A/N: Honjo's and SUgihara's nicknames are real.

Disclaimer: I' don't owe any of the characters except for Solange Summers and Asamori Sora.

Thankfully, the freshmen war in the hall was waning by the time she returned. By now, the teachers had made a smart choice and were nowhere to be seen. Deciding it would be the best to follow in their footsteps, she turned to sneak out, not wanting to get caught in the ongoing battle.

"Where you think you're going, bastard?"

She ducked and a fist landed where her head has been. "Er... Out?"

She eyed the scruffy boy in front of her. His only answer was a challenging roar as he threw himself at her.

Only to be met midway with a chair.

"Where did you go?" Honjo demanded as he punched another fellow. "You missed a lot."

"The toilet?" She sidestepped an unconscious freshman. "What did I miss?"

"Someone got arrested; Squid head chickened out, and majority of this fight."

Sora didn't respond, being too busy dodging the various furniture and humans thrown her way. "Whoa! Hey! Watch where you dump those guys!"

"You have no right to demand when you cannot fight."

Sora sighed. No other choice then, she can't keep letting Honjo defend her. He's hard pressed enough to hold his own as it is. She grabbed a fist that was flying towards her and easily twisted the arm in a classic aikido move, throwing the guy away from her.

"I thought you said you can't fight." Honjo sounded outraged.

"I never said that." She defended herself, as she stood back to back with Honjo. "I merely said I'm good at pulling a Houdini, that's all."

"A what?"

"Never mind."

She wasn't aware how long she had fought. A few times, she had been hit but nothing serious. She was beginning to understand why Suzuran delinquents loved fighting. The adrenaline rush was exciting, and the exhaustion and breathlessness satisfying.

"Yosh! That's the last one!" Kirishima said, satisfaction evident in his voice. "Now, we own the first years!"

Sora didn't bother answering to that. She sat down hard on the floor, one arm clutching her chest as she struggled to get oxygen back into the lungs. The "man-vest" she was wearing, while perfect for streamlining her body into a male physique, made it hard and painful for her to breathe.

"Thought you said you can't fight?" Kirishima's voice was demanding even as a hand was held in front of her eyes. She took it and pulled herself up.

"I never... said... that." She panted. "I merely said I'm good at escaping, that's all."

Reminds me why I'm not fighting. While the adrenaline rush is awesome, the difficulty to breathe is not worth it. The risk of discovery is even less so.

"I really can't fight for a long period of time."

"I can see that..." Kirishima drawled out with one eyebrow raised. "You really need to train your stamina."

"Pretty impressive." The smooth voice had Kirishima whirling around, fast as lightning, and Sora to straighten up immediately. A broad-shouldered guy – obviously a third year – strolled in confidently. He was handsome, in a roguish way, with his dyed blonde hair spiked up, and his jacket sleeves pulled up, revealing his elbows and hands. Sora gulped when she caught sight of the scars littering his fists and arms. This guy looked like he can crack her head with his bare hands. "As your junior high alum, and upperclassman, you do me proud."

He could have passed off as a normal gang leader who relied more on his fists but there was a crafty intelligence in those dark eyes that made Sora instantly wary. Brawn and brains together are not to be trifled with.

"Don't flatter yourself, Izaki-san." There was defiance in Kirishima's voice as he stepped forward to meet Izaki head on. Likewise, Sora followed cautiously, stopping just behind Honjo and Kirishima. "We're ready to take you on too."

"Hiromi, do you know who're talking to?" Honjo asked. Sora frowned when she detected a hint of fear in his voice.

"I'm with Hiromi on this one. Age makes no difference in Suzuran." It was Sugihara who said this. Had the situation not be so tense, Sora would have probably gaped at Sugihara. It was the first time since their meeting that he had voluntarily joined in a conversation.

"Hmm..." Izaki smirked and swaggered towards Kirishima. Suddenly, he grabbed Kirishima by his collar, his smirk sliding off like water off a glass surface. Dark eyes met Kirishima's defiant ones in a promise of retribution. "Come see me anytime." Izaki said quietly. He looked at Sugihara. "And you, get a haircut first."

With that, he let go of Kirishima, staring at each of them as if to mark them in his memory. For a moment, their eyes met and Sora detected a slight narrowing of his eyes. And then, he turned and left, footsteps loud in the now silent hall.

The moment his footsteps faded, Kirishima let out a long slow hiss of breath, breaking the tense silence. And Sora knew, in that instant, that Kirishima was afraid. In a way, that disturbed Sora. Anyone who could scare daredevil Kirishima is someone to be reckoned with.

"Even he can't take on the third years..." Kirishima commented.

"Competition is stiff here." Sugihara remarked.

"Don't really mean to interrupt..." Sora hesitated. "But who was that and what's going on?"

"That's Izaki Shun - Leader of class 3D. He used to be from our junior high school – Ebizuka junior high." Honjo answered. "As for why he's here, Well, recruitment."

That would make sense.

"So he was waiting until the fight is over to see who among the freshmen will be the last ones left standing. And then he swoops in to try and recruit them in an effort to bolster his strength against the rest of the third years, as well as to increase his own power within Suzuran? Because these few would be the strongest of all the freshmen."

