It was the following Monday, the first day back at school since Friday's festival. The school was naturally abuzz with talk of all the matches that had happened, rivalries that had formed and friendships that were forged in the heat of battle.

But as for the members of the student council, their morning was as dull as it could be. Kisho grunted as he picked up another desk-chair and hauled it towards the walls of the classroom. "Nnf…hah, why those simpletons won't simply use the conference room is beyond-"

"It's being renovated." Tsubame forcefully pushed the legs of two desks across the floor with no care about the loud squeaking they made as they grinded against the linoleum. "Hello? They told us last Thursday."

"Ah, right of course. How could I forget? It's not as if anything remarkable happened between then and now."

"Would you just move that projector stand aside so we can leave?"

He looked at her and bit his lip. "…Tsubame, young love is fleeting. In several years, you won't even be-"

"Y'know, things may've been pretty darn rough between me and Ranika but they sure as hell weren't like this! And how can I even blame her! I framed her! And it's all thanks to you and your snaky advice!" She pointed her finger at him with heavy emphasis on the last words, her natural country twang sneaking into her voice.

"Now let's keep cool heads. Clearly you aren't thinking straight about all of this, otherwise you'd realize that you still have quite an upper hand over her."

"Tch." She erased a line from the list of instructions they were given on the whiteboard. "At it again, always tryin' to make everything about gettin' one over someone else! I don't care what you're playin' at here, but you best leave me outta it!"

"…" Seeing no improvement with the conversation, he quietly finished the last of the setup in his area of the room and slithered out before she could chastise him further.

That righteous attitude of hers rears up in the worst possible ways. I did my part, played as her friend and even got on friendly terms- er, beneficial terms with Suiiki and his gang of ruffians. I even had to coach her through a…panic attack or whatever that was. What am I missing here, where did I go wrong?

He walked past the lunchroom where several students were finishing their breakfasts. A group was laughing merrily amongst themselves as an outsider sat by his lonesome.

Mmm, quite a shame. I know too well the feeling, being isolated from others even in a place as socially ideal as a school. Albeit it is rather my own personal choice that I not mingle with the subspecies lingering the halls of this-

Another student approached the lonely boy and warmly led him to his table, with two others gladly accepting him into their ranks. As the boy's glum face slowly lit up, Kisho's own smile faded.

"…tsk." He lightly kicked a balled-up napkin towards the bathroom, then sighed and bent over to pick it up. ""As members of the student council, we must aim to set an example for our fellow students!"" He said in a mocking tone. "Please, as if any of these lot would even be capable of rising to my standards. Perhaps then I'd have more friends if the others around me weren't so…"

He slowly looked up towards the trash can, clarity finally coming to him. Sucking his lips he turned around, watching the student from earlier assimilating into the other classmates' group. "Oh no…" He dismayed while pulling out his phone. "Roll with the pigs in their dirt. How detestable, how loathsome how…how…" He squeezed the bridge of his nose with a groan as he looked at his phone's empty contact list.

"How…perfect. Eugh. Suppose I should start with Mako."

Erina's homeroom class was, for the first time since school started, filled with almost every student being accounted for. The teacher herself hadn't shown up yet, so the students were excitedly talking amongst themselves about all manner of things.

"Well, well, well! Look who's actually showing up to school!" Runoso rustled his hand through a particularly spiky classmates' hair.

The boy swiped his hand away in frustration. "Urgh, stop doing that! I swear, you people always find a new way to be irritating."

His aggressor merely chuckled at the outburst. "Nakatani, you need to really unwind yourself. What's the point in being worked up all the time?" He playfully tapped the back of Hinote's chair. "Take a look at her! Hinote just blazed through everyone a couple of days ago but you don't see her always going off on someone! And hey, speaking of…"

He bent down close to her face, wearing a small smirk. Smelling his slightly overused body spray, she leaned back in her chair. "W-whoa, that's a little…close!"

"So, little firefly! Maybe after school, we could head on out together and get up to something? Whaddya say? How about a go with me?"

