryuichi sheepishly laughed.

"Thought so. You seem to be very close" Hagane smiled

"WAIT! Hold down your cavalries!" Gakuto interrupted them "Are you saying that the wonders of the female figure had been presented to you since infancy!?"

Despite being naturally gentle, by this point Ryuichi couldn't help being annoyed by Gakuto's repeated meddling into their conversations "I…don't know much about what you're talking about. Torimi and I are just friends. We have been so for 12 years".

"Really man? Haven't you heard of that 'childhood friend' thing on anime or something?" Shingo asked with a raised brow

"N-No! Not at all! We're just friends" Ryuichi quickly waved his arms in defense. Neither of the boys at the table seemed convinced though. Even Kurogane and Hagane were sending him knowing looks.

While for Ryuichi this was quite embarrassing, Gekka felt an immense relief at how he evaded being questioned about interacting with girls.

"Hey, what about you Homura?" Shingo asked with his classical uncaring gaze "You speak with girls at your old school?"

…Or so he thought

"Huh!? W-Well…th-that's not really-I haven't talked with any girl here-butthatsnottosayIhaventbefore!" His haste answer and flustered face made hard to believe he has talked to any girls before for pretty much every person on the table.

"Hmph! Your words may express your success in such a rare goal, but your face and body leave the truth bare to behold! You haven't spoken to a girl before!" Gakuto declared, earning a shocked and offended look from Gekka

"I have spoken to girls before. It's just…never more than five words…stuttering…"

"And you!" He now pointed an accusing finger at the rest of the 'non pervert boys' "You dare speak so casually about the glory that is participating into a conversation with a girl. Then shall you prove it! Prove that you lot can talk to a girl!"

Gekka by now had calmed down enough to join the other boys (Rhett included) into blinking in confusion.

"…Why you speak about talking to a girl like it's a matter of life and death?" Hagane said with a blank stare "Man, you just need to say 'Hello', 'How was your day', or something like that. It's that easy"

"Saying such words are proof in and off itself of your incapacity of achieving such a goal!" Gakuto yelled once more. Though for Kurogane, it was less of him just not listening, and more like trying to deny the fact that he, for some reason or another, was unable to do even something that simple.

Hagane simply sent a look at Ryuichi, who looked back at him clearly not knowing what to do or think about the whole situation.

"How about we just go and speak to some of the girls just to shut them up?"

"Huh?"

Kurogane perked ever so slightly at this, while Gekka looked at them with some hope and worry. While talking to a girl seemed simple enough, especially for the much more extroverted Hagane, how pretty much every girl he had seen so far didn't approached him or any of the other boys so far, and in fact seemed to be avoiding them somehow, made him think this may not be the best idea.

Before he could tell them this, they had already stood up from the table and began making their way to one of the groups of girls that crowded the rest of the cafeteria. Or more precisely, Hagane was dragging a doubtful Ryuichi into the closest table just to troll the guys by talking to a girl.

"I'll go too!" Kiyoshi followed close behind "Wait for me guys!".

"What!? Don't be a fool Kiyoshi-dono! You should be content to just sit here and watch quietly! Damnation shall fall over your reputation should you follow the path Hagane-dono and Ryuichi-dono are walking!"

"Could you at least use less complicated words, please?" Kurogane mentally deadpanned.

"Yeah man, it would be rough having the girls hate you so soon after enrolling"

"He's right" Andre intervened "You guys should just hold off".

While Hagane was still not convinced though, Ryuichi's mind wandered off to his previous interactions with Hachimitsu's female population. Or lack thereof.

"M-Mochizuki-san. I believe we should listen to them" He whispered into the red-hair boy's ear, earning a side glance and a raised brow "Back when Homura-san and I were making our way here, the girls…well, none of them wanted to speak to us for…some reason"

This caused the taller boy to look at him in confusion, unaware that there was indeed something wrong about the way the girls just avoided them all this time. But before he could question him further, Kiyoshi stepped in.

"Shut up!" Kiyoshi yells at them "I've always wanted to…wanted to do all sorts of things with girls" Then he pointed an accusing finger at the four 'pervert' boys "And look at you guys! Even though you're interested in girls, you just drool over from far away!" This last statement made the four boys flinch.

"Umm…Kiyoshi-" Gekka tried to calm down the agitated boy, but was promptly interrupted.

"Watch the way we live!" Then he turns to the other two boys who were not sitting at the moment "Let's go guys!"

Both boys turn to look at each other, by now both of them questioning if this was a good idea. But it was clear that, even if they withdraw from this, Kiyoshi would simply lash out at them the same way he did to his so called 'friends' and go by himself.

So for now, following him and trying to be as low key as possible until after they have talked to a girl and then quickly head back to the table was their best option.

"So, say hello to a girl, exchange some words, then get the hell out and back to the table. Should be easy"

"I hope Torimi-san could be here. She's always been direct in saying what she thinks. Maybe she could have kept things from going this far…"

Both boys' thoughts were interrupted when they spotted Kiyoshi slightly ahead of them, trying to talk to two girls. And failing miserably at it.

One of the girls had light brown hair tied on a high ponytail, the other had short black hair going down to her chin, about the same length than Rhett but brushed so it went down both sides of her face. Both girls were looking curiously at him.

"Um…I…Um…huh…" Kiyoshi couldn't help but panic internally "Crap! I haven't thought about anything to say! No, scratch that. I never had ANYTHING to say to begin with!"

Seeing him panicking made Ryuichi even more nervous. Hagane instead walked up to the blue-haired boy, his expression unreadable.

Stopping right by his side, he gives him a look just as deadpan as Rhett's default expression "You didn't even think about something to say?"

His words not only got Kiyoshi's attention, but now both girls were looking at him too. Hagane scratched the back of his head in light embarrassment "Oh…Yeah, sorry about my friend here. He's…not very used speaking with girls, I guess".

Then he looked back at Ryuichi, who quickly blushed in embarrassment as now everyone's attention was on him. "Oh! Um…Yeah" He said while hurriedly walking up to Kiyoshi "You should have thought what to say before doing any of this, Kiyoshi-kun" He chastised him, nevertheless his usual gentle tone of voice made his scolding not as stern sounding as he would've hoped.

Now that all three of them were together, Hagane took a glance at the girls to make sure they weren't looking at them like a group of buffoons, but instead found them looking at their phones. Watching closely at the short hair girl's phone, he could see that she was looking at a recording of their little 'meeting' by the doors, were half of Hachimitsu's male population got acquaintance with each other.

More specifically, she was looking at a video of Ryuichi holding his brother Kotaro, and the moment the toddler met Gekka.

Both girls were now giggling and whispering among themselves. Kiyoshi and Ryuichi looked at each other with either confusion or worry, not sure if they were mocking and laughing at them in silence, or if they actually liked them. Hagane had a much clearer idea of the situation though.

"Hey," One of the girls spoke to Ryuichi, catching his attention "Aren't you the boy with the cute baby brother?"

At this, Kiyoshi turned to look at Ryuichi, confusion spreading across his face "It's that true? B-But how do they know that!? It's clear they have never spoke before, so they shouldn't know something that personal about him!"

