"Oh ho, of course the Vice President of the Student Council gets to continue playing in the next round, despite her obvious cheating!" Watsuji smiled widely at the scoreboard as it showed the participants of the next round.
"I already agreed not to do it again, so you don't have to worry about it." Tsubame rebutted. "The way it's going, it seems that anything that isn't explicitly written down in the rules is fair game the first time. So it is not cheating, and I would insist you not call it that!"
"Bending the rules isn't exactly something one of our representatives should be doing. Add that to your blow-up during fitting yesterday, oh ho! Your girlfriend is having a very detrimental impact on your attitude!"
"Buster, if you don't want an impact on your face, I'd suggest you be quiet."
"Ahahahaha! More violence! What, don't like being called out as a cheater? Maybe we should add liar to your list of titles too?"
"Not a cheater…I told you, I'm not a cheater. All right! Attagirl, knock 'em out!" She gave a short cheer as Ranika walked onto the field, although it came out gruffer than she'd have usually done.
"Again with the cheater thing." Watsuji leaned back in his seat with a small glint in his eye. "You might prove more fun than I thought."
"Welcome back to the games! Are you ready for another display of sheer determination? Then let's go ahead and cut right to it! Warriors! Are you ready!?"
Ranika pounded the air with her left arm and kissed her bicep. Mako winked at a camera in the audience with a cheeky smile.
"Then you may begin!"
Ranika aimed her arm at him and let loose a volley of air blasts towards Mako, every subsequent shot growing more powerful. As the winds grew stronger, Ikasaki created a vine wall to protect the side of the stadium getting pelted by the gusts.
With no warning, a wave came crashing into Ranika that put even her strongest blast to shame. She was pushed off her legs and fell to the ground, sliding cross the concrete.
"Fuck." She cursed under her breath as Mako arrogantly strode across the ring.
"You were just giving me ammunition there, not your best choice." He held his hand tightly closed. In a few seconds, it began to create a whirling sound inside of it, the sound of air being blown around violently making even Ranika wary.
"Although, I don't really need ammo to begin with."
He released his grip on the air and unleashed a shockwave towards her. She got to her feet and shot out her own blast to retaliate, which did little to faze its power. She was pushed back yet again, and was also forced to cover her mouth to properly breathe.
Meanwhile, Mako was bathing in the adulation of the crowds, particularly making faces for the snapping cameras. "See this? That's the kind of power you all missed out on passing over me!" Hearing her labored breathing behind him, he beamed. "So you wanna keep this going or you want to skip to where you lose?" He closed his hand again to ready another wave.
She propelled herself forwards with a smaller blast of air, catching him off-guard. But to no avail, for as soon as she swung with her fist, he instinctively raised his free hand to defend himself, and coming into contact with his open palm sent a force through her body that knocked her every atom backwards at twice the speed she'd flew in with. Only temporarily dazed, she caught herself using her quirk and safely rocketed herself back into the arena.
"Augh! The hell do I do against this!?" She ruffled her hands through her hair before refocusing on him. Without hesitating, she launched herself towards him again while watching his hands.
He took his closed hand and released the wind inside. She quickly pushed herself out of the way and tried to catch him while he was recovering from the recoil of his attack.
Except there was none. He instantly turned and dodged her kick. He slapped her leg down into the ground, making a loud snap when the arena cracked from the impact, along with her leg.
"AHHH!" She held her leg and held back tears while the crowd audibly gasped. Mako backed off, himself shocked at how hard he'd hit her. A wave jeers and boos came his way, to which he had naught to say save for a sheepish head scratch.
"Hey man! Not cool!"
"Maybe hold back a bit!?"
"Ranika!" Tsubame seemed ready to storm the stage but was held back by Watsuji's many cards along with several students holding her down in general.
Suiiki jumped to his feet but Daisuke was already two steps ahead of him, grabbing his arms and welding his fingers together so he wouldn't be able to escape.
"Daisuke!"
He flinched at Suiiki's irritation. "Sui, h-hold on! C-can't she…uhh…you know?"
"Correct." Genso replied without waiting for him to finish. "Though worrying for almost anyone else, this amount of damage is comparatively meager for Ranika's body."
"Don't spoil the surprise, dork!" Ranika rose to her feet and pushed her leg sideways, an unsettling crack making half the audience wince. "But guess they've already seen some of it anyway against the card bastard!"
