"That shard went deeper than we thought. I'll have to get my tweezers first for this one, just hold on a second." The nurse went into her office to search for her tools, mumbling something about her memory while rummaging through her drawers. Kisho and Tsubame held back their laughter when she bumped her head for the second time on the low cabinets in her office and swearing in not-so-quiet whispers.

"You know, Kisho, you don't have to stay with me. It's nice that you stayed here but don't you have to give Hinote her uniform?"

"Like I said before, your well-being as the VP is my top priority." He said as he checked the time on his watch. "In any case, the students should be going back to class by now, so likely she's already been sorted out."

The nurse returned with her tool and got to removing the glass from Tsubame's hand. "Found it in my file cabinet. Probably Dr. Riku placed it in there. She always puts it back in the oddest places. Hold still now." She pinched the skin where the glass was stuck and clamped the tweezers on the offending intrusion once it poked out far enough. Slowly pulling it out, she whistled as the length was unveiled – almost half the size of a fingernail. "Gracious me, that one really bit you good. You should count yourself lucky it didn't hit an artery or something!" Grabbing the alcohol, she quickly disinfected the wound with a paper towel. "Luckily, I have a lot of experience dealing with the aftermath of Ranika's outbursts and this is one of her tamer ones. I'm still appalled she dared to endanger a student council member! The very thought makes me so…ah! Why does that woman insist on keeping her here?"

Keeping her guilt hidden, Tsubame said nothing as the woman finished wiping her blood away, but couldn't help but give a short glance to the boy who thought up the idea of framing her significant other. Catching her brief stare, Kisho merely shrugged. Inwardly, she felt horrible for pinning the blame on Ranika. Even worse right after a fight between them.

"But no point in complaining about it. Erina always gives some reason to excuse her outbursts. Just be careful when you're around her, okay? Hate seeing someone as wonderfully pleasant as you fall victim."

"We'll be more cautious around her." Kisho answered. Seeing as Tsubame was feeling quite conflicted, he deemed it better for him to do most of the talking. "Appears she's still a bit shaken from all that's occurred. Do you think she could rest in here for a bit? I'd like to stay with her as well, if that's not a problem."

"Of course you can! I have a spare bed in the corner over here, make yourself comfortable! I can't let you stay for longer than 15 minutes, Kisho, but Tsubame can stay until she's ready to head back to class." A tiny beep came from her pocket. "Goodness me, it's that time already!" She gathered some papers strewn about and messily shoved them in a folder inside one of the desks drawers. "I'm taking my half hour lunch break. If you need some assistance, press the alarm on my desk and I'll get here as quick as I can, okay? Tsubame?"

Realizing she was still waiting for her to respond, Kisho discretely nudged the sullen girl. "Huh…yes! Uhm, I'll remember that! Thank you."

With a warm smile, the nurse grabbed a bag beneath her desk and ambled over to the door. "15 minutes Kisho, then right back to class."

"Yes, ma'am."

She closed the door behind her and the sound of her heels hitting the linoleum floor slowly faded away before they were in silence once more. Tsubame grabbed a pillow and buried her face in it. Kisho found the sight somewhat funny, but refrained from outright laughing.

"Oh, come on now, we went through this already! How long are you going to-"

"Mmm Nfmmp Mmph." Despite her words being muffled and unintelligible, Kisho was able to reasonably understand her.

"Okay, so what is it about then?" He said as he took the pillow away from her mouth.

"…okay, it's partly that, but it's also just Ranika in general. For some reason, she thinks this is some big problem that needs to be addressed." She laid down in the bed and stared at the ceiling, letting her black hair cascade over her face.

"Ah. And that problem would be…"

"Suiiki, obviously. Haven't I told you all this before? I feel like a broken record."

"Well, I don't mind listening again. That's what friends are for, right?"

Tsubame sat up and looked at Kisho. "Friends?"

"You say that as if it's some sort of impossibility. I see you almost every other day now, half the last month has been us preparing for this festival together and occasionally we even get into our personal lives? Can't see why we can't just come out and say we're that close." He leaned over to a small mini fridge hidden just in the corner underneath a deluge of documents. "Want something to drink?"