The brown-haired boy, on the other hand, relaxed a bit after knowing exactly why they were giggling in the first place "Huh? Oh, you mean Kotaro?" He scratched his cheek with his finger "Well, yeah. He's my brother"

"How old is him?"

"He just turned 2 years old a few months back"

At this, the girls' interest seemed to reach new highs, as now both of them began interrogating the kind boy about his brother. Kiyoshi on his part could simply stare in disbelief as the kind boy engaged in a casual conversation that actually had himself and part of his family life as the main topic, utterly depriving him of his chance to talk with the girls. And seemingly not even aware of it on the first place

"Is he really that quiet all the time? Or is he noisy when you two are alone?" The ponytail girl asked, suddenly invested in the topic.

"N-No" He defended, waving his arms in front of him "He's always been a quiet kid. Ever since he was a baby"

"Well, I heard that babies can be a handful when they cry, so it looks like you had it easy" The other girl chuckled.

"It kind of worried me for a while though" Ryuichi admitted, putting a hand behind his head "At times I thought he was too quiet for a kid"

At this both girls blinked and exchanged glances. They quickly dismissed this with a shrug and returned to the conversation.

"Even then, it looks like you can understand him just fine" the short-haired girl remarked.

"She's right. You two look close" Observed Hagane, entering the conversation.

Turning his attention to the red-haired boy, Ryuichi nodded "Well, yeah. My parents liked to travel a lot so…I kind of spent a lot of time with Kotaro since he was just a few months old"

While Ryuichi's gentle expression remained unaltered when speaking about his time with his brother during his parents' usual travels, a somber expression began spreading its roots across his face as he finished relating this part of his life. Like he was suddenly getting deep in thought about something he particularly didn't want to think about.

This didn't go unnoticed by the girls or boys, Hagane quickly grabbing his shoulder in reassurance.

"You okay there?" He shook his shoulder a bit "You don't have to continue if you don't want to"

At this the boy simply shook his head, not wanting to make the others uncomfortable. And also because it was a very personal theme for him that he didn't want to talk about with people he just met. So he simply turned to look at Hagane with his kind smile "No, thank you. I'm okay Mochizuki-san"

The red-haired boy wasn't totally convinced, but decided to not push the issue further and appear rude "Okay…" Then he turned to look at the girls "Ah! Sorry, where are my manners. I'm Mochizuki Hagane"

"I'm Kumagai Ryuichi. Pleased to meet you" He bowed in greeting.

At this, both boys looked at Kiyoshi, the blue-haired boy having remained quiet since the moment Hagane entered the conversation.

"Um…I-I'm…Fu-Fujino K-K-Ki…yo…shi"

Seeing him being such a mess when trying something as simple as introducing himself, Hagane couldn't help but shake his head, both on amusement and incredulity "So this is the guy who talked about speaking to girls as if it was a grandiose mission. Well, I think for him it was really that hard"

As Kiyoshi was mentally recovering from introducing himself to the girls, the "male table" was on the verge of an uproar. Throughout their conversation, the four 'pervert' boys stared at Hagane and Ryuichi in disbelief for how easily they started a conversation with the girls, and then with utter shock as the gentle and slightly shy boy was the one who talked the most with them. And now that Kiyoshi had managed to present himself too, their faces morphed into outrage and envy

"H-How is it possible!? Those two just…just-!" Shingo whispered harshly

"This is totally unfair! *cough*"

"Do-Do they have some kind of secret for that!?" Andre joined on their quiet breakdown

"And they dare shamelessly parade their achievements like that! Eating copiously in front of the starving masses!"

Gekka simply sighed, shaking his head in disapproval "Could you guys just leave them be?"

"Are you out of your goddamn mind!?" Shingo snapped at him "What makes you think they can just go and have fun without us!?"

"…You were the ones who dared them to try on the first place" Gekka deadpanned after blinking once in incredulity.

"So because you can't talk to a girl, then no one else is allowed to?" Kurogane asked, resting his cheek on his palm and looking at them with both disapproval and boredom "Not even for 'non-pervert' reasons like making friends and asking for help? Are you that much of a selfish asshole?" His tone at the end made it clear that he thought the answer to his last question was a 'yes'.

"T-That's not it! Damn it man, fuck you!" Shingo yelled, but managed to keep his voice low enough to not attract the attention of the girls by the closest table "I'm just saying it's unfair seeing them speaking with them so easily!"

"Life's unfair, in case no one's told you" Kurogane replied without missing a beat "Things that are impossible for some people come off as easier than breathing for others. And besides, if you think this is unfair, then don't just sit there and do something about it" He then leaned on the table while eyeing the four 'pervert' boys "If speaking with girls is so important to you lot, then just get your asses off the chairs and talk to them"

His words cause the four boys to pause their sprouting jealousy and think for a moment about trying to join the conversation taking place just a few meters from where they were sitting.

Gakuto, however, adjusted his glasses with a solemn expression after a few seconds of pondering. Kurogane and Gekka had a good idea what his next words would be "What you say has some merits indeed, Kurogane-dono. However…" As he trailed off, he turned to look at the mixed group, Kiyoshi now looking slightly more confident as Hagane and Ryuichi tried to make him speak a little more. Unbeknown to them, another girl with short, dark purple hair and eyes was making her way towards their little group.

Kurogane and Gekka became suspicious and nervous respectively when noticing her rather troubled/uneasy expression.

Just before Kiyoshi could say anything else besides having (somehow) introduced himself to the girls, the newcomer put herself in front of the girls, blocking the boys "Hey, you two, do you have a minute?"

"Eh…" Both girls and the three boys seemed confused by her sudden intrusion "Ah…yes senpai"

And just like that, both girls were dragged away by their senpai, leaving the confused boys behind.

Kurogane and Gekka exchanged a glance, unsure what all that was about.

"Well…that was…strange"

"It's just like before" This caused the taller boy to raise an eyebrow in curiosity, prompting Gekka to keep speaking "Back when Kuma-kun and I were making our way here, t-the girls just…a-avoided us"

Kurogane let those words sink in, realizing he was telling the truth. The girls also had been avoiding him, but he didn't think much of that for he simply assumed that they, as most people, were scared by his height and looks, but he just ignored it for the opinion of others about him was never something that he gave much (or any) thought about.

But if what Gekka said was truth, then there was something else going on here.

…Or maybe most girls were afraid/nervous to interact with the first boys to ever enroll in Hachimitsu, and he was just overthinking the whole thing.

While the second explanation was good enough, the way other girls seemed to be avoiding the three boys after the previous duo was escorted to a more private place by an upperclassman told him there was indeed something wrong about their attitude.

"I told them that it was pointless" Gakuto declared after seeing how no other girl was willing to the boys.

"But…He might be able to do it net time" Shingo interjected, surprising Kurogane and Gekka as to how him, who was deadly jealous of other boys talking to girls when he was incapable of doing it, was now trying to defend them against Gakuto's words. Or at least defend one of them.

"So…he's talking about Kiyoshi?" Kurogane pondered while holding his chin "Well, they do seem closer to each other than the rest of the boys here. Maybe they have known each other for longer than us"

Gakuto shook his head at Shingo's rare hopeful expression "Yours truly has zealously tried speaking to them, but not a single lass would talk back to me!"

