Kazuki finished brushing his teeth and put on the mandatory school uniform. It was a pair of black pants and a button-down white shirt with a black jacket over it. “Shiki, come on, we’re going to be late.”

He yawned and got out of bed, “Alright.” He quickly got ready before they both left to eat breakfast. Afterwards, they traveled to Noryoku and walked towards the receptionist to find out their classes. She handed them both their schedules, showing only three periods.

“Huh, so academic classes are first, then lunch and study hall, and we end the day with ability related things. That would mean each class is about two hours long!” Kazuki said, surprised.

“Who do you think we’re gonna get in our class?” Shiki asked considering they had the same schedule.

“I don’t care as long as it’s not Katsuo.” Kazuki replied as he reached the door to their class. “Well, I guess it would be nice if Haru and Ari could be here as well.” The room was ordinary, filled with desks in rows and a teacher’s desk at the front, along with a whiteboard. Most of the other kids had already arrived, so Kazuki and Shiki took the nearest open seats towards the front of the room. Kazuki looked around. Seems like Katsuo isn’t here, guess I lucked out. Kazuki noticed the girl with pink hair who had attacked him during his exam. I think her name was Shirai… oh yeah, Shiraiyuki. He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see Shiki excitedly pointing at a student with blonde hair standing across the room.

They both walked over to the student and Shiki introduced him. “Kazuki, meet Fujio.”

“Hey,” said Kazuki with a smile. He realized this is the person Shiki must’ve ran into in his exam. “I’ve heard about you a couple times and it feels good to finally meet you.”

“Oh really? I didn’t know I was so popular,” he joked.

They both laughed and started to talk. The teacher for their class hadn’t arrived yet, so they just fooled around until they did. A few minutes later, a man with a rugged face and glasses entered the classroom. He appeared to be in his late twenties and looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

“Good morning,” he said groggily. “My name’s Daishin and I’m going to be your academic teacher for this school year.” He sat at his desk and sighed. “I have one rule for this class. Just don’t be loud, I can’t deal with too much noise.”

Is this guy serious? Kazuki expected an outgoing teacher that would be energetic and fun. This guy looked like he was forced to be here, in fact, Kazuki wouldn’t be surprised if he was. At least, that’s what he thought at the beginning of the class. Their teacher was surprisingly good, his lessons were easy to understand and he gave detailed explanations that made complete sense.

Their teacher looked at the clock. “Well, class is about to end, so let me tell you something before you leave.” He sat down and faced the students with a serious look on his face. “Don’t let your guard down at this school. Whether it be other students or some kind of ‘test’ the school enforced, there are a handful of dangerous things that take place on campus, so be on edge, or at least don’t be stupid.”

The bell rang and whispering and chatter spread throughout the room. Like the principle had said, this period was mostly basic school curriculum. By the end of it Shiki and Fujio looked like they were about to fall asleep.

“Well, glad that’s over with,” said Fujio as they walked out of the classroom.

“What do we have next?” Shiki asked, yawning from the nap he took in class.

“Looks like a free period.” Kazuki responded as they walked around the school.

“We should probably meet up with Ari and Haru. Maybe we can get a head start on ability training!” he said excitedly.

“Yeah, but first we should get some lunch, I’m starving,” Fujio replied.

Soon after, the five of them walked into the cafeteria. Shiki and Haru sniffed the air in confusion.

“What’s that smell?” Shiki asked, looking around the crowded cafeteria.

“I think that’s called food, genius.” Ari replied as they walked towards the food line.

“Wow, look at all of this… stuff!” Haru said in wonder, staring at all of the gourmet food choices.

“Yeah, I’ve never seen food that looks this good.” Kazuki said, putting a slab of steak on his plate. They all walked over to an open table, before sitting down and talking about their days.

“So it looks like you guys learned the same stuff as us.” said Kazuki, his mouth watering as he shoved a piece of steak into his mouth.

“Well duh. It’s just boring school stuff, obviously we’re all gonna learn the same things.” Shiki replied with his mouth full.

“I wonder what the ability training is going to be like?” Ari questioned as she took a bite out of her salad.

“Well if I had to guess…” Kazuki trailed off as he noticed a familiar figure walking towards him. But for some reason, Kazuki didn’t feel any of the dread he usually would as Katsuo approached his table. I guess being attacked by a demon lord really puts things into perspective, Kazuki thought as he stood up and faced Katsuo.

“Hey, you alright Kazuki?” Shiki asked, before looking in the direction he was facing. His face instantly darkened, as he stood up as well, both of his fists clenched. “Oh it’s this guy. I’ve been waiting to kick his ass since the entrance exam.” Shiki started forward, before he felt a hand on his chest.

“Not right now Shiki. This is something I need to deal with myself.” Kazuki said, with a determined glint in his eyes.

“Are you sure? Because I have the urge to show him who’s really the strongest,” Shiki replied.

“I’m serious Shiki. If you want to talk to him, do it later.”

“Tch,” he sneered, stepping back. “Fine.” Kazuki and Katsuo faced each other in the center of the cafeteria.

“So what did you do?” Katsuo asked, towered over Kazuki. His normal smug voice was replaced with one of anger.

“What did I do?” Kazuki repeated, confused as to what had triggered Katsuo’s sudden personality change.

“I’m not gonna ask again. What did you do? Did you pay off the principle? Maybe the teachers felt bad for you? What was it!?” Katsuo shouted in rage. Something’s off. Sure, Katsuo would be surprised that I got in, but it feels like something else happened to make him this angry. Kazuki thought about what could have possibly made Katsuo this mad. I don’t know what could have possibly made Katsuo this upset. The only thing he cares about is picking fights and being strong. Unless…

“You lost a fight?!” Kazuki asked in shock. Sure, he knew that other strong kids came to Noryoku, but it was still hard to believe that someone as seemingly invincible as Katsuo had actually lost.