"Yeah... That's about it..." Krishima let out a harsh cough, wiping the blood off the side of his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Smart guy..." Sora remarked, furrowing her eyebrows. Jeez, this is looking more and more like a multi-pronged war.

"As expected of Izaki-san." Sugihara's voice was, as usual, neutral.

Kirishima frowned at him. ""Aren't you giving him too much credit, Mako?"

"What?" Sora blanched visibly, the seriousness of the atmosphere breaking with that. "Mako?"

"Yeah, that's his nickname. We've been calling him that since elementary school..."

"Your nickname is Mako? Seriously?" Sora couldn't help gaping.

Isn't that, like, a girl's name?

"Is there a problem?" She couldn't see Sugihara's eyes behind his sunglasses but his face was granite neutral.

"Er... No... No problem..." Sora rubbed a hand over mouth, hiding her smile. "So, er... You mind me calling you Mako too?"

"You can call Honjo Pon too. That's his nickname."

"Oy!"

When she finally got back home that day, she flopped down onto her black sofa in exhaustion.

"Damn..." she moaned when her sore body came into contact with the sofa. Sighing, she shifted into a sitting position andremoved her layers of clothes down to her undergarments, revealing the numerous bruises littering her arms and legs. "That's more injuries than I ever had in my life."

Her cell phone chose that moment to ring, and she frown questioningly. Only the Ebizuka Trio – Kirishima, Mako and Pon – had her cellphone number as of now. Oh, and Genji-san. But it couldn't be them who called, could it? It's only the first day of school, for Christ's sake!

"Hello?" She answered in Japanese.

"Hello?" A female voice asked in English. Sora smiled as she realised who was on the line. Solange Summers was her parents' lawyer and her mum's best friend. Now, she had become Sora's advisor and close confidante.

"Hey, Solange, wasn't expecting you to call so fast. No bad news, I hope?" Sora switched to speaking English, making her way to her kitchen.

"Hey, girl. Well, there's a piece of good news and a piece of bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"

She took out a tub of salad from her fridge and slammed the door shut. "Good news."

"The court has approved for your application to be a legally emancipated adult. Aren't you happy not to go into foster care?"

"Sure I am... Now, the bad news?"

"You don't sound too happy at all. The bad news is, in accordance to your parents' will, all their assets will be held in trust until you reach 21, and the Probate Court appointed me as the Trustee. The payout's not a lot, for a rich pampered brat like you."

"That's not a bad news!" Sora sandwiched her cell phone between her shoulder and her ear as she dug into chicken salad. "I'm not pampered, damn it! I can do without the luxuries."

"Oh if you say so..."

Sora could hear the skepticism in Solange's voice. She scowled at that. "The payouts don't really matter. I have enough savings to live on."

"You're only sixteen... Why wouldn't you let me adopt you? It's the least I could do for your parents."

Sora grimaced. "We've been through this before, Solange... I'm not going to go into this again."

A sigh. "Alright... But are you living well there in Japan?"

"I'm good... I managed to get into Suzuran... You sure Mum mentioned it's Suzuran?"

"It's the only thing about her past your mum has ever told me, so of course I'm sure... Why?"

Sora hesitated. How was she going to tell her about Suzuran and its warring factions? scratch that, how was she going to tell her she cross-dressed as a guy to get in? It's not something one can easily break to an adult. Her need to confide in someone warred with logic. In the end, need won out. "Suzuran is a boys' school. I managed to sneak in by masquerading as a guy."

"You masqueraded...! I'm flying over..."

"Woman, listen!" Sora exploded, releasing all the pent up emotions from the hectic day. There was silence on the other line, which Sora interpreted as a signal to continue. She sighed and sagged against the counter top in her kitchen, her salad forgotten. "Sorry, I got carried away."

"... It's OK..." Solange was cautious as she answered. "You were saying...?"

"Suzuran's not just a boys' school, it's a school for the delinquents – the most infamous one, in fact. You and I both agreed this school must have been significant to mum. Otherwise, she won't have mentioned this school to you." Sora was aware she was ranting but she couldn't stop. "So how on earth did mum ever get to know this school so well? It's a gangster school, and her nature... Well, she's definitely not delinquent material... "

There was silence for a long time. "I don't know, girl... I really wanna know why your mum never mentions anything else at all about her past too. But is it really that important to you to find out?"

"Mum and dad were fighting about something before they died." Sora said quietly, eyes darkening to a stormy blue. "It has to do with her past. I have to find out. I have to know."

"You really are as stubborn as your mother. Are you really sure you don't need me to come over? It's a pretty dangerous game you're playing."

"I can handle this. Trust me." She wished she could be as confident as she sounded. But she's not going to have Solange risk her job to come over. She'd helped out enough

"All right, then." There was a loud knock and muffled conversation on the other side. "Hey,I got a meeting. I'll call you back some other time? Take care of yourself, alright? Call me if you need me?" Thankfully, it was Solange who had to break the connection first.

"Alright, bye."

"Promise!"

"Yeah, yeah, I promise. Bye!"

She snapped her cell phone shut and left it on the counter top, near a framed photo of an older woman with a younger girl. With the exception of the eyes which are a grey-blue in colour, the younger girl would have been an exact replica of the older woman. Both of them were smiling happily, hugging each other as they faced the camera.

"Seriously, mum, what do you have to hide?" Sora couldn't help but wonder aloud as she stared at the photo.