"Yeah, just a water." Considering they'd had a disdain for each other at the start of the school year, she was hesitant to say their relationship had advanced that far. However, their time together had increased dramatically and she had begun to enjoy working on the schedule with him. She laid back down on the bed and chewed on her hair as she pondered over the last couple months.

"And before I forget," Kisho went on, getting a cold drink out of the mini fridge in the office. "I greatly appreciate you defending me back there against Ranika. I know I'm not the easiest guy to get along with, and because of that, many students don't like me very much. Not that they're obligated to, but…I thank you for that." After absorbing the condensation off the bottle's exterior, he placed it on the desk beside her bed.

"Oh, that's nothing. No one has to like you, but they do have to show respect to their president. Even if the other person is my partner, they will treat others properly. If anyone gives you any flack again, just let me know and I'll set them straight for you."

"Oh my, well thank you! That means a lot to me, Tsubame. But are you sure you want to do that for someone like me?"

"Like you said, it's what friends are for, right?"

"Yes, indeed."

Inside the gymnasium, Hinote and Ranika were still waiting for Hinote's uniform to arrive, and although she had much patience, even Hinote was getting antsy.

"Classes started over an hour ago, what the heck is taking them so long? Isn't Genso your friend? You said he was good at making this kind of stuff. Do you think they weren't able to make it correctly? Maybe I asked for too much." Hinote stretched her arms out in her seat, pushing Ranika's head away from her. "We might have to come back later or something. They'll probably have it ready by tomorrow."

"Egghead always pulls through, no chance he couldn't do something as simple as a formula for flame retardant in a day." Reluctantly pulling away from their embrace, she looked around the mostly empty hall. "But it's definitely weird he hasn't shown yet, something's up."

"…do you think they decided I wouldn't be good enough for the tournament?"

Ranika burst out into laughter at the question. "Yeah, sure they did! Good one!" She carried on for a couple more seconds until she saw Hinote's face remain unchanged. "Oh, you're serious? Don't be silly! You're the fire user of this school, one of the elements! They wouldn't dare cut their money maker out of the show."

Hinote's face fell even further, becoming despondent to her praise, although Ranika didn't seem to catch on to her mood's downturn.

"You didn't even have to do your demonstration. You just got scooped up, didn't you? Why else would they have done that unless they knew you'd attract people to come watch?"

"Excuse me if I'm not elated to be a mascot because of my quirk…" She muttered.

"What's that?"

"…nothing, you're right."

The sound of the doors slamming open caused them to jump slightly, having grown accustomed to the otherwise silent room.

"Hinote?" Kisho called out, her suit in hand. "Pardon the delay, I was tending to Tsubame. Thought for sure someone would have sorted you out by now. Why is it so dim in here? Where are you?"

Waving her hand in the air, she shouted from her seat. "Right over here, Prez! I've been waitin' for this thing forever!" Ranika was taken aback by her abrupt return to her more boisterous self. "Alright, let's see if you can handle the heat!"

Hinote brought the small ember she'd made earlier in the row of chairs over to her and used it to light the clothes ablaze. "It's holding up! But let's try something more focused."

Snuffing the flames from all but one tiny patch on the sleeve, she increased its temperature significantly more than the previous fire, to the point that it lost its orange color and instead burned a bright white. It was so intense that Ranika and Kisho had to back away from it, and even from a distance of more than ten feet, they felt the awesome heat emanating from the small ember.

"Hinote, I think you've thoroughly tested it, yes? How about not burning the school down?" Kisho said in a panicked voice.

She obliged him by setting the fire back to a lesser temperature. "Too hot? Sorry about that, just wanted to make sure it could stand up to it. And you don't need to worry about any accidents." She took the small flame in her hand and held it close to Ranika. "It won't spread unless I tell it to. And it won't burn anything if I lower it even more like this. Here, touch it! Won't burn ya, promise!"

Ranika wasn't eager to do so, but she stuck her finger inside the flame and instinctively pulled back when she entered the fire. To her surprise, she felt nothing at all. No burns of any kind were on her skin either. "Wait, that's actually pretty cool, pun not intended."