Shingo looked to the side, as if briefly pondering about what Gakuto said, before turning back at him "Couldn't that be because you're repulsive?"

"Emphatically not true!" Gakuto yelled at Shingo's blunt assertion. Loud enough in fact to startle both Gekka and Rhett (if only slightly regarding the latter).

"I would say delinquent-san's got a point there" Kurogane interjected with a thoughtful expression, earning angry glares from both boys.

Before they could continue, the three boys arrived to the table after their rather…odd experience trying to talk with the girls. Especially since every group of girls they tried to approach either ignored or seemed wary of them after that upperclassman took away the two girls they were talking to.

While Ryuichi and Hagane simply looked confused, Kiyoshi slumped down on his chair, resting his head on his arm in complete, utter defeat "Complete annihilation. No survivors"

"BEHOLD! Even Kiyoshi-dono could not escape the inevitable fate that awaits the hopeful fools!" He then turned at the two boys who accompanied the blue-haired boy in this 'grand mission' "I hope you do understand the futility of this endeavor too!"

Ryuichi was still confused as to why they put so much value into something so trivial as talking to a girl, while Hagane raised an eyebrow, wondering exactly how much was Gakuto going to keep pushing the issue.

Said glasses-boy then eyed the rest of the 'non-pervert' boys with an intense glare "And the same goes to all of you! It's a depressing exercise but confront reality!" Then he spread his arms as he made his proclamation "Us ten boys are hated by the female students! We are in their eternal disfavor!" He finally declared in complete hopelessness.

Right after this, he turned around, eyeing the girls across their table once more "Now that you finally understand it, let us concentrate on breast and panty slips!"

With this, Kurogane simply let his fork fall from his hand, giving the glasses boy an annoyed look "Congratulations. You just ruined my appetite" He deadpanned.

With this, the rest of the 'non-pervert' boys sighed, going back to try and mind their own business as they eat in silence. The awkward atmosphere was thoroughly ignored by the five 'pervert' boys as they continue to ogle the girls and searching for any kind of wardrobe malfunction, which came every now and then in the form of an accidental flashing of the girls' bras or panties.

It was about 5 or so minutes after the three boys had come back from their little 'conversation' with the girls that Kurogane put his fork down and wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"Well, I'm done here" He declared while picking up his bag and checking some of the (many) pockets on his long black coat "I have some work to do, so I'll be going"

"Oh! Okay, bye Kurogane-kun!" Ryuichi said with a kind smile.

"See ya!" Hagane waved alongside Gekka and Rhett, neither of them saying anything, the latter, as usual, not even bothering to look up from his book as he kept drawing.

The departing of the tall boy caused the rest of the 'pervert' ones to grin widely (specially Shingo) as they would now be free from his (in their opinion) "unreasonable and uncalled for attacks of their character". But as if luck would have it for them, a husky, alluring female voice interrupted him.

"Well, well. Look who's here~" Torimi said from behind Ryuichi, quickly making her way towards him and wrapping an arm around his shoulder "Looks like you just made some new friends, didn't ya?"

"Ah! Torimi, didn't see you there" He let out a heartfelt laugh. To which the tall tan girl puffed out her cheeks in mocking annoyance.

"So you didn't even see me until just now, even when I was right behind you?" She said as she poked his cheek with her finger "I don't like being ignored like that Ryu"

While she did this, the five 'pervert' boys now had suddenly changed the focus of their attention at the sole female actually willing to interact with them.

And what a view it was for them! Torimi's uniform was by far the riskiest and most revealing they have ever see a girl wearing. She didn't have the camel blazer on, instead wearing the plain button up white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and tied in the front, revealing her well-toned stomach, and also leaving enough of a cleavage to see a good portion of her large breasts and red bra. For her lower regions, she used the same red plaid school skirt the rest of the girls' wear, and below she had see-through stockings going up to her knees, showing off her well-toned, muscular long legs.

While Ryuichi was too preoccupied with his friend to notice the kind of stares she was receiving from the boys, Gekka, Kurogane and Hagane immediately saw how they were looking at her. Hagane was the first to take action, clearing out his throat to catch her attention.

"It's nice to meet you again, Torimi-san" He said with a smile.

"Ah! Yeah, it's nice to see you again too!"

She turned to look at Gekka, who immediately snapped his head away from her, to which Torimi replied to with a knowing and teasing grin.

"Hi there" Kurogane's simple greeting quickly caught her attention, her teasing grin now morphing into an amused smirk.

"Well, look who's here. Mr. Birdman himself!" She replied with heartfelt snark.

"May I remind you that this is a school and not a brothel?" He replied with a smirk of his own.

While Hagane simply rolled his eyes at their interaction, Gekka and Ryuichi seemed quite uncomfortable with how they could bicker like that despite barely knowing each other. The five 'perverts' just stood there in shock, still gazing at the tan-amazon beauty and how easily the boys (sans Gekka) could interact with her.

"Well, the school's uniform policy has been quite lax as of late, so now I can dress however I want while inside this building" She simply shrugged before addressing the shyest boy at the table "Don't you think that's great, Homura-kun~?"

Said boy flinched after being addressed to, shades of red coloring his cheeks. The tall girl noticed this and smiled broadly in amusement, letting out a teasing "Hmmm~". The timid boy quickly shook his head, trying to reign on his emotions for he didn't want to give Torimi any more teasing material

"W-Well it's…k-kind of a g-g-good thing. Students w-will now have more f-f…freedom to dress as t-they l-l-like" He then gave a quick pick at Torimi's attire before looking away again "I…g-guess"

Torimi let out a chuckle at the boy's nervous stuttering, now feeling a bit sorry in how he couldn't speak to her without stuttering.

Not that any of the five 'pervert' boys had it any better though. The three 'unusual' ones on the other side of the table were practically drooling at the sight of her, and she was very aware of it, and also about what was going through their heads as they ogled her. Usually she would enjoy playing along with them for her own amusement, but with Ryuichi being present, she didn't feel like making him worried or angry if she rallied up the boys with her mocking them about their clear sexual interest on her, especially if they were the type to want to go further than just looking from afar and who don't take "No" for an answer.

She knew she could very well fight them off, verbally and physically if she had to, but making her best friend uncomfortable on his first day of highschool was something she didn't feel was right.

Thus, this left her with only Gekka to tease, and deciding to spare the poor boy of any further embarassment, she laid her eyes on Rhett, the only boy at the table who didn't pay attention to her as he continued to draw on his book. Feeling somewhat challenged by his utter concentration on his drawings, she decided to try and get him to acknowledge her. She let go of Ryuichi and walked up to the (mostly) emotionless boy, standing very close behind him.

"So, what are you drawing?"

Her question got absolutely nothing from him. From her experience, when males have been trying to ignore her for one reason or another, there's always some kind of reaction from them. She could read even slight cues on the tone of their voice, and even in their body language if they didn't answer. From trying to remain stern, to hiding their embarrassment, to annoyed, yet still with some underlying attraction or arousal at her presence and clothing.