Once he saw her feet leave the ground, he closed both his hands while retreating from her. Skittering about erratically, she was forced to continuously shift her momentum every few seconds. Then with no warning, he turned around and put his hands in a narrow 'V' shape. A long, steady, and concentrated stream of air blew out with even more force than the shockwave. Even though she had ducked early enough to dodge most of it, he lowered the angle of his arms and followed her body downwards. More than simply pushing her back, she felt it cut through parts of her skin and clothes.
Her cuts sealed back up as quickly as they came, but she was still without a way to effectively fight him. He cupped his hands together again and put his thumb on the side towards her.
"You're pretty good at dodging, but dodging doesn't win matches." He flicked his thumb out for a second, releasing a tiny pocket of wind her way. With only inches to spare, it zoomed by and struck the wall leaving a small crater in its wake.
"Mmm, an excellent strategy from Mako," Genso pulled his notebook from his rear pocket and began glancing over several pages. "Who's shown much more proficiency with his quite unique power than I'd expect for someone with his predilections. That is, his general attitude and flirtatious inclination belies a truly competent fighter underneath his-"
"He's also really good at fighting!" Suiiki said, slowly wriggling his arm free of Daisuke's literal iron grip.
"…that is what I…yes, indeed he is." He checked over his pages on Ranika and began to chew on his bottom lip. "But this could be trouble; the battles lasting much longer than her previous match."
His case in point, her arms bled profusely from the amount of times she'd ran her quirk across them to create her air blasts, and even her supernatural healing was starting to lose pace with it. For a minute, she thought about using her real quirk against him, just to get one of his arms out of the way, then banished the idea.
"No. I can't risk doing that again." Her raspy voice caught her by surprise, both in that she was thinking out loud and that it sounded as bad as it did.
Even as she was only distracted for a moment, it was enough for him to take advantage of her trajectory and aim ahead of her, a wind bolt hitting her on her abdomen and knocking her onto the arena floor.
"Aha! Like shooting birds outta the sky! Emphasis on 'bird', hehe…" Mako raised his arms triumphantly. The stadium cheered for the admittedly impressive feat of shooting such a fast target. "That's right, eat it up! The hottie that trashed 30 of those robots at the exam is no match for…"
As he watched Ranika clutch her side in agony on the ground, he felt some of his bravado fade away. It was now he noticed that even though the stadium was as loud with cheers as ever, most of his classmates weren't thrilled in the least. Kisho was one of the few who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the match, his expression one of slight amazement. Making eye contact with one another, he gave a quick nod with a thumbs up.
"This ain't over yet." Ranika sputtered while she was still on the ground. "I'm still in the ring."
Mako sighed and gathered air inside his fist. "'Kay, let's end it then."
He approached her carefully, observing her hands. They were still at her side holding it tightly. "You'll fly away again if I just shoot at you, right? Gotta make this one big to make sure I really get ya." He cupped both his hands together. "I recommend shielding your face. Even with how masculine you act, you are still quite a looker."
On cue, she blasted a shot across her ribs and rocketed skyward. The strong winds she created made him cover his eyes with both arms, trying to hold the kinetic energy inside hands still.
A powerful punch landed on his chest, followed by a massive air push from behind that left him sliding halfway across the stage. Scrambling to get his bearings straight, he saw her rushing towards him from above. He tossed his wave at her with little effect.
"Your ridiculous wind attacks are no match for gravity itself!" She quite literally hammered the point home by falling elbow first into his stomach.
The crowd likely said some choice words about the blow – particularly the students – but neither of them were paying attention anymore. Ikasaki turned to Erina with his vines already close to the stage. She shook her head rapidly to his own surprise. Tossing his hands in the air, he gestured to the intense violence on display but she held a hand up for him to stay his ground.
"Keep close but don't interfere yet. This is good exposure for the school." She spoke telepathically.
"Exposure!? Woman, do you even-oh, this little…" He whispered to himself. "I advise you not to look into my head at this moment, lest you hear some very uncouth words."
"Think what you want, but do not interfere."
Mako tried desperately to get his hands between their bodies but she was carefully waiting and pinning them down. He put his hands on the ground and burst himself into her headfirst, hitting her chest. She climbed off him gasping for oxygen; he had thoroughly knocked the wind out of her. Once he got to his feet, his vision temporarily became blinded in red when his own blood dripped into his eyes.
Hearing Ranika fling herself with her power, he quickly pushed a stream directly into his eyes, drying them out and cleaning the blood away. With his bloodshot eyes, he made out the rapidly advancing form of a human. With both hands in a fist, he readied himself to release the energy inside them in full.