Watching Ranika put her hand into the flame again, Kisho felt his own curiosity urging him to try, yet was able to maintain himself. What was on his mind instead was the extent of Hinote's control over her quirk. "That's fairly impressive. You can retain control even when you're not directly touching it? Can you raise and lower its heat as well in that state, or do you need contact for that?"

"It's called Controlled Burn for a reason." She said with a high amount of sass. "Anything I can do touching it, I can do without. The only thing that might be hard to do is making it appear from thin air instead of from my body, with the exception of other sources like a furnace."

"What do you mean might be?" Ranika stopped playing with her fire as Hinote divulged about her quirk, which was more in-depth than she thought.

"Probably could do it easily with some more training." She clapped her hands together, extinguishing the flame. "Can't say more than that, though! I'd be giving away too many secrets. One good thing about not getting my full demonstration – none of you got my full demonstration either."

Ranika felt an uneasy feeling rush to her stomach, partly because she'd skipped lunch, but also from the severe underestimation of her classmate, who'd yet to show the limits of her own power. It was rare for her to feel alarmed at anyone else's strength, given the context of her own.

"Oh yeah! While we're on that topic – Prez, didn't you talk to that scary powerful girl way back then? Manaka, was it? What did she want with you of all people?" Hinote asked.

Caught off-guard by her knowledge of that, he hid his surprise. "Just some meaningless talk, nothing to worry yourself over. In any case, if all goes well, none of us will have to fight her since she's on the opposite side of the bracket than the three of us."

Ranika held a sly grin on her face. "Oh? Why'd you do that, so you wouldn't have to fight her? Sounds like someone is scared."

"You can do that?" Hinote raised her eyes at Kisho, who refused to address her.

"…regardless, now that you both have your garments ready, please return to class at once."

"Definitely scared. C'mon, let's go. I bet Erina's doing something cool today in class!" Ranika excitedly pulled Hinote to the doors, almost like a mother and her child. "And I'm starving like no one's business too, hurry up!"

"I'm not heading back. I got permission from Erina to spend today training again."

Puzzled, Kisho tried to recount being told Hinote's exception. "You have? Again? I didn't know this was happening, how come I was never told of such things?"

"Erina didn't feel it was relevant to you. Besides, you never found out about the days she let me before, so seems she was right in her judgement."

Seeing Kisho stumble for words was something Ranika was not used to. However, she relished in it for as briefly as it lasted. "W-well…you should…to class, Ranika!" He scolded her before walking away in a huff.

"Wait, that came out wrong! Kisho! Oh man, that was so rude. I'm so sorry!" Hinote called out. "I really am! I didn't mean anything by that!"

For the second time, Ranika saw Kisho at a loss for words, also not expecting an apology. He stopped for a moment to try to say something, but stammered repeatedly again. After a couple seconds, he went with a simple "it's quite alright" and left the building.

"Man, I shouldn't have said that, now he thinks I'm an egotistical jerkface." She pouted as she plopped down into a chair.

"Don't worry about him at all. If anything, he's the real jerkface. I'm sure you're aware, but he's a total stuck-up snob who thinks he's better than everyone. I bet you saying sorry to him made his day. He'll probably see that as you submitting or something."

"Doesn't matter what he's like, you still have to treat people nicely."

Ranika shook her head. "You're something else, you know that? I can't think of a single other person who'd- Hinote! Your arm!"

Still with Kisho on her mind, she slowly looked up to Ranika, not focusing on what she'd just said. "Huh? What's that?"

Ranika grabbed her arm and checked it, then pointed to a scar that went across her wrist. "How'd you get this? That looks pretty nasty!"

Hinote forcefully yanked her sleeve over the wound and pushed Ranika away from her. "Oh, that! Yeah, it's from training! Which I need to get to right now, so it's been fun talking to you! See you at the tournament tomorrow!" In a rush, she grabbed her uniform and hurried out the doors, leaving Ranika standing alone inside the auditorium.

"Uh, alright! …training, hmm? She should ease up on herself if it's causing that type of harm to her."

Once Kisho had made it outside the doors, he'd sat on a nearby bench in the hallway and was stuck inside his head replaying the last couple minutes over in his head. Each time, he came up with no response on how to handle what just happened.