And that's what baffled her about Rhett. It was that he didn't just ignored her, he seemed to not know she even existed in the first place. Not even the slightest cue on his face or body language to indicate he could even sense her right behind him, even after she addressed him directly.

"Just what's up with this guy? Does he have a 'disconnect from reality' button or something?"

Deciding to up the stakes, she put her hand on his right shoulder and picked over his left one, trying to look at what he was drawing. Of course, she made sure to lean in very close to him, her lips right beside his ear, and her large breasts pushing up against his back.

Having now assumed her 'attack' position, she looked down at his book. While making comments about what he was doing was just another part of her strategy to get him to actually notice her (and open up the way for her trademark teasing) she would be lying to say she wasn't curious about what this boy could be drawing that could possibly be so important as to ignore the world around himself to such a degree.

As her eyes laid down on the book, she blinked. Then again. And again. Yet no matter how many times she opens and closes her eyes, she couldn't make any sense as to what she was seeing.

It was very well done, that as much could be said about Rhett's artistic skills. The shading and attention to detail made it look almost as if was a digital impression, but the uncolored parts here and there, and how said parts were expertly finished by him made it clear that it was in fact hand-made. If only some kind of meaning could be taken from what he was doing.

The page Rhett was drawing on presented a…weird landscape, to say the least. It looked like the inside of a fabric, wires and strange machinery giving it a remarkably mechanical and robotic look. But the way the wires ran through the whole thing, and many (apparently) stone and marble structures mixed with the machinery gave up some very strong medieval vibes, like those of an old dungeon or European castle. The colors consisting almost entirely of different tones of blue, white, grey and black gave both a metallic and gothic feeling to it, depending on which part of the draw you concentrated on.

But the most striking thing on it was by far the strange monster right in the middle of the paper, painted in both black and very dark blue. Torimi narrowed her eyes at it, trying to figure out the best way to describe it: The easiest thing to notice was that it had two pairs of bat-like wings, a smaller one in its upper body, and a larger one on his lower half. It had two very human-like arms and hands, and its lower half consisted of two pairs of legs and a long tail.

All in all, the closest she could come to associate this monster with (sans the arms) was the classical western depiction of a dragon: its crocodile-like lower body, wings and very reptilian and scaly skin making said association rather easy. The difficult part was trying to find a sense to its upper half where its arms and wings are attached though: The skin right in the middle of its lower and upper body seemed to have been ripped off, exposing its ribs and flesh. But going up from there, its ribs began to slowly separate from each other (and grew larger as they did) until they spread out like some sort of disgusting mouth, with no head on sight. Inside this giant 'mouth', one could make up part of the beast's inner organs (mostly its digestive system) and many fang-like things sprouting all over the inside of its ribcage, alongside something that looked like intestines running through the ribcage as it they were tongues.

"…What the fuck is that?" She asked after spending a good minute or so trying to find some kind of meaning at just what the hell she was seeing.

"Torimi-san! Language!" Ryuichi scolded, his voice not carrying as much authority as he would like though.

Hearing her childhood friend's voice, she turned to look at him. Her blank expression confused him, but then it quickly morphed into her usual grin, thankful of being able to take her mind out of that drawing.

"It's a representation of "The Gaping Dragon"" Rhett answered, most people at the table looking confused as to why he chose to say that last part in English "Designed by Hiroshi Nakamura under the theme of 'greed' and implemented as an optional boss in "the depths" that lead directly into the door that permits the entrance to Blighttown"

As of now, pretty much everyone on the table was just starring at him with the same blank, confused expression.

Torimi blinked before addressing him again "…Okay?"

An uncomfortable silence fell over the table before Kurogane decided to break it "Umm…anything else?"

"The background and environment is taken from the bio-mechanical concept of fusion between the inorganic and organic matter into a single, blurry art form. Invented by late artist and head designer of the Alien movie series H.R. Gig-"

"Okay! Okay, we got it" Torimi interrupted "You take inspiration from an artist's ratter… dark style and mixed it with some weird creature from I don't know where"

After this, she pinched the bridge of her nose before giving his draw one last look "I gotta say though. You're one hell of a pro with those pencils. How much you been at it?"

"…2 hours, 18 minutes and 35 s-"

"Yeah, you're a pro!" She interrupted once again in a cheery tone before patting him in the head and revolving his hair a little.

Ryuichi laughed sheepishly at her usual antics, while Hagane simply shook his head in amusement.

After messing with Rhett's hair a little, she turned to look at the five 'pervert' boys "What? Aren't you gonna introduce yourselves?" She asked playfully.

Just as she predicted, addressing them directly sent the boys' brains into a total shutdown. None of them knew how to answer her, their minds completely consumed by the sight of her body, swirling into erotic fantasies and reducing their faces to a mess of heavy blushes, drool and, in some cases, nosebleed.

As she chuckles at their reaction, she looks at Ryuichi "Sooo~…. Have you made any other female friends while I wasn't looking Ryu?~"

"N-no, not really" At this, Torimi narrows her eyes at her friend, seemingly not believing him, but you could also see a bit of suspicion regarding the possibility that he was telling the truth.

"Now that I think of it, the other girls I tried introducing you to were a bit wary of you, even though you wouldn't hurt a fly unless it threatens Kotaro somehow. I wonder…"

"Y-yeah" Gekka's voice interrupted her thoughts "Girls d-don't seem to be very c-comfortable around us"

"A few minutes ago, Kumagai and I tried speaking to some of the girls to be honest" This caught Torimi's attention, turning her head to look at Hagane "It was going just fine until…well…an upperclassman took them away. Since then all the other girls just try avoiding us, for some reason" He sighed.

Torimi stared at him for a few seconds processing his words before sending a glance at the girls crowding the cafeteria.

And their wary expressions and body language confirmed not only what the red-haired boy just said, but also told her the girls were quite shocked that she would interact with them so easily.

Now, getting Ryuichi to interact with Hachimitsu's female population was certainly something she believed would be great for him, both for how it would help him cope with the recent events on his life, and how it would give her plenty of ammo to tease him for.

But she has always been very careful to see when someone could become a bad influence on him, his natural airhead nature when dealing with social cues and others' opinion in him not helping the matter.

Just by seeing the extremely jealous and enraged/outraged expressions on the five 'pervert' boys against Ryuichi when she was talking to him told her they're people that, while very promising for teasing material in the future, are individuals she wants as far away from her friend as possible, less they harass him out of jealousy and she has to do some "unsavory" things to make clear no one messes with her friend.

And the less than happy expression coming from the girls, some out if wariness and even fear, and others out of genuine hostility told her something was definitely going on here on Hachimitsu beyond just getting used to the idea of the school now being coed.

"Umm…Torimi, are you okay?" The gentle brown haired boy said, realizing something was bothering her after seeing the rather pensive look on her face, as if she was trying to ponder about something.

"It's nothing Ryu" She sighed, shaking her head "I think I should go now. Have some things to do"

"That's fine. Have a nice day!" He said with his usual warm smile, his friend answering with one of her own.

"Bye birdie" Kurogane said with his usual snark, though it sounded far less hostile or demeaning than usual.

