Literature class was as bad as expected. They might as well have spoken Hisuian in there — what they said made little to no sense at all. Who cared about some guy's mood while they wrote a poem, and what did it have to do with preparing them for the future? It was like maths teachers saying you wouldn't always have a calculator in the smartphone era.

What made it worse was that Al just couldn't stop thinking about what happened at elevenses. Until now, they'd been an unbreakable trio... Strangely, Jono had predicted this before he left — he knew they couldn't get along as a pair, especially Darren.

The bell rang after an eternity to start lunch, but Al wasn't in the mood to eat. He wanted to figure out what in Dialga's name was going on, but since he couldn't even communicate with anyone outside of the school, he just ended up being depressed in the halls.

School: Never let up on the pain if you weren't part of the ones giving it. Sometimes he wished he was in home education so he could escape this near-endless cycle, even though it would be a bit lonely sometimes.

...

Eventually the day ended, and Al walked home since Bob was at work. Bob got home about an hour later, and they decided to just watch TV and talk.

"Did Akahana do any better at school?" Bob asked randomly.

"Don't think so, especially when she still needs help talking and listening," Al replied. "They said she just won't get a translator, and from what she said, they're already talking about sending her home..."

"Look, I know you like being with her and all, but if there's no way for her to communicate, that's probably for the–... Wait a second, how were you two talking, then?"

"Now she can read and write Galarian because she spent all night binging some random anime–"

"The exploding Croagunk one?"

"How did you–"

"It's a classic."

"...Right. So she can do that now, but she can't speak or listen, so we were just talking through notes."

"Heh. Only a day and you lot are already passing notes... another classic."

"Better that than Darren. He's tryna force her back to Sinnoh because he can't accept that Jono left..."

"Ah, so that's why his aunt mentioned her at work earlier."

"Slammed me into a locker at the start of elevenses."

"Wait, he did what? Does the school know any of this?"

"You and I both know his parents would just spin it all as my fault and make everything worse."

"Al, he's already gotten violent after... a day. Who knows what he'll do next?"

"Exactly. It started when I stood up for Akahana, and last thing I want is for her to suffer for it."

"...Okay, now a lot of things are coming together... Don't worry, I've got it sorted."

Bob absolutely did not have it sorted.

Al and Akahana didn't have any classes together the following two days, though Akahana seemed sad the few times they ran into each other. She said little, and definitely not whatever might have been bothering her.

Then came Friday. It went normally enough until about lunch, when they sat down on a bench and Al was given a note.

All it said was "Everything wrong. Father phone, says Snowpoint wants my return."

Al knew enough about Sinnohan history to know she meant the deity that inspired the city's official name, said to be in exile for resisting the changing of seasons, and also known for their hate cult likely connected to Seiji Kaneko, the Lord of Snowpoint City. What Al didn't know was subtlety. He wrote "Your father can't do a thing from the other side of the world."

Akahana looked at him blankly, and not noticing Darren walking towards them, wrote something and passed it back. All it said was "Not simple. 氷剣の激怒 have Snowpoint power. Snowpoint not allow no."

All Al could think to write was "I really doubt an exiled god with one city would make that kind of threat to their people. Whole point of deities is you can choose what the stories mean, not just your father." He was thinking of more to write when he saw Darren and some others in front of him.

"Remember what I said?" was all he said.

"You said after school, mate," was Al's reply. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm trying to–"

"You think I'm stupid? You're trying to get her to stay, even though I've spent all week trying to send her home."

"None of what you're doing is fair to Akahana, Jono, or me. Especially Jono!" Al replied. "What would he say, watching you do this just 'cause he got to Sinnoh and you didn't? This shouldn't be anyone else's problem!"

"At long last, you pull the friend card... You made a complete stranger your problem, and that's my problem!" Darren literally lifted Al and threw him at a bin. Laughception happened.

"...You don't seem to understand the meaning of after school, do ya?"

"You seem to have conveniently forgor that I go home after lunch on Fridays!"

"We're doing this now, then?"

"Oh, no need to fight, I can just beat the shit out of you without getting closer. He's all mine, boys!"

Tell me he said yes without– Anyway, this goes as well as you would expect, given Darren's way more powerful than Al. He lifts a metal bin and yeets it at Al when...

Akahana deflects it, causing it to gong on the ground. At this point everything fell silent and the entire playground was staring at these three, including the people on it.

Darren seemed to take this sudden interruption personally and stood right in Akahana's face, almost as if he was trying to scare her into moving. Akahana just stood there blankly, clearly unmoved.

"Are you blind? Or are you also stupid?"

He shoved her... or at least, he tried to. It didn't work, Akahana saw it coming and pushed his arms away, then immediately countered when it was clear she'd caught him off guard. Darren almost fell over, staggering backwards as he didn't even realise what had even happened.

That was what maybe pissed him off more than anything. His friends having genuine concern over what the fuck just happened didn't seem to help either.

"...Oi mate, maybe let this one go-"

"Shut the fuck up."

He went and stood right in Akahana's face again, seemingly thinking that doing the exact same tactic twice would result in a different outcome.

"Blondie, I swear, get the fuck out of my way before–"

"No."

Darren went ahead and tried to kick her in the ankle, thinking somehow she wouldn't see an obvious takedown attempt coming.

She did. In fact she without warning elbowed the side of the knee, causing him to almost double over in pain, then struck him in the hip so hard he skidded across the ground.

Okay, now this seemed to be personal for him, because he was just sprinting towards her now, almost as if he thought he could just ram her, and of course he couldn't because Akahana literally struck him in the chest so hard he somehow hit his head on the ground when he fell over.

She'd won without even flinching, and the people Darren considered friends went running off in fear.

So as you would expect, the two of them had decided to run to the far corner of the school where for some reason Bob was. He rolled down the car window.

"...You did it, didn't you?"

"That we did," Al replied. "Was mainly her, but he's definitely going to the hospital."

"Best I forget that... Anyway, I knew it was happening, so clearly I did something right! Though... be ready to get jumped Monday."

Al considered that. He knew Akahana would probably be home by then. There's not much one can do when nobody else cares, and there's nowhere else for her to go. "Maybe that's the only thing you've actually predicted so far."

"Unless you two wanna deal with those teachers, you might wanna get in the car."

They jumped the fence and into the car, and the car immediately started running off like a cartoon.

"Alright... any progress?" Al asked, knowing the subject.

"Darren's dad has been a real pain, he somehow convinced the board that Akahana was out of place. I just reminded him she'd be fine if people did their jobs."

"And?"

"The funding for Akahana's stay 'magically disappeared', probably into Darren's pocket. Not the first or last time. Even if everyone wanted her to, she can't stay in the apartments anymore because they're suddenly all leased out."

Al went silent at the implications. "...Is there even money for the ticket back now?"

"Doubt anyone even thought that far," Bob replied. "I brought her stuff into the spare bedroom, so at least she can stay somewhere while I figure out how any of these screw-ups happened, and you two can go home while I go back to base and phone up Snowpoint to solve this absolute clusterfuck of mistakes."

With that, Al felt slightly better about what he did, partly because the other option was worse.

...Wait, he just remembered that presentation they had to do next week.

Monday was gonna suck.