That's the first time anyone has apologized in such a genuine manner like that. I didn't even know what else to say. I almost felt bad for hearing her say it to me. How come I'm feeling like this? She should be the one in remorse over how rude she was to me! That's right, I'm the one who was wronged by her blatant disrespect! Does she think a little apology will make it all better? It was accidental, so I'll overlook her wrongdoing this time, but next time I won't let her off so easy!

Raising up from the bench, he walked down the corridor to his class, a smug sneer creeping onto his face.

And besides all that, everything else is going without a hitch. I believe I've made good progress on getting Tsubame over to my side. Just a little more pushing and she'll be doing all my work for me. All that's left is to put that miserable trash heap Suiiki out of his misery once and for all, and I'll finally be content. Maybe.

"AH!"

"Whoa!" Kisho cried out as a student rather forcefully bumped into him from behind, making him trip over himself and hit the floor. The other student fell down next to him as well, and he recognized her as the girl who was just on his mind. He pointed a finger angrily at her, his indignation swelling to make up for his previous grievance against her.

"Hinote! It's you again, damn it! Are you targeting-"

"Oh my gosh, let me help you up! Look at me, first I trash-talk the president to his face, then I push him over? I'm so insensitive and hopeless sometimes, I'm sorry about that." She grabbed his outstretched arm and lifted him back to his feet.

While she patted the dirt off his clothes, he noticed a sharp change in her demeanor from a few minutes ago. It seemed she was in a hurry to leave now, in contrast to her upbeat attitude only minutes earlier.

What's wrong with her, did Ranika say something? Or surely I was too harsh just now?

"Well, it's all fine, you don't have to do all this." He changed his tone to a less aggressive one to reassure her he wasn't angry. "I was just caught off-guard. I'm capable of cleaning myself off. I would ask that you watch where you're headed though, and please don't run in the halls."

"Yes, sir." Hinote still gave a few more pats before nodding her head and resuming her quick walk to the front entrance. Slightly worried, he followed closely behind her.

"Is something wrong? Did it have something to do with Ranika?"

"Wrong? 'Course not, I'm me! Why would anything be wrong? I'm fine and dandy!"

"I'm asking because you seem a little-"

"I'm alright, really! Just have some training that I want to get to, you know?"

In lieu of his concerns, he opted to drop the topic as she was clearly not going to open up about it with him. "Actually about your training, I know Erina…"judged" I needn't be aware of that, but I advise you give your body some time to rest or it will start working against you. Don't you think with the tournament being tomorrow, your body won't be able to properly handle it if you keep pushing yourself?"

"I first started training since I was 12 and I haven't missed a day since. If it was going to affect me, it would've a long time ago."

"You haven't ever taken a break!? Ridiculous! Isn't that too extreme? Hinote, I'd rather you get some rest before you-"

"Well, here's the front gate. I'll see you tomorrow, Prez! It was cool chatting with ya!" Hinote rushed out the school with her uniform in hand, leaving Kisho even more confused about what to think of her.

Every day since she was 12? That's just absurd! How does someone withstand all that without breaking down? She's exaggerating. Trying to intimidate her competition maybe? But if she isn't, perhaps I've made an error in making her first fight be…whatever, I don't have time to waste on side characters like this. I've got to get back to class. There's still so much to do, after all.

"Alright everybody, settle down! I know you're excited for tomorrow and all, but we still have a…oh, who am I kidding. How could anyone possibly focus on schoolwork?" Erina surrendered after the third attempt to regain the class's attention. Sitting on her desk, she started to grade papers from the previous week to pass the time as the students talked amongst themselves.

"Yo, Suiiki!" Runoso shouted from across the room. "I'm getting you back for that gaming tournament! You've been warned!"

"Nuh-uh! I'm going to the top, and there's no way some little electricity's going to beat me!"

Though he didn't usually interact with his peers, even Mako joined in on the back and forth. "You better check yourself, Runoso. You're the first one to fight Daisuke, so I'd be worried about yourself more than whatever Suiiki might have!"

Runoso immediately flinched when he reminded him of that fact. Peeking at Daisuke – who did not enjoy the sudden attention – he gathered his breath and puffed his chest out. "So what about him? Do you really think he's strong enough to beat my powerful, ultra-strong, terrifying, lightning quick attacks?"

