Shizuka smirked, as she watched Vorden, who unknown to her, was actually Raten, storm past her hiding spot, him not even noticing her.
'Happy hunting, Vorden' She thought, amused, tipping her cap. "If you're anything like…HER…you're just what we need to knock those arrogant second-years off their pedestal!'
Shizuka turned her gaze back towards the group of Tsukuru and his friends.
Quinn and Peter looked at Tsukuru as he rapidly began to calm down from being so…heated.
He desperately tried to calm down and regain his composure. He took a few deep breaths. Eventually, his roaring inferno of anger and hatred had died down into a smoldering ember of irritation.
He let out a deep sigh, and turned his face to look at the two.
Tsukuru was wearing a smile, but they could see that it was forced and strained.
"Alright, let's go." He replied, walking past them and heading back towards the first-year building. "Classes will be resuming soon."
Unknown to them, not too far away behind a stone wall, they were being watched by Tsukuru's older sister, the first-year Sergeant, Hikiko Shizuka.
Shizuka smirked, as she watched them start to head back towards the first-year building.
However, as she looked to her right, her eyes narrowed. For she was not the only one spying on the group.
Hiding behind the corner of one of the second-year buildings, she saw a girl with brown hair.
'That's the girl with the Level 2 Telekinesis Ability.' Shizuka thought. 'Layla Munrow, if I'm not mistaken.'
Shizuka took a step forward towards her, but then she heard an electronic beep from her watch, as it began to light up. She brought it up to her chest, and put two fingers to the screen, accepting the call.
"Shizuka here." She replied. "Is there a situation?" She asked. S
oon, Nathan's voice came from the other end.
"Shizuka, I have a…incident report from teacher Del Rowan." Nathan replied, before continuing. "Involving your brother."
Shizuka raised her eyebrow in interest.
"Oh?" She asked in an amused tone.
Meanwhile, inside the second-year building, Mono Black walked down the hall towards the doctor's office with a pained, angry look on his face.
"That little shit!" Mono muttered through gritted teeth, as he held his injured hand in his other, pressing it tight against it to mitigate the blood loss.
The last few minutes replayed through his mind. His Ability had failed spectacularly, and he had walked right into that boy's hands. He saw himself throwing his punch at Tsukuru's face, intending to teach him a lesson for "mouthing off to his superiors", only for him to smash his fist right into a bunch of metal spikes!
Mono grit his teeth in anger. He had never felt so furious in his entire life. This humiliation would NOT stand.
"Hikiko Tsukuru." He muttered, unconsciously squeezing his hand even harder in his raw, unbridled anger.
"You've just made it to the top of my shit list!" He hissed.
As he walked down towards the doctor's office, he saw numerous students look at him in surprise and shock.
Mono was the top of the heap around here, the head honcho, the second-year student with the highest Ability Level who wasn't an Original.
So seeing him injured was a complete and utter surprise.
He shot them all a death glare, which screamed that he'd brutally beat anybody who so much as snickered within an inch of their life.
The glare caused all the students to shrink away as he passed.
As he did, a group of three second-years, all possessing Level 4 Ability Levels, ran in a certain direction, towards a certain individual's office.
These were three members of the same group of six second-years who had retrieved Tsukuru and his friends.
In another room within the second-year building, General Duke was doing paperwork in his office.
His office was littered with stacks of Earth Ability Books. He was the one in charge of distributing the higher-Level Ability Books to new students, but the books always had strings attached.
Suddenly, there was an anxious, frantic knock on his door.
Duke looked up from his paperwork, and sighed.
"Come in." He muttered.
Instantly, his door was almost thrown off his hinges, as three boys almost fell through the doorway, landing in a heap on the floor.
Duke looked down at them with an annoyed expression.
The boy on the top of the pile was the first to get up. He was a boy with short, orange hair and green eyes.
"Sir, Mono has been injured." The boy said frantically.
Duke's eyebrow raised in surprise.
"Really?" Duke asked., his hands clasped together on his desk. Mono was Duke's prized pupil, the student who he had the closest relationship with. "By whom?"
The boy gulped.
"We…don't know." He replied, causing Duke's eyes to narrow. "He sent us to retrieve a group of first-years containing a high-Level who was hanging around with low-Levels."
His words made Duke's eyebrow twitch in irritation.
'There's always one.' He thought bitterly. 'Some bleeding heart who thinks they can 'change the system'.'
The boy spoke up again, continuing.
"He sent us away after we retrieved them." The boy replied. "But, sir. That boy was with them. The boy you warned us about."
This caught Duke's immediate attention.
"The Hikiko boy?!" He asked, rising up from his seat. "You brought him here?!?"
The boy gulped.
"We had to, sir!" He replied. "The troublemaker was part of his friend group!"
Duke's eye began to twitch in annoyance. If Shizuka even thought that Duke was "harassing her brother", even indirectly, she would begin poking around, attempting to dig up dirt in retaliation. And Duke absolutely COULD NOT let that happen. If what Duke was doing off-the-books came to light, he'd be in serious trouble.
"Where is Mono now?!" Duke almost shouted. The boy gulped.
"He was seen heading towards the doctor's office, holding his hand." The boy replied.
Duke almost ran out of the room. He had to put out this fire before it even started.
Back outside the second-year building, Sergeant Dillon Wyte was heading back into the building after his designated snack break.
As he approached the door, he noticed something on the ground.
Reaching down, he picked it up. It was a cloth headband with a metal plate. However, the part that caught Dillon's attention was the fact that the headband had large spikes jutting out of it, and the whole plate was soaked in blood.
"What the hell is this?" He muttered, confused.
As Sergeant Dillon looked at the bloody headband in his hand, he suddenly heard footsteps approaching him.
He turned his head, and his eyes widened as he saw Sergeant Shizuka, a sergeant from the first-year building, approaching him.
"Morning, Sergeant Dillion." Shizuka greeted, tipping her cap. "Seems we sergeants all decided to take our snack breaks at the same time."
Dillon didn't respond. This girl…he always felt unnerved around her.
He held up his hand holding the strange headband to her.
"Look what I found." He replied. "It's covered in blood."
Shizuka looked down at it, a knowing smirk on her face.
"Oh, that." She replied. "That's a funny story, actually. And it's part of why I'm here."
Dillon gave her a strange look.
"Let's go in, shall we?" She asked, as she walked past him. "Please, escort me to the second-year doctor's office if you will." She said, stopping in her tracks and looking back at him with a smile that left no room for argument.
Sergeant Dillon sighed, and walked with her.
Meanwhile, inside the building, General Duke stormed down the hall. He flung the door of the doctor's office open, causing the nurse to jump. Her name was Cecilia Bluegrass, a woman in her early twenties with short, blue hair and eyes, and wearing a pair of red-frame glasses and a white labcoat.
Sitting on a bed in front of her was Mono, his injured hand out. Cecilia had his injured hand in hers, examining it.
Growling, Duke stormed over towards them.
Duke looked down at the hand. It looked as if Mono had decided to have a boxing match with a wall of spikes.
"What the hell happened?!" He barked.
Mono looked away, a look of deep anger on his face, and his face turning a deep shade of red.
It was then that Duke heard footsteps from behind. A set of two, to be exact.
"Actually, I think that I can answer that, General Duke." The voice replied, causing Duke's eyes to widen.
He knew that voice. It made his heart pound.
He whirled around to see Sergeant Shizuka with his own sergeant, Sergeant Dillon, by her side. He had a defeated look on his face.
Shizuka smirked, as she held up the bloodied headband, holding it by the cloth at the end, like she was showing off a trophy.