"Goodbye/B…b-bye" Hagane and Gekka sent their farewells too while Rhett, after a lot of poking by Hagane, gave her a small wave with a completely inexpressive face before continuing drawing.

Once the five 'non-pervert' boys had said their goodbyes, she turned to the other five boys occupying the table, her teasingly sultry smile back on her face once again.

"Well, it was nice meeting you too. But, I hope that we can get to…know each other better next time, yeeeaahh~?" She said with a sensual purr at the end.

Despite the blatantly provocative tone of her voice, Ryuichi was, after so many years of watching his friend do this, well aware of how she would handle the situation later on, should she and the 'pervert' boys meet once again: Taking into account how the only interaction between those boy and Torimi amounted to having them wordlessly drool and have nosebleeds at her mere presence, a completely normal conversation or even them saying a few words before departing could count as them "knowing each other better"

Obviously, none of the boys she just addressed to saw it that way, as their creepily happy faces and blushes made clear their heads were lost into their own little worlds and fantasies.

Ryuichi couldn't but to scowl at them in answer.

"Aww~ Don't be so grumpy Ryu" Torimi said as if she had read his mind. "You know they couldn't really do anything to hurt me, right?" She said while turning to look at them, the five 'perverts' vigorously nodding their heads. It didn't escape the other boys how she said they "couldn't" do anything bad to her rather than "wouldn't" though.

"Well then, bye!" As she dramatically turned around, her moves caused her short skirt to flutter in the air, threatening to reveal her underwear to the boys. While Ryuichi and Kurogane were about to call this out for her, Gekka and Hagane simply looked the other way with varying degrees of blushing. The five 'pervert' boys were on the verge of their seats, anxiously waiting to see what kind of panties could a girl so shameless about her own body be wearing…And Rhett choose to ignore everything around himself as usual.

But as her skirt was lifting, she quickly held it down and folded it back in place before her ass could be seen by the boys "Sorry guys, no panty shots this time" She said at them over her shoulder with her classical grin, before sticking her tongue out and walking away. The 'pervert' boys obviously cursing the missed chance (some of them even crying blood on impotent rage)

Ryuichi as usual was scandalized by her shameless teasing, but had given up a long time ago in trying to convince Torimi of stopping, so he had to settle with trying to gauge the other boys' reaction and opinions in his friend, hopping she didn't leave a bad first impression. What he got instead was Gekka and Hagane looking at him with a heavy and faint blush respectively, Kurogane simply stare at him with a crooked eyebrow, and even Rhett seemed to be waiting for what he was going to say.

"Well…She's just like that" He sheepishly laughed, scratching thee back of his head.

"And she's being your friend since infancy?" Came Shingo's incredulous voice.

Kurogane groaned in annoyance at him and the rest of his group, now seeing how they were eyeing Ryuichi, their faces conveying their ill intentions towards the gentle boy.

"I must say, yours truly can see why a damsel such as her would blissfully accept and reciprocate your friendship, Kuma-dono" Gakuto added while pushing up his glasses

"She seems nice" *cough*

"And I also recalled you said to those other girls you have a little brother, right?"

Despite being a social airhead, Ryuichi could clearly notice how oily Shingo's and Joe's smiles and words were.

"Guys please, that's enough" Surprisingly, it was Kiyoshi of all people who called them out first. He may be also jealous of him such a "smoking hot" girl for a friend, but he hasn't forgotten how he was the first to scold Kurogane when the tall boy mocked them, and being a total mess when trying to talk with the girls didn't mean he had missed his troubled face when his family was brought up.

Just as the boys glared at him for interrupting them, Andre decided to join in.

"Is she strong?" Andre's question was met with confusion by pretty much everyone else, Ryuichi's scowl fading as he looked at him. "She looks athletic; does she practices some kind of sport?"

"Umm… Yes" Ryuichi squinted his as he tried to remember the specifics "She has practiced martial arts since we were little kids, and has been part of many sport clubs in different schools. Risako-san told me that her grandmother was a bit angry with her for joining and dropping out of those clubs though" He finished while scratching his cheek.

"Why did she drop out. Felt out of place or something?" Kurogane's curiosity got the better of him.

"N-no. Not really. She says she just likes to try different things" Ryuichi recalled some conversations between his parents and Risako about it "But, everyone thought it was a letdown. Her teachers said she had a wonderful stamina, and was skilled with her hands with playing basketball or as goalkeeper in soccer"

He then remembered a last piece of info, and sheepishly laughed "They also said she packet quite a punch in both martial arts and sports, so I guess that's a reason her club mates didn't mind her leaving that much" Memories of how she would always end up hitting someone in the face in any sport involving balls flowing through his mind.

Unbeknown to him, his description of Torimi's accomplishments just gave more fuel to the boys perverted imagination.

"She likes to try different things?"

"Has wonderful skills with her hands, and a lot of stamina?"

"She can hit hard? And has done so before?" Andre couldn't help but feel a bit jealous of the people who got hurt by her in the past.

"Okay Kumagai, you need to improve your wording. You just filled these guys' heads with weird ideas"

"Huh?"

"And also" The tall boy pointed a finger at each one of the 'pervert' ones "Stop trying to score points with her by acting all friendly with him now. It's obvious what you're all trying to do"

"…I have no idea what you're prattling about, Kurogane-dono"

"He's right" All heads (sans Rhett) snapped back at Ryuichi "I know you just want to try and be my friends to get close to Torimi. And seeing what you have been doing now with those girls" He narrowed his eyes and glared at them "I must tell you: Stay away from her"

With this, the boys glared at him in return for catching up on their scheme. Except for Shingo, who simply gave a smug smile in return.

"Think you're gonna stop us from getting that beauty. I'll like to see you try- "

A cold shiver then ran down his spine, turning to see Kurogane glaring at him "I think you should listen to him, thug-san"

As the rest of the 'normal' boys proceeded to glare at them too, the bell rang, signalizing the end of the tensest and most awkward lunch any of the boys had in their lives.

Torimi, having seen the whole affair, touched at Ryuichi defending her, and pissed at the boys (specially Shingo) for messing with him, decided to do a little research about the current wariness and contempt Hachimitsu's female population was showing as of now.

"But, if I had to take a guess… Nah, that's not even necessary. This is your doing, isn't it?"

---

In the halls

---

"Umm…Senpai, what is it?" Asked one of the girls who was dragged out by her senpai.

"Did you two see the fliers? The ones distributed through all the school yesterday?" The upperclassman's voice took a serious and concerned tone as she asked this.

"The…Underground Student Council?"
"Speaking of which…we did, but I thought it was a joke"

"It's alright if it's just a joke but…" As she trailed off, she turned her head upwards, towards the upper floors and the rooftop. On the rails, a small flock of crows were either resting or preparing to take flight, along with others that were already flying over the school. The two girls took notice of the crows and, despite thinking it was just their imagination playing tricks on them, they felt the crows were in fact looking at them.

Observing them. Watching them.

"If you see a crow, then you mustn't speak with the boys, if you want to survive in this academy…because they're living here" The upperclassman finished with a grave tone as the three girls continued gazing at the crows.