"YES!" replied nearly everyone in class, even those not paying attention.

"Yeah, I thought so too." Runoso conceded.

"Hey, don't feel so bad. You could've got Manaka first. I'm the one who's really worried." Ikicho said. His power, Wrapping, let him touch any surface and wrap himself or something else in it. A strong power, no doubt, but not one which would protect him from Manaka's overbearing strength.

"Don't break too easily. I want a satisfying appetizer after all." Manaka teased, her blue hair obscuring her face. Having seen her raw power firsthand, most of the students prayed she would be eliminated before she got to them.

Daisuke leaned over to his friend and whispered so Manaka couldn't hear him. "Suiiki, what's her quirk again?"

"Warhorse, right? It's on the list with-"

"No, not the name. I mean what does it do?"

"I think it just makes her strong. Why, trying to figure out a way to beat her?"

"If it comes down to it, I'd like to know what her weakness is."

The door to the class opened up, and Ranika entered the room with a somewhat daydreamy expression. She took an empty seat next to Suiiki since no one was really in their correct seat right now.

"There you are! You took a while to get back, it's nearly the end of the day. You didn't even show up for lunch." Suiiki grabbed his bookbag and pulled out a grilled cheese sandwich. "Here, I saved one for you, but it's not that warm anymore."

She accepted it gratefully, her stomach showing its own gratitude with a loud growl. "Oh, trust me dude, it's fine. I could eat a horse off the floor, or whatever that saying is."

"So, you feeling better?" Daisuke asked.

"Well, I haven't talked to Tsubame yet, so that's still an ass pain to deal with. Not I'm really that upset or anything anymore. By the way, have you ever met Hinote? The fire girl Suiiki's fighting?"

"Yeah, what about her?"

"She's really cool! She has a…uh…" Not wanting to give out too much information, she left out certain details. "…chill side! Thought she would be up her own ass but she isn't arrogant or annoying at all! Plus, her power is great!"

Suiiki rolled his eyes. "Of course it is, it's fire."

"No, Suiiki! Like, it's "you better watch yourself" great! She's got all types of ways to set up-"

Suiiki yawned, interrupting her explanation. "Boring! Doesn't matter! Water beats fire, so as long as I get her soaking wet, it should be an easy win for me."

"I guess so. But you think she'll make that easy?" Daisuke warned. "Remember, you're the first one fighting her tomorrow, so there won't be time to check out her moves or learn her weaknesses. You're going in blind essentially."

"Daisuke, you worry too much. Just be ready for me when I get to the finals to beat you, cause I won't be holding back in our match! And listen to all the ideas I have for cool moves that I wanna try! So there's a slide type of thing I've been thinking could…"

Giving up on speaking to him about her new friend, Ranika began eating the sandwich he'd given her and let it be. As she was eating, she looked around the room, tuning into random conversations. Glancing to the desk she usually sat at, she saw Manaka's eyes through her blue hair staring her down in the seat next to it. She returned the stare, not breaking eye contact even as she took bites out of her food. Not that she had a grudge in particular against her, but she wasn't one to back down from any kind of challenge.

"You're Manaka, right? The gorilla that blew up that huge barrier with just the wind from your punch? That was nuts."

Chuckling, Manaka smiled at Ranika's description of her. "That barrier was weaker than my restraints, and I've had to get those replaced twice now. But you aren't exactly a pushover either, from what I hear."

"What have you heard?"

"Far more interesting things than most the people in this school. That if you wanted, you'd turn a school bus into tinfoil with merely a fraction of your destructive quirk."

"That's making a molehill out of a mountain."

"Confidence! I love to see that in my prey! How about showing me some of that destruction in our match, should we meet up?"

"Well, duh! I'm going all out against anyone I'm fighting, so you'll see all the training with my air blasts for yourself soon enough!"

Manaka blew the hair out of her face in dismissal. "I don't want a gentle breeze. I want the real money."

Ranika furrowed her brow. "My actual quirk? No way, I'd kill you! I'm trying to win, not get disqualified."

"If there's a healer at the event, we've got nothing to worry about. I want to see that strength everyone was talking about. Not the weak shit you did at the little meet-up before. I want to see your full, unbridled power."

