Chapter 6: A New Start

May 23, 2016

S.F.I Academy

"We will have a one on one match today," she hid a small smile as everyone exchanged looks of discomfort and worry. Misaki cleared her throat and walked inside the semicircle the students formed and stepped onto the mats laid in the middle.

"You can use whatever method or technique you know, whatever it will take to defeat me. Your only objective is make my back touch the ground, if you win you will be exempted of the punishment,"

Misaki faced them, she extended her index finger and beckoned the student sitting first in the semicircle. The student nervously glanced at his seatmate and his friend gave him a reassuring nod. He stood up and stepped onto the mat to face her. Misaki rolled up her shoulders and stretched her arms across her body.

She gave him a sinister smile, "Ready?" she asked and widened her stance.

He slightly nodded and copied her posture, Misaki advanced towards him while the student kept his distance away from her. They walked around into a circle as Misaki continued to prey on him.

"Are we going to do this the entire day?"

A few students whispered their concern while Takumi couldn't help but smirk after seeing this side of her, she continues to surprise him with her personality. She initiated the first move and attacked him, the student immediately ran back out of the mat. A few students laughed while most felt sympathetic towards him.

"Again." Misaki called him over.

"You can do it Myukie," the other students encouraged

He took a deep breath and stepped back into the mat. He slowly moved forward and approached Misaki, he summoned some courage and reached for her arm to haul her over. She counteracted and pushed him down the ground with ease.

"That is your move?" she was dissatisfied, "Next," she looked at the next student.

Ten students later and nobody was close to being able to beat her. She counteracted and dodged all of their moves. She displayed her skills in various kinds of martial arts which came in handy when it was her turn to strike.

Misaki folded her arms across her chest and shook her head in displeasure, "I am very disappointed in all of you today, have the academy not taught you enough?"

She made sure to look at each one of them intensely, some of them avoided her stares and some stared back with guilt. Her eyes landed on a pair of emerald eyes, he gawked at her with an impassive look and yawned, her eyebrows shot up.

"Am I boring you Takumi Usui?"

He woke up from his trance and looked back at her.

"No. I actually enjoy watching you kick all of these guy's butts, I just had a long night," he yawned once more.

This irritated her more, "Well, why don't you show me what you got. Your next," she positioned herself in the middle. Takumi strode into the mat and stood in front of her.

"Glad to show you," he smirked

"You are pretty cocky, huh," she lowered herself and brought up her hands.

He stepped to his left as Misaki slowly walked closer to him, "Let's say I am confident in some ways."

Misaki snorted and attacked, she delivered a punch to his throat and he dodged it effortlessly

"Is that all you've got Misa-chan," he taunted.

She glowered at his incitement and reached for his arm, she twisted it around and brought up her knee to hit his stomach, "Don't call me that again,"

He muffled a groan, "Not bad," Takumi reached down his stomach and slightly massaged it. That will leave a bruise tomorrow.

A triumphant smile formed on her lips, "Come on, give me your best shot. Stop dodging me,"

"I am a gentleman. I don't like hurting women, especially beautiful ones,"

"Ha. Screw you," She swung her right leg towards his sides but he caught her leg and secured his left arm around her thighs while he used his leg to trip her left foot. At the same time Misaki got his neck on a headlock and they both dropped down on the ground. She groaned and let go of his head while Takumi lifted himself up and used his palms to support his weight to look at her.

"I win," he smirked, "Can we stay in this position forever?" he lowered himself to her.

Misaki flushed as she realized the proximity of their body, she pushed him off and sat up. Takumi chuckled at her action and stood up. She ignored the hand he offered and got back on her feet. Misaki faced her students with a red face, "Next," she glared at him.

The entire room erupted into cheers as he went back to his seat. Misaki became more irritated, she compensated by throwing the rest of her students down on the ground. Hard.

As the rest of the class got readied to start their 100 laps. Takumi approached Misaki

"Are you okay?" he stood beside her. She ignored him and continued signing and checking her students' report cards.

"Yeah, I am fine,"

"You don't sound too fine," he teased once again.

The pen stopped moving as her grip tightened, "I said I am fine,"

"It was a simple match," he sat on the table nonchalantly.

"You are always trying to outdo me and it is pissing the crap out of me,"

"I didn't know Misa-chan is a sore loser,"

She gaped at him in shock, "Did you just call me a sore loser?"

"Will hitting me make you feel better?

"What?" she frowned at him

"Hit me," he got off the table and stood in front of her. She lifted a brow and without any warning she delivered a punch to his gut.