“Shut up! I didn’t lose, I just got unlucky!” Katsuo roared. The entire cafeteria went silent, everyone turning to look at the standoff between the two boys. Katsuo ignored all of the people watching, still glaring at Kazuki. After a few seconds, he lunged at him. Kazuki prepared himself. He started to run towards Katsuo, but just as the two were about to make contact, a voice boomed across the cafeteria.

“Enough!”

They both froze, mere feet away from each other. At first, the students thought the loud noise had stopped them, but then they noticed that both Kazuki and Katsuo’s feet had sunk into the floor. A blonde, middle aged man wearing a suit walked up to the duo with a stern look on his face. Katsuo gritted his teeth as he tried to free himself from the ground.

“I don’t know why you two are fighting, but you should know that any combat outside of school activities is prohibited. If you want to battle so badly, you’ll have your opportunity later. Now, both of you sit down.” He said, releasing the spell that was binding the pair to the ground. Both of them stumbled forward at the sudden regaining of their movement.

Katsuo turned around and started to walk away. He was pissed. “This isn’t over. When the time comes I’m gonna kick the crap out of you,” Katsuo spat.

“Likewise,” Kazuki retorted, before they both returned to their seats, the volume in the cafeteria subsided as everyone started talking about what had just happened.

“So, I guess now you'll have to watch out for that idiot,” Shiki said.

“Don’t worry Kazuki, we’ve got your back,” Ari said as she put her hand on Kazuki’s shoulder.

“It’s fine,” Kazuki replied, his voice surprisingly calm. “I don’t know why, but for some reason I don’t feel worried in the same way I used to about Katsuo. I just want him to stop messing with me. Of course,” a devilish grin emerged, “I wouldn’t mind showing him who’s the stronger one this time around.”

Shiki burst out laughing, “That look does not suit your face!” He started slamming his hand on the table from laughter.

His face reddened. “Shut up!” He sat down and shoved a piece of meat into his mouth.

Haru and Ari half laughed. I’ve never seen him look that… scary. They both thought.

O O O

Kazuki, Shiki, and Fujio walked down the hallway looking for the Ability Training Classroom.

“Damn, I can’t find anything in this school. It’s way too hard to navigate,” said Shiki as he looked around the various hallways.

“I think we’ll find it before the next class starts.” Fujio commented. He was hauling a bag on his shoulder with his supplies from their first academic period, as well as his sword strapped on his back. “I mean, we did leave the cafeteria thirty minutes before this class is supposed to start.”

“That’s one thing I don’t get,” he responded. “Why do we have two whole hours for a ‘study hall.’ It’s basically freetime, not that I’m complaining.”

“We should have just waited for other people to leave and followed them,” Kazuki groaned. “This is going to take ages.”

“Hey, c’mon, don’t be like that. Think of it as a chance to have some fun around here! It’s like exploring a mansion, except, maybe a million times bigger,” Shiki said enthusiastically.

A familiar voice started to speak from behind Shiki, “Actually, the school is only around one hundred and twenty five times bigger than what is considered to be a ‘mansion.’ Well, only is an understatement.”

“Woah!” Shiki shouted out of surprise. “Who the hell are you?!” He turned around and saw a boy with messy hair and glasses and a black backpack accompanied by another boy crossing his arms with slicked black hair and a guitar.

“You’re the guys from the race!” Kazuki said, pointing at the two. He was surprised to see the second and third place finishers in a random place in the school like this. He introduced himself as well as his friends to the boys.

“Oh I remember you guys,” said Brian. “You were behind us when we arrived at the auditorium.”

“That’s cool and all… but where are we going?” said Sivle. It went silent.

“Wait,” Shiki said. “You guys don’t know where you’re going either?”

“Wha- Of course we know where we’re going. Err, we knew where we were going,” said Sivle. “We took a… minor detour around the school and ended up here.”

Brian started to speak for him, “Actually, Sivle thought how cool the school looked and wanted to wander arou-”

Sivle slammed his hand onto Brian's back and there was an awkward pause. “We aren’t lost.” Another awkward pause.

“Well… you guys lead the way then?” Fujio finally said, gesturing forward.

“Yeah, go ahead Bryan,” Sivle said expectantly, pushing Brian in front of him.

They walked around the school for a few minutes, taking turns at seemingly random places. Kazuki started to have his doubts. Does this guy really know where he’s going? Or is he just as confused as us? But, before he even realized it, they had arrived to the classroom. “Wait, how did you know how to get here even though we were lost?” Kazuki asked Brian.

Sivle responded for him, “I told you, we weren’t lost. We were on our way and just happened to run into you.”

His reason changed, Kazuki and Shiki thought.

“Actually,” Brian started, “it wasn’t hard to memorize the layout of this school. It only took a couple minutes to know where everything is.”

“Wow, you seriously know where everything is?” Shiki queried. “That’s amazing! You’ve gotta show me around this place sometime. It’s way too big for me to picture in my head,” he laughed. “Anyway, we should probably head into class. The bell will ring any minute now.”

Everyone walked in and the first thing they saw was their teacher. Kazuki peered into the room, “You’re kidding me.” It was the same man who stopped the fight between him and Katsuo in the cafeteria.

Shiki pointed into the room at the teacher. “It’s the same guy from lunch!” he shouted.