"I'm not doing that! I'll literally rip you to shreds! It's in my quirk's name!"

"It'll be your funeral then. I won't be holding back at all no matter what you decide to do."

"Neither of you will be using your full power. That goes especially for you Manaka. And please watch your language, girls?"

Erina's telepathy gave Ranika a jolt, while Manaka sighed heavily at the news. She turned to Erina with slight contempt, which Erina returned with a cruel gaze to the girl. Ranika could only assume what Erina was saying to her through that cold glare. Based off how quickly Manaka turned away, she didn't want to know.

"Sorry, Erina. I understand." She covered her face behind her hair, likely going to sleep as she usually was in class.

"Kind of scary, I'll be honest." Ranika thought to herself. "I wonder if Daisuke could beat her?"

"If Daisuke can beat who?" Suiiki butted into her thoughts, having been in a talk with Daisuke about his video games again. "Who can't Daisuke beat?"

"Nothing you need to worry about, since you won't be making it past me anyway!"

"You forget I can turn into water too?"

"Cool, make it easier for me to blow you away. And now that I can fly all over the place, you can't just throw stuff at me from a distance either! In fact, I could probably fling it back at you or something with wind alone, not to mention how Genso said something about air friction making things hotter. Wonder what I could do with that?"

"…on an unrelated note, I have got some training to do today."

Daisuke gave a doubting glance his way. "And by training…"

"Arcade." Ranika answered for him.

"No! Well…maybe. Just a bit!"

"Who would've guessed."

The day of the festival had finally arrived, and the town was absolutely swarmed with news cars and buses full of people who'd come to watch. It was the loudest the city had ever been in recent memory, and they'd had to hire the help of extra officers from nearby districts to keep a handle on everything. Thankfully, Rinasa was a master planner and already gave the officers their orders and patrol routes.

Satori and the others were inside the press-box with Erina overlooking the stadium, which had been converted into a large, concrete arena akin to U.A's, if just a tad bigger.

"Well, preparations are all taken care of, Erina. Unfortunately, we couldn't allow Coriette to aid us, but she'll be in the stands as a sort of lookout. If worst comes to worst, she'll try and keep the kids fairly orderly should any of us be unable to." Satori checked off another page on his list while he ran through their schedules, fixing any last second changes they'd made.

"Oh? I thought Rinasa planned to have Coriette patrol with her?" Erina asked.

"Hanako forbid it. It was hard enough convincing Hanako to even let her come to the stadium with us." Being reminded of that, Satori scratched out her name from the patrol list. "I can't disagree with her decision. Though Banshee is certainly a strong quirk, it's not especially versatile enough to rely on in most situations."

"A valid criticism. While we're on the topic, has Hanako checked in at her station? I'd like to speak with her before the first match starts; I haven't seen her all day and there's a certain guest that I'm expecting will cause some issues for her."

"We didn't all come together, so I'm not sure. Ikasaki's already down on the ground floor, so I'll call and ask him to check the infirmary room."

As he dialed the number, Rinasa walked into the room with an older gentleman and a girl with brown hair about the same age as herself. She held a wide smile reminiscent of a certain, troublemaking student.

"Ah, good to see you, Ms. Sei, Aki." When she turned to the brunette, her demeanor brightened considerably. "And Sunako! It's such a pleasure to see you again! It's been so long since I last saw your smile!"

"Kanshi! Come here, you!" The two shared a quick hug with each other. "I wish I could visit more, but you know how life is. So how's my little bro?"

Erina sighed loudly. "Well, he's certainly like you described him! Honestly, Suiiki might be worse than you when it comes to attention span, and I didn't think that was possible!"

Sunako stuck her tongue out playfully. "Must run in the family! Hey, I heard he won a tournament last week, is that true?"

As the two spent some time catching up, Rinasa and Aki headed over to Satori, who was arguing with Ikasaki over the phone.

"For the love of God, just tell me whether you've seen her! Why is that so difficult for you to do?!"

"Why do you want to know her business so badly? Why don't you go check yourself? I bet she'd be head-over-heels for you if you showed her how much you cared about her by going yourself! I'll give you some flowers-"

"Ikasaki." Rinasa interrupted him over the phone.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Where's Hanako?"