"…I don't…know," She cautiously answered. "I should…take it easy maybe, just cause…well you know, I-"

"How about you go somewhere else?" Mako pushed Runoso's face away from hers. "I've got dibs on hot tits! She's mine!"

"…oh my." Hinote's face went red, a smile upon her face.

"Dibs? How so?"

"That is a different matter entirely, and one I am measuring my options on. And I'd like to get my own rematch with her since we had false pretendings on our fight in the tournament!"

"You mean pretenses?"

"Those too, I guess? I got trapped into copying Ranika's sexy ass!"

"Keep my name out of whatever you're talking about." Ranika huffed from a seat that was not her own near the window.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry." Runoso shrugged at the other two. "Man, why's everyone so uptight today? Anyway, let me get back to my seat before Erina comes in and yells at me!"

Mako waved bye somewhat aggressively at the teen, then leaned his chair all the way back until the top hit Hinote's desk on a sketchy balance. "Man, nerve of that guy trying to make a move on you like that!"

"I know, right?!" She whispered back. "And I'm like dude, we've maybe said hi to each other twice before?'"

"No need to worry, I won't let any old guy just come in here with that negative charisma stat and try to run his game."

She giggled under her breath. "So what, you're like my dad now?"

"You're damn skippy. So uh, what's got ol' darling in a bunch today?" He discretely pointed at Ranika.

"Don't know. Hope it's nothin' serious."

"Aww, she'd be so much cuter if she smiled more! You know, I haven't completely written her off my top ten babes list but if she keeps that scowl on for much longer, she's gonna drop a few places. Bleh."

"Hey, don't talk like that!" She scolded.

"Yo, sorry if it creeps you out but girls are my expertise and I don't take my ranking of them-"

"Not that…although that isn't exactly a good thing either!" She glanced at Ranika for a moment. "I meant talking down about her attitude. You don't know what she's going through! Someone in her family could be sick, or maybe she and…" She stopped herself short as Mako waited for her to finish. "Anyway, there's no reason to judge someone based on a couple gloomy days!"

"Well, yeah! But it's like, errr…" He circled his hand in the air as if about to say a counterargument but gave up immediately. "Alright, fair enough. I'll let her stay at number 6! That ass is still pretty killer, yeah? If only we could solve that chest issue."

The girl simply sighed at his perverse nature. "And they say two heads are better than one…"

"Oi, quick revision!" He quickly snatched a piece of paper and wrote down a list of names, numbered 1 through 10. "You're moving up to number 4!"

"Just 4?!" She snagged the page from his hands and looked through the names. After seeing who she'd lost to, she stole a glance at the girl in the back. Viewing her larger than average chest and sightly face, she rolled her eyes. "Asai for number one, figures…" After glancing over it some more, her face scrunched up in sheer bewilderment. "Manaka in third?"

"Uh, heheh…" He blushed as he slowly grabbed the page out of her hands. "I have a thing for women bodybuilders. I didn't know I liked it until I saw it."

"But she's nuts!"

"I'm not ranking these on personality! Actually, I bumped you up 3 places after I got to know you, so that's a first."

"Can't even keep it consistent." With a firm kick to the bottom, she sent his chair toppling forward back to its desk. Hiding the creeping rose tint on her cheeks, she turned towards Ranika again. "I do wonder…"

Last Friday

After separating her younger sister off her former girlfriend, Hanako dragged Ranika through the stadium's halls towards a conference room, where Erina was waiting.

"Ah, Hanako! Thank y- what in the-!" Erina frightfully watched as Ranika was tossed into a rolling chair and pushed into a wall.

"OWWWW! You fucking jerk!" She rubbed her bleeding forehead, a big mistake. "Yeesh!"

"Shut. Up." She turned her ire towards the teacher. "Kanshi, how is it you manage to prove yourself dumber with every passing second?"

"Wh-what? Me? I'm not even aware of what's-"

"So she can't go on the trip anymore because of a She said She said situation? Did you even try to verify that computer story?"

"B-but i-it's been known that…" Erina chose her words wisely. "Ranika has a reputation in the school, and Kisho, while not hugely loved amongst his peers, has been reliable and dedicated to the smooth running of our facility! It's only fair, then, that I take his word over others when it comes to the goings-on within the school!"