The impact made Takumi bend forward as he cradled his stomach "Argh,"

Misaki gaped at him for a second then bursted out laughing "Sorry these last few days has been very frustrating. I guess that was for your team too. All of you are very infuriating," She patted his shoulder and continued to laugh, "That helped a lot, thanks."

"Anytime," He didn't expect that she would actually hit him but a small smile formed on his lips, it was the first time he heard her laugh and it was melody to his ears.

"Are you okay?" she tried to hold back her laugh as she watched him in pain

"I will be fine," he straightened his back and continued on, trying to ignore the sharp shooting pain on his gut.

Misaki went back to signing her reports while shaking her head amusedly, Takumi remained quiet and sat on the table while waiting for her. She arranged her papers when she saw on her peripheral vision Takumi poking his belly and slightly groaning. A small chuckle escaped her throat, he stopped what he was doing and looked at her

"What?" She shook her head and finished up with her report.

"Ready?" He asked while she put away her folders back into her bag.

"Yeah," he walked ahead of her while she lagged behind. She clutched her gym bag as she watched him from behind. She couldn't help but admit that her first impression of him was wrong after all. They were all put in a complicated situation and with the institutes safety on the line they all reacted impulsively and faith in each other was tested. She couldn't blame him for acting the way he did.

She caught up to him and reached out for his arm, he stopped on his tracks and turned around to face her.

Her hand dropped down to her sides while she looked down the floor, "I know we didn't get off with a good start but I hope that we will be able to put aside our differences and start over again," if they will be working together again the only logical solution was to get along with him and his team to avoid anymore risk of putting everyone's life in danger.

Takumi smiled at her and patted her on the head "I would like that." Misaki looked up and stared back at his emerald eyes. She blinked herself out of her daze and immediately looked away.

He walked ahead, "Hurry up, they are closing the building in 5 minutes," he called out, she got flustered and began walking.

They walked out the gym together and passed by the office building when he saw his team talking to a group of people. He smelled trouble all the way from where he was standing.

"Misaki, I will talk to you later," he quickly bid his farewell and ran into the building

Before she could reply he was already running towards the administrative building.

-x-

"We are being deployed to Hong Kong to go after Kiro. Don't worry, we will clean up your mess and finish the mission," the tall man with glasses patted Tora's shoulder.

"I never expected anything from this group of incompetent people anyway," his team laughed alongside him.

Tora scoffed and grabbed him by the collar "What did you say?"

He became tense and tried to push Tora away, "W-what are you doing?"

Takumi quickly interjected and pulled him away

He released a sigh of relief and composed himself once again, "Well look who joined us," he fixed his glasses and slightly straightened out his crumpled shirt, "Pleasure to see you again, Takumi."

"What do you want?" Takumi faced Kyoya.

He put his hands in his front pockets and the corner of his mouth quirked into a mocking smile, "You know your team is the laughing stock of the academy,"

Takumi' clenched his fist in annoyance, "If you have nothing else to say just leave,"

"Don't worry nobody really expected a lot from you, we all knew you are going to fail," he grinned

"Shut the fuck up," Kuuga made his way towards Kyoya. Takumi put his hands on his shoulders to stop him. Getting into a physical fight was the last thing they needed after being put into probation.

Instead he faced Kyoya and smirked, "How much did daddy pay to let you have some time to play out in the field?"

Kyoya's chortled in response and Kyoya's face reddened in humiliation, he pointed a finger at Takumi and his team, "I will get you kicked out, all of you,"

"Will your daddy sue us too for making you cry?" Tora asked mockingly

"Break it off," Jiro bellowed over the commotion. He leaned back on the doorway and looked at them with exhaustion.

Kyoya scowled at them before leaving with his posse following behind.

Jiro let the boys into his office and sighed, "Haven't you learned your lesson yet?"

"You are letting those guys take over our mission? Are you out of you mind?" Kuuga asked in disdain.

"It is the director's order. I don't have any say in this and if you didn't fail the mission then we wouldn't be having this conversation," Kuuga became quiet and sat back down.

Jiro fired up his computer and went back to business, "We have a special assignment for you, I know you are still under probation but we need a special team to handle this case."

The boys perked up and showed their excitement forgetting about the clash from earlier, "Back to the big game," Hinata smirked in delight

"The minister is getting married on Saturday and they have been receiving some death threats. There might be a possible bombing or assassination since a lot of member of the government will be attending the event," they nodded in understanding.

"Your job is to survey the area and take out people that poses as a threat to the safety of the guests. But you can't do this alone. We are sending you a back up team," the door creaked open and the girls walked in.

"You called us in?" Misaki asked

"I need your cooperation to work together again," Jiro said.