Unaware that a certain tall, blonde girl was listening in their conversation.

"So I was right. It was her trying to make the boys' school lives miserable" While she was upset at having confirmation about the true nature of the boys' ostracism, she had to admit that at least half of the boys deserved to have such restrictions bestowed on them

"Well, those five are in fact perverts who shouldn't have been accepted here. So I guess she may be right at keeping them away from the girls but…She would try to mess with Ryu too, and label him as much of a sexual deviant as them".

As a heavy scowl crept on her face, her eyes caught onto something that the other girls, from the position they were in, couldn't see.

In the opposite side of the rooftop, Kurogane's small flock of vultures(and a condor) was resting. And their mere presence seemed to get in the nerves of the crows.

"Well, who knew that crows could be so territorial" She smirked to herself "Well, let's see just how much you can get under her skin, birdman" She chuckled before sending one last glance at the crows and leaving, the birds noticing her presence somehow, and their loud squawks making it clear they didn't like her one bit.

---

Inside the classrooms

---

Kiyoshi sat quietly inside the classroom, mindlessly moving his hand, writing whatever the teacher's lecture was all about. He put all of his might into keeping his eyes from wandering upwards, trying as best as he could to make his presence invisible to the crowd of female students filling all the space around him, entrapping the boy into a self-conscious, awkward position.

"Ahh…classes are the worst. Just… girls, all around me. But this isn't the cafeteria, and if I look up and end up ogling some of them, then…I'll be labeled as a pervert! They'll hate me even more than they do now, and all of my dreams. Getting a girlfriend! Losing my virginity! All of that would have ended!"

Needless to say, his mind began to wander into uncharted territory very quickly. Unnecessarily throwing himself into an even greater discomfort.

"God! I wish the others were here…"

As if on cue to this, he dared, for once, to peek over his shoulder ever so slightly, getting a glance of his fellow male companion of the room.

Kurogane's height made it easier for Kiyoshi to look at him without potentially drawing in the attention of his female classmates. And also, the boy itself didn't seem to notice Kiyoshi looking at him. Or his other classmates taking occasional peeks at him.

Giving his looks and size, being stared by the people around him was something he has grown accustomed to, so he could continue on with the lesson without getting distracted by the other people's attention on him.

However, the fact that he could ignore their stares didn't mean he couldn't actually feel them, as he made brief eye contact with Kiyoshi when the latter tried to peek at his direction, with a raised eyebrow.

Kiyoshi immediately snapped his head back to his book, while Kurogane gave a small shrug and did the same

"Damn it! Why did he had to look up-"

His nervousness at getting caught staring ended up playing against him, as he rubbed his eraser over his paper a bit too roughly, causing it to slip out of his hand, and roll into the ground, right between the desks of the two female students sitting in front of him.

At this, Kiyoshi simply let out a groan in frustration "Ah, geez! I'm trying not to stand out here!" Now resigned to the fact he will have to get off his desk to retrieve the eraser, he crawled on all fours between the two girls in front of him.

At this, Kiyoshi simply let out a groan in frustration "Ah, geez! I'm trying not to stand out here". Now resigned to the fact he will have to get off his desk to retrieve the eraser, he crawled on all fours between the two girls in front of him, not daring to lift his eyes from his eraser.

After a few silent, crawling steps he reached for his eraser Now having the item on his hand, he allowed himself to sigh in relief. Now he just had to crawl back to his desk, and no one would know he was even there.

Before he could turn back though, he heard a light gasp to his right.

Trembling, he slowly raised his eyes off the eraser and looked up to see Chiyo, whom he considered the cutest girl in his class, looking at him with a rare touch of seriousness.

The boy stood there, completely frozen by her stare. He could feel his heart beating inside his chest, faster and faster for every second this gaze exchange refused to let itself end.

"Raiden…Tame'emon…" She mumbled, her eyes glued to the eraser Kiyoshi held in his hand. Said eraser presenting the image of a large, topless and barefoot man. Despite his rather large belly, his arms were very muscular.

Which made sense given that the man present on that eraser, which Chiyo correctly identified as Raiden Tame'emon, was one of the greatest sumo wrestlers of all time.

"Huh?"

As Chiyo suddenly found herself getting caught staring at Kiyoshi's hands, she lets out a small gasp and quickly faces the other way, her cheeks red and no longer looking at Kiyoshi. Said boy immediately starts to tremble, frozen in place as cold sweat slides across his face, perfectly reflecting his embarrassment.

"Th-This is the worst! Damn it all! Chiyo! The prettiest girl in my class saw my weird-ass eraser! Mom, even when I told you I don't like it, or sumo for that matter, you still went and bought me goods from professional sumo! Now because Chiyo has seen this eraser, there's no way in hell she'll ever talk to me! DAMN IT! WHY MOM?!"

He crawled back to his seat in complete silence but this time, his body language presented a much more restrained and self-conscious person than before which Kurogane took notice off.

"What's wrong with him?" As his eyes slowly traveled to his right, he saw Chiyo holding her chin on her palm, her cheeks red as her eyes fluttered back and forth between Kiyoshi and her book "Ah, so that's it. Looks like they got awkward for some reason. Maybe she caught him picking up that eraser?" He thought to himself while leaning his face on his palm, his schoolwork done for now.

A few minutes later, the bell ringing signaled to all students that their first class if the year was over. And for Kiyoshi that the worst, most awkward and embarrassing day of his life. He had got the attention of the cutest girl on his class, in the worst possible way. And now she won't even look his way.

"Damn it. Damn it!" Said boy took the eraser out once again and looked at it with absolute disgust "Because of this…this…piece of trash! I lost the chance of speaking to Chiyo!"

As Kiyoshi mentally professed his hatred for the eraser, and everything else sumo-related, Kurogane just gave him a deadpan look from behind.

"…Alright, why are you looking at that eraser as if it just killed your kitty" He then noticed how Kiyoshi's fingers gripped the eraser so hard it was starting to deform "And looks like you're gonna have your revenge soon if that's the case"

The blue haired boy continued to squeeze the lifeoff his eraser with as much rage and scorn as he could muster. Neither him or the tall, black haired boy took notice of a certain innocent, cute girl with dark brown hair who, just like them, has yet to leave the classroom.

"Mom, I'm sorry but…I can't take this anymore!" He internally shouted, his eyes bulging out in rage and frustration. "This whole sumo thing of yours cost me the chance to speak with the cutest girl I've seen in my life!" He lifted the eraser over his head, as if ready to smash it on the ground like a glass bottle, hatred written all over his face.

"Okay, that's creeping me out. Just what the fuck is wrong with this guy?"

If one looked close enough, you could see the tears of remorse and rage flooding his eyes, threatening to burst at a moment's notice "I…HATE…SUMO WREST-"

"Um…" Just before he could smash the eraser on the ground and declare his heart's wish out loud, an innocent voice interrupted him. Kiyoshi looked ahead of himself, confused, while Kurogane was busy looking back and forth between both his classmates

"…Just what the hell was he trying to do right now? And HOW the fuck did he go from that creepy face into a normal one so quickly?"