Hanako flinched at the mention of Kisho's name. "…so it was…him who told you what happened?" She sat in a seat with a gruff sigh.

"Wait, I don't have all the details. You…you are right, I didn't do my due diligence when going over the situation, so it is possible that Kisho himself flubbed up some of the minutiae! You see, kids their age, they make all sorts of mistakes like that; He said this, she said that he said that, they said to her that she…you know? No need to blame the students for being students!"

The woman angrily flung her hair out from behind her where it had been bunching up in the seat, then threw it over her face like a veil. The self-induced claw marks on her face began to vanish. "Ranika, say what you did to her."

"…"

"To whom are you referring to?" Erina shakily asked.

"Tsubame. Come on, answer!"

Ranika swiveled around in her chair. "…I really screwed up, like holy shit I screwed up."

"Ranika?" Erina shakily asked. "What did you do to Tsubame?"

Taking a second to ready herself for the inevitable retribution, she took a deep breath. "I hit her. Like real hard, I probably broke a rib or something." The moment of silence after was heavy, but made heavier when she saw Hanako's expectant glare. "…and I kinda, gave her a little…swirly?"

"…what is wrong with you?"

Ranika tightly shut her eyes and looked away.

"Let alone to a student council member, this is your own partner! Ranika, when will this end?! Are you so far gone that you'll even abuse your girlfriend if you so much as think she's slighted you!?"

"I-I didn't know about-"

"What do you know, Ranika? Aside from how to disappoint me time and time again?"

She stammered uselessly. With no response for her teacher, she spun in her chair and faced the wall in silence.

"I never, I say never have I heard of such a-" The teacher paced back and forth. "I of course won't be able to vouch for you after this, expulsion is all but certain! If that will even satisfy!"

"Now hold on, Kanshi-"

"And to say nothing of the legal consequences this will have should Tsubame's parents rightfully seek prosecution!"

"Back up for a-!"

"At the festival itself no less…augh, why here, Ranika? It was so close to being a perfect, I say, perfect event! The amount of publicity our school has gotten-"

"KANSHI!"

"OH!" She reeled backwards into a wall. "Heavens…my apologies."

"Quit being so neurotic…I made sure Tsubame was taken care of, by now she shouldn't be feeling any pain. If something was fractured, which I doubt Ranika would ever actually hit that hard, then I'm sure she'll let us know and I'll deal with that too. So, what're the chances we can keep this under wraps?"

"What." The teacher deadpanned. "Y-you're messing with me. With all due respect, she assaulted one of our student council members."

"This is partly your fault; you said so yourself. Due diligence and all." Hanako kicked Ranika's seat, making her curl up in her chair. "Not that you won't be getting your just deserts later…"

Erina's eye twitched slightly. "But to sweep this under the rug is…to go that far might be beyond my control. If Tsubame tells her parents of this, my hands will be tied. Not to mention how a school computer came to be broken is still in question."

"I'm guessing your little bullshit ceremony is finished? Technically this is just private property now, so this incident occurred outside of school grounds. Say the fight happened outside your jurisdiction and all you need to worry about is the broken computer business, which is sketchy at best, might I add." Taking a deep breath, she seemed to be readying herself for some gargantuan task. "Erina, please?"

The teacher nearly stumbled backward from how hard her head whipped back. "What did I just hear?"

"I'm practically begging you! Ranika…she's a really great kid! A really stupid one at times, but I would be angry too if I thought my girlfriend sold me out to save her own skin! Personally, she wouldn't have been alive if I thought so!"

"Extreme reaction. That aside, I can see your point."

"This event you had going, it did wonders for her behavior! She's done her best to stay on your good side these past couple weeks, and I know she'll keep it up going forward! Look, this whole thing was a mess and I'll be sure to correct her, but don't flush her efforts, her future down the toi…er, drain over this situation." She recovered from her poor choice of words.

"Thanks, sis…" Ranika looked towards her with wide and hopeful eyes. Hanako only side-eyed her back, her rage barely containing itself.