She readjusted her path, flying over his arm behind him and positioning her hand right behind his head.
"Too bad! So sad!" She cried in time with her final attack, ripping across her skin and now exposing muscle."
Mako unleashed his right hand's attack and turned off his quirk, allowing the force to propel him backwards. Past her hand, away from the attack, he soared directly into her body with his own. Although he couldn't see much with his eyes stinging from the dryness, now that he felt her form, he didn't need to. He turned her way and opened his left palm against her stomach.
"Sad for YOU!"
Her body tore across the air into the arena floor and bounced out of it unconscious. She was airborne for several seconds before making contact with the grass and rolling limply onto her stomach. She was there for not even two seconds when Ikasaki immediately ran over to snatch her up and head back inside, with an ice-cold glare to Erina and the judges inside the press box.
"Wow! A knockout AND a ring-out! What a showstopping display from Mako Ishiwatari! I am slightly worried about both our competitors' health status but judging from that, it didn't seem neither of them cared! They weren't going to stop for some trivial rules or concerns! They were in the midst of a grand duel! Taken in the heat of the moment, they cared not for- oh…yes Erina…hah, alright. Your winner, everybody!"
Rubbing his eyes sorely, Mako looked up to see cheers mixed with concerned faces, especially from his peers. Most of Ranika's friends were already gone, something that gave him a bit of pause in celebrating. The non-stop cheers soon made him forget about it and take in his moment, albeit with less zest than before. Wiping off some blood and wincing as he did so, he struck several poses while flashing a pained smile.
"Nothing-ugh! …nothing to it!"
A desperate leap to the right helped Kisho little as his opponent mercilessly threw flames at him, eyes locked on him with the intensity of a tiger chasing a gazelle. He had tried several times to close the gap but she'd avoided him at every turn, making the battle about as difficult as he had imagined.
Hinote's wall of flame that cut him off from half the arena was itself guarded by two large rotating pillars that were slowly pushing him back towards the ring's edge. In addition to this, a carpet of embers surrounded her body, leaving no gaps in her defense or offense.
At this rate, I'll have to take a risk and run straight through her walls. The council president looked over to the stands and saw the empty seats where his vice president and partner used to sit. As much as I hate to even think it, would be nice to get some vocal support right about now.
A shot of fire narrowly missed its' mark and simmered out on the ground where he once stood. Although he wasn't very adept in most combat situations – his quirk being somewhat of a crutch – the president had shown agility beyond what most had expected of him. Though you would be hard pressed to find anyone who believed he had a chance against the orange-haired flame wielder.
Hell with it, I won't go down without trying!
Steeling himself for the damage he was about to inflict on himself, he broke into a full sprint into the hellscape ahead of him, both arms outstretched and searching for his target.
"The hell!?" Not expecting such a bold move, Hinote released a steady stream of flame straight into his body. The fire licked at his uniform and skin, but he persevered onward, much to her surprise. Instinctually, she backed away and tripped over herself, giving him time to close the gap.
"Kisho, wait!"
Making the slightest bit of contact with her arm, he pooled as much water as he could into her before he found her skin too hot to continue holding onto. He screamed while retreating out of the infernal castle she had created and examined his hand. His eyes shrunk and he began to hyperventilate when he saw the true extent of the damage. His hand had third degree burns on all but his fingers, which had mostly melted and now stuck to each other.
Hinote quickly extinguished her fire and ran over to his side, where she was summarily picked up and held away by Ikasaki's large vines.
"Stunning show! Let's hear some noise for her second win of the day!" His energy distracted the crowd from Kisho's dire health issue.
A bowl of lightly red water was brought over to him by the long-haired healer. He dunked his hand inside and tried to absorb some of the liquid to heal himself with little success. The muscles and veins healed relatively quickly but the skin was unable to recover.
"Incinerated cells can't regenerate." She told him. "Had to learn that the hard way too. Follow her to the infirmary, and try not to mess with fire again." She pointed to the pink haired police chief, who still had the same soulless expression as always. "I'll be there in a bit."
Through his pained grunts, he was able to speak a few words to her. "So you're Hanako?"
She tried to play off her flinch as if she was scratching her arm. "We have a schedule here, move it!"
"I just-" Her face had anger across it, but her eyes beget a semblance of anxiety behind them.
"Did you burn your ears out too? Get lost!"
