Grabbing a handful of popcorn, Kiniro crammed the kernels into his mouth and started chewing loudly just as the door opened.
"And this is where we'll watch the event from here-"
Masamichi paused as he walked into the room and stared at Kiniro, who was lounging in one of the chairs, his feet draped over the arm and a bucket of popcorn in his lap.
For a moment, the two just stared at each other before Kiniro's eyes slid over to the rest of the company in tow, "Huh, so you guys were visiting today… awkward."
Masamichi's jaw clenched as he glared at Kiniro from behind his glasses, "What are you doing in here?"
"Eating popcorn, what does it look like?" Kiniro muttered as he popped another kernel into his mouth, ignoring the baleful glare being sent his way from Gakuganji, who held his cane with a white-knuckled grip.
"What is he doing here?" Gakuganji mumbled, enraged.
"Well, I am a student," Kiniro replied matter-of-factly as he grabbed another handful, "Though trust me, I'm just as upset about it as you are, but someone asked me a favor, and I kinda owed them."
"Don't blame that entirely on me…you have your own reasons for sticking around." Satoru corrected as he stepped into the room and stared at Kiniro.
For everyone else in the room, the moment felt like the air suddenly weighed a ton; there wasn't a sorcerer alive who didn't know of the history between the two. From teacher and student to seemingly mortal rivals that had forced the other to put one foot in the grave. How they would react being in the same room together was anyone's guess, even Masamichi was completely out of the loop, not even knowing why the two had fought to begin with.
But unexpectedly, after a tense second, Kiniro just grinned, "Well I have to admit your students are pretty interesting, and since their teacher was so careless to leave them unattended, I thought I should step in."
Satoru smirked, "Thank you for that; it seems like they've all turned out for the better. Especially Yuji, he was able to keep up far better than I expected on our little trip."
"Oh, that's right; he told me you kidnapped him a few weeks back. What was that about?" Kiniro asked with mild interest.
"An unregistered special grade curse spirit ambushed me," Satoru replied casually, making Kiniro freeze on the spot, "Also, it was fully sapient and sentient with the ability to hold complex conversations!"
"What?!" Kiniro sat up with a burst of movement, sending his bucket of popcorn flying into the air. Before the kernels could go flying across the room like shrapnel, however, they were all pulled back into the bucket that fell back into Kiniro's lap, "And you're just telling me this now?!"
"Well, if I told you about it and the fact that it managed to escape when a curse of similar strength came by to rescue it," Satoru continued, making Kiniro's frustration climb, "You would have abandoned the first years and gone off to hunt them down."
"Damn right I would have!" Kiniro exclaimed as he angrily ate another mouthful, "You don't even know how much valuable information I could get from studying them!"
"So you're saying I made the right move in not telling you," Satoru replied, eliciting a groan from Kiniro, "Why are you doing this to me?"
"For that cheap shot you pulled during our fight," Satoru said, making Kinrio pause before nodding once. "Alright, I'll give you that, but afterward I'm gonna need a full breakdown of everything that happened."
Standing up, Kinrio stretched and yawned before opening the window, "Well, I'll leave you guys to it, though make sure you add another chair. I don't have any plans on participating in the goodwill event; otherwise there wouldn't be any point int Kyoto competing, would there?"
Kiniro shot one last smirk Gakuganji's way before he vaulted out of the window, popcorn still in hand.
"And here I was hoping that we wouldn't get another moron like you with powers no one person should wield," Utahime said as she sent a scathing look Satoru's way, who only grinned. "What did you expect? He's my former student after all."
---
"Alright, let's get going! Kyoto, here we come!"
Yuji and Megumi turned and stared at Nobara, who was brimming with energy, holding the handle of her rolling suitcase.
"What are you doing?" Megumi asked as he cocked his head to the side in confusion, "Why do you have luggage?"
"Why don't you have luggage? Don't tell me you're not bringing anything?" Nobara scoffed.
"Bringing anything where?" Yuji muttered as he scratched his head.
"To Kyoto! For the exchange event, you know, the thing we've been preparing for the past month!" Nobara stressed, looking at Yuji and Megumi like they were even bigger idiots than she expected.
"The exchange event is with Kyoto," Maki suddenly chimed in, glancing back at the first years, "But the school that wins the previous year is the host, so the Kyoto students are coming to us."
Yuji and Megumi looked back to Nobara only to see a shell, "So you're telling me…I packed all night for nothing?"
"I feel like this misunderstanding could have easily been avoided," Megumi muttered, snapping Nobara back into her rage as she glared at him. "Why didn't either of you say anything?! I've been talking about visiting Kyoto this whole week!"
"I thought you just meant in general." Yuji answered as he scratched the back of his head, "Or you were soft-launching your conversion and appreciation for Buddhism."
Megumi nodded along, which didn't help Nobara in the slightest. "You two are idiots!"
"Says the only girl who packed for a nonexistent trip," Megumi muttered under his breath only for Nobara to grab his collar and violently shake him, "Wanna say that again?!"
"Uncle, Uncle," Megumi called out in a flat tone, only infuriating Nobara further and making Yuji laugh.
"Enough," Maki called out, putting an end to the trio's shenanigans, "Now's not the time to be messing around. We have a tough couple of days ahead of us."
"Why is Kyoto that strong?" Yuji asked with interest.
"Yes, as far as I know, they have at least three grade 1 sorcerers on their side," Maki admitted with grave in her voice, "All apparently thanks to your moron of a teacher."
Nobara blinked, "What's that supposed to mean?"
Maki fell silent, refusing to say anything, but fortunately Panda was there to pick up the slack as he turned to the first years, "None of us actually participated in last year's event. Kiniro was the only one from our school who went over to compete."
"Wait, you're telling me he fought their whole school and won!?" Nobara exclaimed in disbelief.
"Handily," Panda nodded, "But it also turned out that for some reason, Kiniro ended up giving two students from Kyoto unique special grade cursed tools that they got to show off the full might of during the Night Parade of 100 Demons. Both were promptly promoted to First Grade sorcerers afterward despite only being Third Grades."
"So what you're saying is…we're going to lose," Megumi muttered, drawing irritated looks from everyone else, "What? We're matched in quantity, but in terms of quality the three of us are sorely lacking."
"Eh, I wouldn't be too sure about that."
Everyone turned to see Satoru, Kiniro, and Masamichi walk down the stairs toward them.
"I thought you weren't participating." Maki asked, sending a glare Kiniro's way.
"Oh, I'm not," Kiniro replied with a smirk before he held out his hand as the demonic-looking ring on his finger pulsed, and suddenly three cloth-wrapped bundles were floating in the air before him, "But these should help at least give you guys a fighting chance. Though don't open them now; we've got company incoming."
Just as Kiniro finished talking, the seemingly endless forest in front of them shimmered, revealing itself to be a barrier as Kyoto High stepped onto the school grounds.