"I don't know, attacking a student, even if off campus," Erina scratched her head. "But perhaps I could scrub the incident; conflicting accounts are a valid excuse to expunge records. I would also have to get to the bottom of the rumor in the first place. Ranika, do you have any details on how the monitor really ended up on the floor yesterday?"

Now Hanako stared directly at her and discretely shook her head. "Uh…I don't know nothing."

"Really…'I don't know anything' is the correct wording. You're in high school now, start speaking properly." Smushing her forehead with the side of the wall, Erina raspberried. "Can't believe this! Alright, you'll see no mention of this from today on."

"Aw, sweet! OW!" Ranika's ear was gripped tightly as she was yanked out of her chair.

"Thank you so much Erina. I really really appreciate this."

"But." Erina's shifted her tone. "In exchange, I need you to do something for me."

Sensing the change in the conversation, Hanako warily responded. "What else could you possibly need? Wasn't me playing nurse for four hours-"

"I think you better wait until I'm finished."

Ranika, having rarely seen the slightest edge come out of Erina before, couldn't even recognize this face of her teacher. "Uh, Teach?"

Erina held her hand up to the student. "I'm speaking to your sister, Ranika." She turned back to Hanako. "Although from your face…I think you know what I'm going to ask. I assume you already spoke to her."

"…you already know about it."

"It wasn't too hard to deduce considering your shortness with him, your body language whenever he comes up in conversation, though I applaud your attempts at hiding your connection. Recusal should be a given. From you and Rinasa."

"You little-!" Hanako took a moment to collect herself. "She isn't even related to him."

"But you are related to her. There's too much crossover between you two, and I'm certain Kyoya would agree."

"…so that's why that bastard was here."

"As a matter of course, zero mention of any of these rumors to anyone else as well. Baseless accusations have no merit to begin with but especially not ones about my own students. Now I could go to the DA and have this settled formally but I don't think any of us really want to go through all of that, now do we?"

"…how much of this was your idea, Erina? Even he doesn't have this much foresight, you had an in on this one too."

"Are we in agreement?"

She bit her lip, and with a slow nod lead Ranika out the door. "I get the picture."

Then the room suddenly ignited.

Ranika flew backwards with a yelp as the bright flame on her desk nearly covered her entire view. Hinote quickly extinguished it and turned away, trying to stifle a laugh. It seemed not many others had noticed the yell but Ranika still tried to play it off by doing another shout when she stood up. When Hinote turned back to her, she gave a small wave complimented with a cheeky smile.

"Oh, you…damn it!"

The orange haired girl giggled and patted the seat to her left. "Come on back over here, I want to know what's going on in that little brain this early in the morning!"

"Little brain? You callin' me stupid?" Ranika vaulted over a fellow classmates' desk and landed in hers.

"Not calling you smart!"

"Hey you! You better watch your ass!"

"Hehe…oh! I was going to ask if you wanted to join me and Mako after school!"

"You and Mako? The hell are you two getting up to?"

The boy in question turned around and shot a paper airplane in her pink hair, now starting to reach her shoulders. "It's how it sounds, sweet cheeks! We'll be getting up to no good! Some real no good too, mm-mmm!" He playfully rocked Hinote back and forth. "Isn't that right, m'lady?"

Hinote slapped his hand. "Would you stop! He wants a couple of practice matches with me and I want to have you come watch! Like a third party, a judge or something? And if you feel like it, I also wanted to have a match with you since I didn't get a chance."

"Whaaaat. We just got finished with all that festival BS, I'm kinda worn out on fighting right now."

"You? Worn out on fighting? I think hell just reached subzero temperatures."

"Hmmm…poof!" Hinote blew a small cold flame in Mako's face.

"Ah! Hey, you- Whatcha do that for!?"

"Girl talk! We need a little privacy!"

"Pfft, I know all about girl stuff, I don't care about that!"

"…suit yourself. So anyway, Ranika! I had a really weird yellowish slime leaking out of me the other day, like oozing out! It wasn't even that time of the month so it confused-"

"ALRIGHT!" Mako quickly shot out from his chair. "I get it!"