Hinote walked past Manaka inside the entrance hallway and sat in one of the chairs, her sullen disposition evident. While she was a brutish girl, it seemed even Manaka had some decency to pick up on when someone wanted to be left alone. She gave Hinote a light push and a thumbs up, continuing onto the field to meet her opponent. Hinote faked a smile to get her to leave quicker.
Once alone, she moaned loudly. "I didn't think he would just touch me like that. It should've been way too hot for him to even approach me!" She leaned her back against the chair and reached her arms to touch the wall behind her. "Meant to scare him into a forfeit but what can ya do."
While she was stretching, she noticed a slight bulge in her left arm. With only slight concern, she lowered it to her face and nearly hit herself with its extra weight. "The hell? What'd I do, bruise it? Didn't even notice."
She pulled back her sleeves to see the swelling better. Aside from the many cuts along her arm, they were accompanied by a large bulbous mass beneath her skin, which had also slightly torn a small slit into her skin.
"That's totally gnarly looking. Eh, nothing a little self-cauterization can't fix. I've done worse to myself besides." When she went to ignite her arm, only a small spark arrived, before quickly sputtering out. Alarmed, she rose to her feet and tried again with much more feeling. She got a tiny ember for a few seconds until like before, it flickered away.
"What is happening?" She lightly poked the swelling on her arm and saw it move across the appendage with ease. "Ah! Last I checked, bruises stayed stationary!" Moving her hand across her arm yielded the same results, leaving her questioning her sanity. "Is this water? In my arm? You've gotta be kidding me."
She created a fire in her right hand with no effort, more or less providing her with the answer. "Right. Well, that also answers how I get rid of this." Hinote blasted her left arm with a wave of flame in an attempt to burn the water out of her. "Clever trick, I'll give him that. That really could have cooked me if he didn't have to make contact. Tough break he had to fight me." She stopped burning to see how she'd done. Her eyes widened as the blob began to bubble beneath her skin painfully. The girl began to panic for what was the first time in a while as she looked for a teacher nearby to help her. "Uh, hello? Kinda need some assistance, if you don't mind?"
Hearing no reply filled her with dread and she watched in horror as her skin began to turn purple. "Help! Someone please, help!" She slumped to the ground in pain and grit her teeth as she prepared for the worst.
Suddenly, the bubble started to shrink. It returned to how it appeared before, a slight swelling across her arm. Relieved, she started to rise to her feet.
"Don't move!" Suiiki yelled. Doing as he said, she saw the water move from her arm into her chest and soon, up into her throat. "Don't speak, just open your mouth." Once her mouth was agape, he drew the reddish water out and drained it into a nearby fountain. "Righto, should be good now."
"Thank you!" She jumped to her feet and put a blaze in both her hands. "And my fire's back too! Thank you so much, I thought my arm was toast! Good thing you knew exactly what…yeah, wait. How did you know what to do?"
Suiiki pulled her sleeves up and checked her forearm. Seeing only bruising damage, he coated the discolored area in a small layer of ice to help with the swelling. "Remember when Kisho and I did that funny play in middle school for our show off thing?"
"That was supposed to be funny?" She quipped.
"Hey, that was comedic genius on display! Anyway, when I saw him touch you out there, I figured he might have bloated you with water like he did to himself."
"It worked pretty damn well! Bastard almost nullified my quirk in that arm. If he'd touched me for any longer, he might've been able to turn it all the way off." She stood pondering for a few seconds with a scowl. "Wait…damn, how could I not have planned for something like that? I'mma have to go back to training, I can't have a weakness that catastrophic to my-"
The sounds of Manaka and Inouye clashing prompted Suiiki to pull her to the edge of the hallway and away from her train of thought. "Oh crap, we were missing this the whole time!"
"Agh! Hold on a sec, aren't we supposed to be up in the seating area? We can't be here unless we're about to fight!"
"Oh wow, Inouye's actually holding his own against her! If only I knew what Manaka's power actually was…I wonder if old egghead gets it? I'll have to ask!" Suiiki gushed over the battle.
Hinote sat back down in her seat and let him be. Although she usually took great interest in observing her classmates' bouts, her mind was elsewhere. Staring at the ice covering her arm, she shuddered.
Manaka ravaged Inouye's body with brutal punch after brutal punch. Her domination on the battle was apparent, and Inouye shouldn't last more than five more seconds. So it was easy to understand everyone's shock how this had gone on for over three minutes now.
"Haah…how are you still standing!?" Manaka yelled, both in excitement and anger. "I'm at the limits of 2, you should be in pieces!"
