Luke brushed his teeth and flossed with the contents of the metallic case. Then he took his things in the locker and went to the classroom. Akira was already sitting beside him and their desks were already touching each other.

He had no doubt the Akira family could get her whatever she needed to study if they wanted—she had even brought a backpack to school—but she was using the lack of supplies to stay close to him. What he would normally see as a way for a tormentor to keep asserting their dominance over him was now a common, slightly cool act from a prospective friend.

His phoenix heart sent a wave of warmth through his entire body.

Luke sat with a smile that Akira returned. She never showed her teeth while smiling, and though he wasn't sure, he believed it had to do with Japanese culture.

They didn't talk, as she was browsing a photo app in her smartphone. He took the opportunity to also check his brand new phone. Unlocking it revealed a configuration prompt and he quickly went through it. It would now recognize both his face and digitals, and came with a data plan that let him download the entire internet and then some if he wanted.

"Thank your uncle for this for me," he told Akira.

She nodded, bit her lower lip as if hesitating before speaking something, then finally said, "What my elder is doing for your grandfather... It's more than you can imagine. I can't say too much, but he's fighting against some other very influential elders for your grandfather's sake."

He wasn't surprised that someone was against spending money on a stranger with a terminal disease. As far as they knew, it was no better than wasting resources. For Luke though, no matter what Mr. Akira said, it was a debt he would make sure to repay one day.

They were keeping his grandad alive and safe. That was worth more than some thanks. Even if Luke had to work for it his entire life, he would repay Mr. Akira at least tenfold in the future.

"You talk about your family like it's some kind of mafia sometimes," Luke commented half-playfully, half-serious. He was very curious about who were the people he was attaching his life to.

"The Akira is an old Japanese clan. One of our branches was even a yakuza clan at a time. The closest thing the West has to it is a mix of family and mafia."

"Really?" That was kind of... awesome.

"Yes. A clan as old as ours has a lot of history, a lot of descendants, a lot of internal politics. We started off as a common family, the Akira family. As the patriarch acquired power and influence, he took in retainers and employees. Time passed, my ancestors kept expanding, and we eventually became a huge clan. The direct descendants rule over most of it, but the family branches have a lot of clout too, and even people without blood relations have some influence. The clan itself has tens of thousands of members, and when you include what we call the 'extended' clan, which comprises the companies we own, that number grows to a couple hundred thousands throughout the world." She smiled slightly. "I always refer to it as my family for easy understanding for Westerners, but I'm usually talking about the clan."

"That sounds like a mess."

Akira shrugged. "You get used to it. When you're born in such a clan, you have a lot of expectations set on you, but also a lot of help. You... You were right yesterday. I don't always succeeded in everything I try, but I have the family, the clan, to help soften up the blow. The words I hear when I fail are not kind, but as long as I don't willingly hurt the clan, I'll always have another chance. We're strict, but not monsters, though I was repeatedly told Western sensitivity wouldn't see things like that."

"Are you not from the US?" he asked, surprised. He had thought she was Japanese-American.

She shook her head. "I was born and raised in Japan."

"Whoa. Your English is perfect."

"Thank you." She smiled. "I learned a lot about Western culture as I grew up. I would travel to America or European countries at least twice every year to practice my English and learn your culture."

Luke was impressed. "Everyone in the clan is raised like that?"

"No. I have a... special position. I cannot talk about it."

He kept silent for a few seconds then asked softly, "Isn't it tiring? To live under all these rules all the time?"

She took some time to think. "I have privileges, and they come with responsibilities." She shrugged. "It is what it is."

He was impressed by her maturity. Then he thought of something. "Wait, if the clan is so big, is Mr. Akira actually blood-related to you?"

"Kind of." That was all she said on the subject and Luke decided he wouldn't push.

The bell rung right then, the class started...

...and it was the best class of Luke's life.