"Wait, you said you know all about girl stuff! Maybe you'd know if that slime was like, regular discharge or-"

"STOP IT, PLEASE! I GET IT, I'VE- I've got the concept!" He moved his chair closer to another group of students, vigorously shaking his head all the while.

"Heh, that got him running."

Ranika leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Uh, you miiiiight wanna get that looked at."

"I wasn't- I made that up."

"Oh, thank god! I was afraid you…whew! So, whaddya want?"

"Well, nothing much…" Hinote pushed some of her hair aside and scooted her chair closer to Ranika's. "I was just going to ask if you were feeling alright?"

"What do you mean, of course I'm alright!" Hinote's concerned expression didn't change. "…you see right through that, huh?"

"Come on, it'll feel better if you let it out to someone. Not good to hold that stuff in, trust me." Hinote took her hand and held it gently. "Or if you want, we can wait until lunch or between classes to talk?"

"How about not at all. It's got nothing to do with you, so let's keep it that way."

"But…"

She pulled her arm away from Hinote and faced forward, determined not to look at her anymore.

"I see…sigh…well, I'm always right over here so if-"

"Yep."

Another couple empty seconds passed, the sounds of their excited classmates not nearly loud enough to drown out their silence. With little else to do, Hinote decided to leave her be and join in the conversation Mako had injected himself in.

"And so then, she just shows up out of nowhere! Massive muscles and ridiculously low voice…well for a girl, anyways! So me and Kisho, we…" Mako looked over his shoulder and noticed Hinote's pensive face. "…uh, yeah! Me and Kisho totally like, freaked out cause she was listening in- sorry, I guess Ranika's moodiness is contagious, babe?"

"What? Nah! I was just thinking-ah!"

A certain brown-haired boy lightly chopped her on the head. "Thinking? Not on my watch! It's not good for you!"

"Oh, hi Suiiki! You were so unremarkable, I almost didn't see you!"

"OOOO!" Mako instigated. "You gonna take that?"

"I'll have you know, me and Daisuke are getting ready to go on a training regimen that'll leave all you suckers in the dust! A vigi- uh! I mean, a local hero said she'd take me out on a couple of missions, let me get accustomed to the hero lifestyle!"

Daisuke shrank behind his backpack at the sound of his name. "I-I didn't w-w-want this, f-for the record…"

"It's good practice for you. You need to get more confidence so you can be an awesome hero like me!"

Hayashi, the boy who had the quirk Cactus, quietly raised his hand as if he needed to have permission to speak. "To be clear, Daisuke outperformed everyone else here, including you Suiiki, who lost your first match."

"OOH! With the steel chair, Hayashi comes swinging!" Mako gave him a noogie. "He isn't wrong, you know?!"

"Hey now, let's not dogpile on the poor guy!" Hinote interrupted. "It was just bad luck…he had to fight me!"

"OOOO-"

"You lost to her too!"

"False presenses!"

"Pretenses!"

"Those too!"

The image of Ranika's body soaring around her opponents clouded Genso's mind, even during his usual favorite subject of science. Not that he needed to pay much attention as his grades in the subject were perfect. The tapping of a nearby classmate awoke him from his daydream.

"You are distracted yet again. This repetitive process grows rather tiresome."

"Ah, my apologies, Umeji." He held his hand over the beaker she pushed his way and dropped a couple ounces of mercury from his hand.

"I am grateful for the service you have provided and express my gratitude in verbal form." Umeji slowly poured the liquid mercury into a small tube lined with numbers.

"The words are 'Thank You', for future reference."

"What?" She questioningly stared at him. "Why would you paraphrase to such common verbiage? Letting ourselves lower our intellect to the standard person's is an error a great deal of humans have dealt upon themselves, so as to not follow in the missteps those who preceded our existence have-"

Genso held his head in his hands and groaned.

"Is there an external matter that is causing you distress?"

He managed to bite his tongue and merely glanced at her for a moment. "…it's nothing."