Wordlessly, her opponent got into a running stance with the sound of a large V-8 engine emanating from his body. He rushed forward at nearly the speed of a car and slammed his fist into her face. While not being knocked off her feet, she was knocked backwards onto her bottom. Blood leaked from her jaw that was hit out of place. Without a second to think, her blue hair was grabbed and her head treated like a speed bag as he rapidly sent his right arm into her face like a piston.
She frenziedly kicked the ground from underneath her to rupture the arena and create some distance between them. Her plan half worked, but he held onto her as he flew backwards. Despite his comparably large size, he was surprisingly agile, and easily positioned her underneath and landed on top of her. The second they hit the ground, she vomited, the sheer weight of his body crushing most of her stomach's contents out of her.
Normally, the crowd would have been clamoring to end the fight like with some of the others, but with the beating Manaka had unleashed on him previously, they'd been watching this match similar to that of an audience in the colosseum; with minimal care for the wellbeing of the participants.
"A-hem."
Erina only momentarily turned to Latelia's expectant face, then silently stared at the ring.
"A-hem!" She leaned over into her ear and emphasized both syllables. "The common riffraff truly are starved for manners. I am attempting to gain your attention, dawling!"
"Haah…" Erina rolled her head back and rubbed a single hand across her face.
"Oh, wonderful! I see you're already on the same page!"
"Listen, I understand your concern for them but, these competitors have been-"
"These children, Erina. Rin, your food is slipping." She nudged Rinasa awake, who'd been using half her dress as a blanket and makeshift apron. "I may not be bright, sweetie, but I've held quite many audiences with silver tongued devils, and they always dehumanize their victims."
"They are not victims, they signed up for this!" She caught herself starting to yell and took a moment to breathe. "The school needs this. If it requires some extra work on Hanako's end then I'm sure it wouldn't kill her."
"Pardon my disbelief, but I find it quite doubtful she'd be acquiescing of this type of behaviour."
"Lia." Rinasa groggily shook her head. "If you continue being a nuisance for Kanshi, I'll have to ask you seat yourself elsewhere." She closed her box of chicken bites and gave them to her fiancé who graciously accepted. "Eat the rest."
"Haven't you nary a thought for the well-being of these-"
"Lia! I said stand down!" She barked at her. "Or I'll end up escorting you out myself! I don't care what you think of these students or how badly they hurt each other. This is Erina's event, and if one of them ends up killing another, that will be her issue to deal with. Not ours. So you sit there and enjoy the show you've been granted or pack up and go home!"
Latelia briskly puffed a couple strand of her hair to the side and sat hunched over in her chair, arms folded like a child. Rinasa seemed satisfied with this outcome and grabbed the disturbed dress adorning her lover and covered herself again. Erina herself was taken aback by Rinasa's outburst but seeing as it tempered Latelia for now, she was thankful the woman had chosen to sit with them.
"…or at the very least, stop acting like a spoiled midwife." The stoic chief quipped as she leaned over and kissed her forehead. "They're not toddlers, baby, they'll be fine. Especially those two, they're more or less tanks anyway."
With the two teen competitors still atop one another, Manaka reared her head back quickly and collided with Inouye's broad back. The unexpected blow sent him falling to the floor for a moment, a moment which Manaka took full advantage of. She wiped the day's lunch from her mouth and charged forward full force into his rear.
Inouye had just enough time to brace for the impact from the giant brute. They flew forward several meters, and in that time while airborne, they wrestled for dominance. Twisting and grappling at one another, Inouye managed to land on his feet with Manaka in his grip once again. With a loud roar from his engine, he threw her across the arena and then flew forward using his feet to chase after her flailing form. He caught up to her and landed a left haymaker that added to her momentum, while also striding along the ground to keep up with her flying body. He threw a hook with his right arm and chased again. Then an uppercut, then a straight jab, a knee, a headbutt. Across the length of the entire stage, he played solo badminton with her until he put all his legs and launched himself forward to finish her off.
On cue, she dug her hand into the ground and created a rut to lower her body to his feet. He tripped over her and spiraled through the air outside of the ring and into the wall, with a buzzer signaling the matches conclusion.
"OOOHHHH! AND A QUICK SAVE FROM MANAKA SENDS INOUYE FLYING INTO THE WALLLLL! RING OUUUUUUUUUUUUTTT!"
With despair, she looked at the crowd cheering for her victory and screamed.