"Just saw her enter the East Wing, heading towards the infirmary."

Satori threw his hands in the air. "Wh-H…WHY!? Why did you give her a straight answer?!"

"It's funny."

"Satori, you and Sunako will be patrolling the bottom half of the stadium, including the entrance area. Aki and I will handle the top portion near the food stalls."

"Excuse me?" Ikasaki asked over the phone. "If I may so rudely intrude, why don't we have our glorious captain stationed in the entrance? With that being the most densely populated area, why wouldn't we want Rinasa to show off her beauty there?"

"And if I may so rudely intrude? Probably because of that very reason." Aki spoke for the first time. "The young miss has an extremely powerful and dangerous quirk, as do I. And when you account for the rather destructive nature of her weapons, particularly Iblis, well I'm sure it needs no further explanation."

"Oh. My. GOSH! I love your accent! You're a foreigner, aren't you? British? It sounds British!" Sunako had suddenly appeared behind the older man. "I never got to speak to you much, I've got so many questions! Why are you here? What do you do with the police? What's your job? Where did you come from? Where did you go? Would you have been married a long time ago?"

"Indeed, I am of English descent. I moved here to start a new life when I was around 21. I was assigned to be Rinasa's bodyguard from direct orders of Kyoya, and I've remained ever since. Have been since she was about, erm, 14 I'd say? And I'm unfortunately vexed as to the meaning of your last question."

"You stalked her this whole time? That's weird, I never saw you much when I was with her."

"I preferred to stay hidden during those days, what with the practices going on at the time. Kyoya too wanted me to stay out of sight. But I was certainly there. Watching over her and her teenage friends from the shadows."

"My dearest, you could've worded that a little better." Ikasaki joked before Satori harshly ended their connection.

"Why do you always make things weird? Sorry about him. Always insufferable."

"Admittedly, it certainly sounds questionable, but he demanded it. Heheh, though now, I feel like a lingering dreg. An old machine built for an obsolete purpose. Clearly the young miss has no longer has need for my services, considering her own strength far outweighs my own."

"Nevertheless, you'll continue working for me until I deem your services complete." Rinasa asserted.

"Most certainly."

Erina interjected before they could switch to a new topic. "It's fun to listen to stories, but I'm going to have to cut this short. The event is about to start and I'd like you all to be at your stations." Seeing the time on a wall clock, she gasped. "Oh dear, I also have to meet with Hanako! I know how she is with Hijiri and I'd prefer the only injuries that take place be inside the arena."

Once Hanako was brought up, Sunako's mood dampened, but not enough for Erina to pick up on.

"Come with me, Sunako? I do enjoy catching up with you, plus I wanted to ask you a little more about Suiiki."

"Huh? Yeah! Totally! Uh…I'll go!"

With that, Erina left to find Hanako, with Sunako reluctantly in tow. Satori noticed her enthusiasm diminish while she followed. Giving a glance towards his leader, Rinasa made a slight noise for acknowledgement.

"That won't be pretty. I'm heading to the entrance. We've got twenty minutes before the festival officially begins. I don't want to be caught off guard by an attack early on, so be prepared Rinasa."

While Rinasa was usually the one in charge of the group, it wasn't out of the ordinary for Satori to fill her role on occasion, and so she felt no offense towards his taking a leadership position. "I'm ready. Satori, make sure Sunako stays out of trouble. And don't lose her in the crowd. She tends to wander around even on duty."

"Roger."

"Satori."

"Yes?"

"Be careful."

Smiling, he gave her a mock salute while he parted ways with them. With only the two of them left inside the room, Rinasa walked to the stairs leading to the field entrance.

"Aki."

"A warm-up with Iblis, I assume?"

"Can you handle it?"

"I am old, but certainly not weak."

"There's so many people here! All that money just begging to be taken!" A man said, watching the entrance to the stadium from afar with two others.

"Remember, Magnetar, you gotta get as much as you can in ten minutes. Then, when anyone starts noticing, I'll make an explosion a few blocks down to distract them while you get out of there."

"And if we run into a hero, I'll make sure to deal with them myself." He lifted his arm up, a huge stake driver being revealed under his sleeve. "They won't know what hit 'em."