"Well, that's objectively incorrect. Nothing implies the absence of all information, corporeal or otherwise. Should you find yourself in the void of space, having no thoughts or sensing no external stimuli, only then would the word nothing be truly appropriate. Therefore, I have to correct you on your statement that it is nothing. I assume the terms you meant to apply were in fact "I am not bothered by any situations at the current moment" to which I respond that this is most optimal to have heard and congratulate you on your good health. Before we continue, however, the completion of our project requires us to create an air pocket inside of our capillary and the one who has been pre-selected to guide us through this course has given us a necessity of this project being finished with exactly a fifty-to-fifty ratio of work done between the two of us, therefore you must be the one to seal the glass tube so that this requirement may be upheld. Now quickly, I detest long conversations."

"…agreed." He took his hands and cupped them together, focusing on combining individual elements into compounds and soon enough, materials beyond the base periodic table began to form.

"Excuse my intrusion-"

"Just give me one second." He sharply cut her off.

"…one second has passed."

For the first time in his life, Genso felt the need to calm himself down. "…Thank you! Now give me 10 more."

"Table 2, I assume everything is going fine?" Their teacher asked. "I hear an awful lot of talk coming from you, not that that's out of the norm. But I want to make sure you are staying on topic and not going off about…what was it again, the cube drive?"

"The Alcubierre Drive." Umeji lit up at the chance to correct someone. "A theoretical device one could use to attain faster-than-light travel – 10 seconds have passed – via expanding the space behind oneself while contracting the space in front…"

"Uh, yes that. While I don't mind you two discussing amongst yourselves-"

"Thus creating an energy field that is lower than that of a vacuum; in layman's terms, negative mass is achieved and thus usable to attain faster-than-light speed."

"That's layman's terms?"

"Here." Genso pulled his hands apart, a small thermometer forming out of his palms. "A fully working thermometer."

"…" The teacher scratched his head. "I uh, suppose that is technically the assignment done."

"Actually, you still need to check it was made with the same base materials that the rest of the class was given in order to ensure it matches the idea of the thermometer you held in your head when first assigning this project in the first place, not to mention the fifty-to-fifty ratio was not achieved with this version as Genso was the sole creator of this particular variant as opposed to the incomplete-"

"It's fine, Umeji, I'll give it a pass. It looks really nice too!" He held the small creation in his hand and marveled at the accuracy. "Even got original mercury and plastics, that's incredible!"

The boy took his glasses off and wiped some haze off. "…thanks."

"Once again, you have shown yourself willing to allow your own intelligence quotient to be marred using speech that those with an inferior vocabulary…"

As she continued chastising Genso for his horrendous expression of gratitude, the teacher smiled to himself. "Heh…Genso, would you like to sit in on Kansh- er, Ms. Erina's class today?"

He jerked upwards, startling several of the other students from their work. "Excuse me?! Is such a happening…is that allowed?"

"Sure! It's easy as me saying so! You two have already completed your project, I don't see any harm in letting you visit another classroom, long as you don't interrupt anything!" He turned to his partner. "Umeji, you can survive without Genso for the day, can't you?"

"Genso's presence here is not necessary for my biological functions to continue their proce-."

"Sounds good! Hold one sec, I'll make you a note."

While he was putting his stuff in his backpack, the teacher waved Genso toward his desk. He put on his glasses and read the slip of paper Mr. Hirokumi had written for him. He gasped and double checked what he was reading.

"That's right." He whispered to the student. "The rest of this week, whenever you feel a bit restless, head on over there, liven yourself up a bit! Not like I'm teaching you much in here. And between you and me…if you stayed in there past this week as well, something tells me Kanshi won't mind at all."

"S…sir, are you certain? I do not wish to give the impression I am bored of your classes! I am highly appreciative-" The teacher rustled Genso's white hair, then shooed him away with a smile. Genso bowed his head with respect then left the room, his mind filled with both anxiety and excitement.

The class quietly sat in their seats with light music playing over a stereo near the window. Erina occasionally looked up to make sure no students were cheating during their tests even though her powers made this largely unnecessary. Genso placed his head onto his desk, having finished 30 minutes before almost everyone else.

"I mean, what did you expect?" Ranika asked, also done with hers.

Gazing at his new classmates, he smiled.

"More."