"NOOO! That can't be it! We were getting started, I didn't try to knock him out!" She pounded the ground and shot debris into the sky. The crowd took this as a victory celebration and cheered even louder. "Erina! I can't stand for this! I haven't feasted yet! I won't be satisfied 'til I consume his very flesh!"
Erina motioned Ikasaki to force her off the field. Inouye pulled his arms out of the concrete wall and rubbed his biceps while observing his opponent's cries. "Used my momentum against me…so she's not all muscle then?" As he sighed defeatedly, a cloud of steam emerged around him, pouring out of his pores as he shrunk to half the size he'd became during the fight. "What could stop a monster like her?"
While Manaka screamed and thrashed as she was carted back forcefully in a binding vine, Daisuke stood on the cusp of the field entrance trembling as he surveyed the destruction she'd wrought inside the ring.
"Ready to rock?!" His friend's voice alongside the slap on his back startled him into dropping to his knees with a cry. "What? You already did this once, and Runoso wasn't so bad to fight! You'll breeze through her!"
"For his sake, he better not." Ranika said while pulling him out of his fetal position. "If I see even a scratch on her, buddy!"
Daisuke pulled away with a gasp. "B-b-but what am I s-supposed to- you're going to b-b-beat m-m-"
She slammed her head into the wall. "For fuck's sake, I'm joking! You think I'm that petty? I promise I won't beat you up for it!"
He vigorously shook his head. "But she will!" He pointed to Tsubame coming from the other side of the field. "See that look in her eyes? I'm done for! I forfeit! Judge! Judge, I forf-mmph! Mmmphmmhmh!"
"You for-what?" Ikasaki turned around to see who'd called him and smiled obliviously as Suiiki and Ranika covered his mouth with their hands.
"For…got to use the bathroom!" Suiiki quickly covered.
Ranika nodded enthusiastically with Suiiki's lie. "Yeah, he just has to pee really quick! We'll just be a second!"
"…okay, it's just around the corner. Third door on your right, buttercup!"
Ranika blushed as they took off down the hallway. "I told you not to…say that!"
They dashed around the corner with Daisuke still struggling to escape. After the three of them were inside with the door shut, Ranika splashed water on his face and shook him savagely.
"Grow a pair, holy shit! Didn't you say you trained for this day? Why're you being such a pussy all of a sudden?"
He turned into water and phased out of her hands. "It's completely different actually doing it! All those people were watching me, judging me! My power wasn't nearly as good as Runoso's was, I heard booing when-"
"And who cares!' Interrupted Suiiki. "It doesn't matter if people say you're lame or nothing. As long as you're the one who wins, none of that means anything. I mean, check out Watsuji! His cards were so cool, flying around and doing all that crazy stuff! And who won that fight?"
The girl in question arrogantly puffed her chest out. "Sure as hell wasn't him."
"I-It's not just that!" He exclaimed. "D-didn't you see Tsubame earlier? She…I don't know but she did that thing with the ground!"
"She's not allowed to do that anymore, didn't you hear?"
"Really? …I was a little preoccupied trying to keep my bladder in check."
The door to the men's bathroom opened and Genso ambled inside without noticing them. "Can't believe I slept through two whole fights. Although the outcome was certain of…" He slowly turned around to look at the other three standing stock still staring back at him. Holding their gaze for several seconds, he raised his eyebrows and walked backwards out the door. "Tsubame won't like this."
"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!"
"So that's ya little game, eh? Womanizer?" Tsubame said to Daisuke as they prepared to face off.
"No! Please, I swear! I was just…in the bathroom-"
"With my girl?" She completed with a mischievous glint in her eye.
"No! Well…yeah?"
"I'm about to fry you like eggs on a summer sidewalk."
"Wait a second! You don't get it!"
"BEGIIIIIINN!"
"AAAAHHHH!"
"Should we explain?" Genso asked from his seat. "I admittedly feel a trite guilty for instigating but I have such a desire to see him perform at his best."
"Nah, and besides I'm sure she knows." Ranika said, idly sipping a soda from beneath her seat. "She's caught me and him in way worse circumstances."
"Also," Suiiki added. "wouldn't be as funny." He bit into his funnel cake and gawked at it in disgust while holding it at arm's length. "Oh wow, this thing is dry as hell. Where did they…hold up, what did you say?"
Almost as if a cue card had been held up, the entirety of the class slowly turned to Ranika with faces adorned with bewilderment. Genso removed his spectacles and stared at her.
"Hmm…"She's caught me and him in way worse circumstances." By all means, do elaborate."