"Do you…Do you like sumo wrestling?" Chiyo said while slowly turning around to look at Kiyoshi. Kurogane on his part took the chance to quietly walk away, towards the door, so as to not disturb them.

"Huh?"

"Because…" As she said this, Chiyo picked up an eraser exactly as the one Kiyoshi had in his hand (and the one he was previously mentally declaring his hatred to) "I also have Raiden Tame'emon" She said with a small smile and rosy cheeks, looking fondly at her own eraser.

"…" Neither boy knew what to say. They just stood there, eyes wide as plates, processing Chiyo's words.

Kurogane's mind in particular had become a turmoil, remembering a previous small conversation with the blue haired boy right before the class began, and now piecing together the whole thing, from Kiyoshi and Chiyo's embarrassed and awkward attitudes after the former went to retrieve his eraser, to the bizarre hatred he exuded for his eraser after the everyone had gone out.

"Well, fuck me man. I mean, what're the chances? Really…"

Kiyoshi, for his part, was suffering from an equally chaotic state of mind. Not only that, but his emotions and his heart were also thrown into disarray, the eraser and the topic it presented, which he cursed no more than 10 seconds ago, now being the key for gaining the interest of the prettiest girl in his class.

Now having made a complete 180°, he gripped his fist tightly, and with his cheeks just as red as Chiyo's, he gave his answer

"I like-no…I love sumo wrestling!"

At this, Chiyo seemed to lit like a Christmas tree, and her face told the story of a person who has just found a kindred spirit after so long.

However, there was one more person in the room, now by the door, who witnessed the whole thing and sent a narrowed, suspicious glare at Kiyoshi, a previous conversation between the two replaying in his mind.

---

Flashback

---

"Wow. You must really like sumo"

"Eh? Oh! N-No, this is all my mom's stuff. She insisted on buying all of it. Even though I said I don't even like sumo" The blue haired boy had whispered the last part mostly to himself.

"Oh, I see. The loving, smothering 'you-will-heed-to-my-own-obsessions-or-else' kind of mom, right?" The tall boy asked with a crooked brow.

"W-Well, yeah. That's quite accurate, I think" Kiyoshi said with a sheepish laugh

"Anyway, maybe you should take the time and buy stuff you actually like while you're here" Kurogane suggested, earning a curious look from Kiyoshi "Don't throw away that stuff if you think your mom would rip you a new one for it, but take a moment to get yourself some other non-sumo related things, like another eraser for example?"

Kiyoshi seemed to ponder this thought for a second, holding his chin in interest "That's…it may work"

"Yeah. Just make sure to keep that sumo stuff around unless your mom thinks you threw it away" The blue-haired boy let out a nervous laugh at Kurogane's suggestion.

"She'll likely come to the school so she can personally beat me up if I did"

"That bad, huh?"

At that moment, the bell ringed and an attractive teacher, likely on her early twenties entered the classroom. She was dressed in an aqua blue jacket and white shirt, along with a dark blue skirt, black heels and the same sporting ribbon as the female students.

"Okay class, recess' over. Please, take your seats so we can begin our first lesson"

With that, the female students around them scrambled around, looking where to sit. Kiyoshi simply remained on his table while Kurogane went straight to the back of the room, far long used to being there so he doesn't obstruct the vision of anyone behind him.

---

End flashback

---

As the talk boy stood by the door, he pondered about whether it would be a good idea to simply call Kiyoshi out for lying his ass off just to get the attention of Chiyo, or just let him be. The decision was fairly easy to take, and he even felt kind of bad for having thought against it for a moment.

He quickly closed the door and left both teens alone in the classroom, their talk not showing signs of stopping any time soon. It wasn't that he couldn't understand the blue haired boy to a degree: ANY kind of boy would have been thrilled to get the attention of such a girl, and even more so to have something to bond with her. It was honestly the most "normal" he had seen him as, let alone any of the other pervert boys.

Walking by the window, he spared one last look inside, both teens engaged in an enthusiastic back and forth speech about sumo wrestling. However, he could see that it was mainly Chiyo driving the conversation, with Kiyoshi trying to keep up with her.

"Well, no doubt his mother filled his head with sumo trivia". He thought with a smirk. "Maybe he can grow a new appreciation for sumo wrestling, or at least pretend he likes it"

---

Hallways

---

"What's wrong, Homura? You're no longer the center of attention. I thought you'd like that"

As the two boys kept walking through the hallways, the shorter androgynous one was sinking his head between his shoulders, trying his best to not be seen by any of the female students surrounding them. Meanwhile, the taller boy was the one actually getting all the stares and whispers from them, expertly ignoring all of it.

"Y-Yeah. I guess you could say that…" The shy boy responded with a small blush, messing with his hair.

At this, Kurogane eyed him curiously "It's okay Homura. Nothing to be scared of, just let them gossip"

As he thought, his words brought little comfort to the boy, but nonetheless it was as much as he could offer at the moment

As they made their way through the hallway, the whispers began to quiet down, replaced by some small stares here and there from some of the girls on the side. Kurogane took notice of how many of this new girls they found were now carrying some sort of badge on them. He remembered some of the girls at the cafeteria had the same badge too, but among the groups of girls there, he simply thought they were like some kind of "friendship tag" or something.

"That said, looking at them closely, those things look WAY more intricate and expensive to be something like that" He thought to himself as he eyed one of the girls who was too busy chatting with her friends to notice him. All of her friends had the same kind of badge, but with different colors. "Can't help but feel there's something I'm missing"

"Something's wrong, Kurogane-san?"

He was brought out of his thoughts by Gekka's voice, looking down to the boy who eyed him curiously.

"Nah, its nothing" He quickly dismissed, shaking his head "Just thinking about those girls' badges. Can't help but feel something's wrong" He said with his hands on his pockets.

"Oh" Gekka starting to fidget a bit with a blush, looking around nervously "I…I saw them too. At first I thought they were some kind of f-friendship thing"

"So did I. But nope, those things are far too expensive looking for something like that. And too widespread also"

Gekka seemed a bit more at ease after striking a conversation with Kurogane, and dared to move from being on the tall boy's left to his right, so he could stare out the window. Some of the girls were in the school's yard, doing exercises for P.E. Some of them had left their jackets on a series of benches, and even from the distance and their relatively small size, the badges' colors stuck out like a sore thumb against the plain brown.

"I wonder why they just have four colors" Gekka mused quietly.

Kurogane blinked once, before looking at the ceiling in deep thought. "That's right, as of now we must have seen over 4 dozen girls with that badge, and the only colors they come in are black, pink, blue and gold. That doesn't even follow any…um…color logic" He scratched his head, a bit ashamed he couldn't find the right words for it.

As if on cue, a group of girls walked past them, their conversation loud enough to drag them out of their musings. The girls were all wearing those badges, and were flocking around a beautiful girl with short gray/blue hair. Said girl carried a badge of a different color than any both boys had seen before.

"Well, it looks they come in white too" Kurogane commented with a raised eyebrow after they disappeared around the corner.

"Y-Yeah. But…" As Gekka failed to finish his statement, Kurogane looked at him in question, motioning with his hand for him to continue "I'm n-not sure but…Do you think t-that color is important?"