It was very relaxing to pay attention to class without worrying about not doing the wrong thing and get beaten harder after school. It was marvelous to have a colleague by his side for some small talk here and there. It was freeing to just be himself once more.

To make things even better, he noticed for the first time how his phoenix heart's perfect memory helped with school. Though it didn't directly assist with understanding the content he read or heard the teacher explain, he could recall it word by word with a thought, which let him reflect on it for longer.

With that cheat, he could answer exam questions on the level of a genius. Though... Was it cheating when it was a part of his body that gave him perfect memory?

Lunch break arrived fast, and they ate together at the cafeteria. People kept staring and whispering at their backs, but they just ignored it. For once, Luke didn't need a bath at that time, so after brushing his teeth, they went to the rooftop.

The school's rooftop was bare of objects or features, so he just sat with his back to a wall and relaxed while looking at the skies. The air was a bit stale today, and there was no cover from the sun. The heat didn't bother him in the slightest though; he was a phoenix-hybrid, after all.

"Can I ask something?" Akira, who was sitting beside him, suddenly asked.

He looked at her. "Of course."

"Why did you ask me to use the ki blast against you so many times yesterday?" She asked with her head down. "I know I'm not supposed to ask about a request made as payment for something I owe, but I can't keep my curiosity down."

"I told you already, didn't I? I was trying to feel ki."

"I thought you were just kidding." She sounded curious to learn more, but unsure if she should ask about it directly.

Luke thought about it while looking at her. Should he tell her about the alien memories in his head?

He had already told her about his fighting prowess coming to him out of nowhere one day. He hadn't expected her to believe it, but she had, and now her people would be aware that knowledge—about fighting—had been put into his mind out of nowhere. What they didn't know was the extent of that knowledge.

If he told her the truth, she would know there was more to it than martial arts.

Luke didn't want thousands of people to know he had those memories. Then again, in half a year, the system would be fully operational. Earth's mana levels were raising already. He didn't know what the future held, but having powerful friends in case things went south would certainly be good.

So the questions were: what did the future hold, and could he trust the Akira clan if the worst came to pass?

The worst case scenario was the Demonic Horde invading Earth as the mana levels increased. By then, his knowledge would be very useful. Luke hadn't thought about it deeply, but he wanted to release his knowledge to everyone so humankind wouldn't suffer so much against the Demonic Horde.

However, there would be people who would want to hoard that knowledge to themselves in order for their organizations to grown stronger while others grew weaker. They would want to either kidnap him and use that knowledge themselves, or even kill him so others didn't get the knowledge.

He didn't know if he could trust the Akira clan with his secret.

Luke frowned. Actually, now that he thought about it, his secret wasn't just relevant in case the worst came to pass, was it? He was building his mana channels already. Sakura's impure mana waves told him she didn't have said channels, at least not the kind he could build. That alone would make people want to kidnap him.

He didn't know if he could trust the Akira with that, but he knew someone who could tell him, didn't he? And if he wanted to become Sakura's friend, he had to show her some trust at some point.

Well, no time like the present.

"Let's say the whole truth about it is closely tied to a secret that might make powerful people want to kidnap me," he said. "Could I trust your clan with that secret?"

Thing is, Luke didn't think he could keep his secret from the whole damn world. He had been alone for almost two years and it sucked. He wanted friends he could trust, and he hoped Akira Sakura would be such person.

Yet, his words were the same as saying that he didn't trust her to keep his secret from her clan. It was a bit of a dick move, but it also spoke about how greatly he valued that secret.

She didn't reply immediately. She bit her lower lip—a gesture he was getting enamored to, as it made her look very cute—and thought for a very, very long time. The bell to go back to class even rung, yet she didn't move.

Luke kept by her side, waiting for her while looking at the skies. Her answer would decide things much more important than whatever they might learn in class.

After almost an entire hour of hard thinking, she took a deep breath and said with a shaky voice, looking at the ground, "Yes."