"Don't know, maybe it's a sign of status?" He shrugged "White badges seem to be the rarest ones, and for the way those girls were following her like baby ducks to their mother, I guess it means she's popular?"

Gekka looked at the ground in thought, somehow thinking that both of them were giving too much importance to a simple badge that could not mean anything special in the end. But on the other hand, he remembered how Kurogane said he feels there's something wrong with those badges, despite the fact he couldn't pinpoint what it is.

Said boy was now looking at the yard where the girls were running and exercising, taking notice of another white badge across the jackets. "Well, looks like that girl isn't the only with one of those"

Then he directed his head to the ceiling, trying to organize his thoughts "So now we have badges in white, gold, blue, black and…pink"

Then it hit him. The color of the badges could seem random at first glance, but when putting them in that order, it became far too easy to relate them to a certain company that had not so long ago stablished a huge building on the nearby city. And whose employees also carried badges of the same colors. In fact, those badges were one of the easiest ways for people to identify the company when in casual conversation.

"Wait a minute. Those badges are…from that company. The shady one putting a good face with software design for Microsoft and Nintendo" As he put the pieces together, he couldn't hear Gekka talking to him about how they need to go back to their classroom before recess ends.

"Yeah, if I remember correctly, they were…umm…what's that name" He scratched the side of his head while trying to remember "I think it was, Krema-Khesta-no, umm…Khemest-"

BUMP!

His thoughts were interrupted for a loud thud, looking down to see Gekka on the ground, rubbing his forehead.

"You okay?" He asked while kneeling down to his level.

"Y-Yeah, just… bumped into that wall" Gekka answered shyly before

At this Kurogane looked up to see they had crossed an intersection between two corridors, and Gekka had run face first into the opposite wall.

The tall boy snorted in laughter "Didn't see where you were going?"

"N-No. I was…trying to tell you. Recess is almost over, so we need to go back to class but…" He seemed insecure about the next part, almost as if it would anger Kurogane "You seemed d-deep in thought and, well…"

At this the tall boy's laughter subsided, replaced with a bit of awkwardness for being the reason Gekka had crashed into that wall to begin with "Y-Yeah, okay. My bad"

Kurogane helped him back to his feet, the androgynous boy dusting himself out and adjusting his bag before looking around, sighing in relief when it was clear there was no one around who might have seen his moment of clumsiness.

It was during these quick glances around himself that his eyes caught something attached to the wall he had run into

"What's that?" He asked, pointing at the object

Kurogane followed his finger, now noticing it too, and walking up to it with Gekka trailing behind him. As it turns out, it was a flier, with the picture of a crow on top of it. Kurogane had to bend down quite a bit in order to see what it says:

"Notice to all female Hachimitsu Private Academy students.

As you have been informed, this year Hachimitsu faces the enrolling of their first male students.

However, this doesn't change in any way, shape or form the responsibilities the Underground Student Council has been carrying since the foundation of the Academy.

As such, in order to eliminate any form of ILLICIT RELATIONSHIPS inside school grounds, contact of ANY FORM with the male students is strictly FORBIDDEN.

Punishments for the breaking of this rule will range from a week of house arrest to 10 DAYS IN PRISON.

Nothing Further

Underground Student Council"

"…"

Both boys simply stared at the flier for a minute or so, reading it once, twice, yet no matter how many times they reread it, nothing seemed to made sense for them. Separating students by gender was one thing, but threatening to outright call the cops on them, with some real jail time involved was in a whole new level. And what's more, the flier said there was some sort of "Underground" organization overseeing this whole policy.

It felt like the plot of a Low-Budget B movie inside a school setting for Kurogane.

"Well, that explains why the girls have been avoiding us" The tall boy said sarcastically, while Gekka simply gave a sheepish laugh.

Almost immediately, the loud squawks of crows from the window made them realize that, in the time they had been staring at the flier, almost a dozen crows had gathered around the window's frame. Said birds simply stood there, looking at them with their dark eyes, almost in a judging manner. Gekka began to shake a little out of nervousness, while Kurogane simply narrowed his eyes at the crows before letting out a piercing whistle. A few seconds later, the crows started to become agitated, and the unmistakable flapping of huge wings could be heard over their squawks.

One of his vultures was now in the window's frame while his pet condor stood against the crows in the air. Lautaro's size intimidated most of the crows away, but some of them came to rest at the edge of the rooftop on the other side of the building, still staring at both boys, and a pair even managed to evade the condor and land in the frame of another close window.

Gekka turned to look at him, getting a nonchalant shrug in response.

With this, and now a bit more at ease, Gekka adjusted his bag on his back one last time with Kurogane already walking away.

Before following suit, he spared one last glance at the flier.

"The Underground Student Council" He mused "Just…What the hell is going on in this schoo-"

"Excuse me" He flinched when he heard the voice of a girl not two steps away from him. This also got Kurogane's attention, who turned around to see who was talking to them.

Standing there was a rather elegant looking girl, with long black hair flowing over her back and sharp blue eyes. She wore the same school uniform as any other girl at the school, only that she had dark tight stockings matching her shoes. Also, this girl had to be one of the most beautiful ones either of them had seen in the school, or even out of it.

Despite the friendly smile she gave them, neither of them gave the response one would have expected from two teenage boys facing such a beauty. Kurogane simply raised a brow in bored curiosity, while Gekka was immediately on high alert. He could instinctively feel something off about this girl, and his body began to tense as said girl continued to speak.

"Do you happen to be a first year student?"

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...

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First of all, I profousily apologize for having taken so long.

Some personal issues and lack of inspiration almost made me drop this story. However, I have not, and I plan to keep it alive for as long as a can

I also wanted to clarify some things:

First and most important it's that my character, Gekka, its actually my version of a character created by another author here on fanfiction. Said character its Matsuri Hitoyoshi, the protagonist of "Hitoyoshi and the Prison School" of Shadowdream30. I spoke to the author and waited until I had permission to implement a similar character on my own story (if you read his work, which I highly recommend you do, you will see that both of them are in fact quite similar, but as requested by Shadowdream30, there WILL be differences between them).

Also, I decided to clarify some things regarding my OCs looks, being their heights and/or characters from other anime/manga that they physically resemble (if they resemble any at all)

Lautaro: Kurogane's most loyal pet, an Andean condor (the world's largest vulture and third largest flying bird) who measures 310cm (10ft 2in) from one tip of his wings to the other, and 15 kg (33 pounds) in weight.

Kurogane Seijuro: 202cm (6ft 7in)

Rhett Kilgore and Hagane Mochizuki: 183cm (6ft)

Torimi Morinomiya: 186cm (6ft 1in). Also, regarding her physical appearance, I always envisioned her, in looks and clothing style, as a cross between Honjou Ranko (Hajimete no gal) and Ikumi Mito (Shokugeki no Soma)

Gekka Homura: 170cm (5ft 7in). For him, I imagine him as being very similar to Hideyoshi Kinoshita from "Baka to test to Shoukanjuu", only that Gekka is less exaggeratedly feminine looking (enough to be identifiable as a boy by most people) and without the hairclips, having his bangs brushed off to the side.

That's all for now

See you next chapter!