That was an unexpected answer after such a long silence. He had thought she was facing the harsh true that even her supposedly honorable clan wasn't trustworthy.

But, she wasn't done.

She raised her eyes to meet his and stated, "More importantly, you can trust me."

He could feel the confidence of her words despite their trembling. She was making an important decision right now. She was telling him that she would keep his secret from her clan, and from everything he had seen and heard from her, that wasn't a decision to make lightly.

It could be a lie, of course. In fact, Luke's entire body told him not to trust her. It said he was rushing things too much, that he was acting desperate just because he had been alone for so long. That this was a mistake.

It yelled at him that his hormones were doing all his thinking. How could he fall for someone so quickly? Especially someone who had mistreated him, no matter her justification? His feelings for her weren't just, he was just needy and clinging to the first beautiful girl who showed a drop of care for him.

The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Even now, looking at her so close to him made him feel a bit silly. There was a brutal, terrible truth being told by the more rational part of his brain.

However, his phoenix heart released a heat wave, and in that wave...

There was something there. Something he couldn't put his finger on. A thought that wasn't a thought, a feeling that wasn't a feeling, a fleeting idea that Akira Sakura was someone he would regret not getting close to. It was as if his soul was whispering it to him, as if his heart was telling him to embrace a past he had no recollection of.

He couldn't explain the feeling, but the regret it promised was so overwhelming he almost teared up.

The opposing thoughts fought each other intensely. His mind was almost torn apart as he wanted to do something to protect himself and found himself unable to because of the alien feelings. His phoenix heart sent wave after wave of heat to help stabilize him at the same time it told him to act against his instincts.

With each wave, the foreboding grew.

Wave after wave, he was pushed a little more out of his comfort zone, a little more into new grounds, into a new life, into a new Luke.

Until he decided to trust her.

For the first time in almost two years, he would trust a new person.

That was such a huge shift of everything he knew, everything he was, that he did tear up this time. Still, he just pushed through it. He wouldn't let the shame from crying out of nowhere stop him now.

"I have a lot of strange memories in my mind..." he said. "Some of them... They are about mana, which you call ki. With your help, I felt mana by myself yesterday, just like I said I would." He closed his eyes, willed it, and concentrated the mana touching his soul in front of him, then sent it her way. He could barely control an area one inch wide, but it was enough. Her eyes widened when she felt the mana wave go by her soul. "I can control it now."

"H- How?!" They were sitting, but she half-jumped at him and grabbed him by the shoulders. "I took nine months to feel ki and I was one of the fastest in the clan history! How can you do it in a single night?!"

It seemed Luke had overestimated her family's mana-feeling method. Or maybe he had underestimated the tower. In there, his speed would be considered fast, but not incredibly so. In hindsight, it was expected, since the tower had so much more mana than Earth, which made feeling it a lot easier.

But much more important than his mistake was how close Akira suddenly was to him. She was holding him with arms slightly bent, making their faces way too close to each other. He could smell her perfume and even feel her breathe. And having someone that wasn't a professional, like the doctor, touch him without trying to inflict pain after so long made him very self-conscious about her hands.

His tears stopped falling as his strange emotions were immediately replaced with something much more common: yearning. His heart beat so fast he thought it might burst, and he couldn't think of anything else but how damn much he wanted to feel her lips on his.

Akira seemed to realize the position they were at a few moments after him. Her face turned as red as a beet, and she quickly released him and pulled back. She looked at the ground, and Luke finally managed to take his eyes from her, looking to the side instead. An awkward silence followed until she broke it.

"I- I'm sorry. Your secret is safe with me."

Luke looked at her, but she was still looking down. It was a bit strange to see the Akira who had acted so forcefully the day before now acting demure. The worst part was that he liked that part of her, which only made him even more interested in someone he couldn't have.

He gulped and said, "T- Thank you. I... We can talk more about it later if you want. I think we should go to class for now."

She finally looked back at him, her eyes wide. "The class!" She stood up in a jump.