The classroom went silent for a while, until Yukio spoke out, “Ah, Hannah! You made it!” in his usual cheerful tone.

“Oh, it’s you guys. I was afraid this would happen…” in a very unenthusiastic voice.

“Hey, we’re not at fault here. They’re the ones who started it, Hannah,” explained Diavolo.

“Yes, I’m very well aware of that. Relax,” she replied with a sigh.

“But in the end, the match couldn’t be settled properly!” Shin said pouting, hiding his inner thoughts.

And without any delay, the gossiping began, “Hey, did you see that? They’re addressing her so casually!” “Yeah, moreover without any honorifics!” “Just what’s their relation? Family members?” “Nah, they don’t look anything like each other to be related.” “Oh my, I didn’t know Miss Rose was that kind of girl, hehe!”

Such misleading chatter got Hannah really annoyed, “Enough!” she ordered, and the class went silent again. Exhaling and crossing her arms, she directed her gaze at ‘him’ now, “Claude, explain yourself.”

“Now that’s just cruel, Prez,” he replied with a sly look, “What makes you think I had any part in this?”

“It’s a bit too late to feign innocence, don’t you think?” she got angry and the two entered a silent glare-off.

“Unfortunate for you,” Claude shrugged, “I didn’t command anything this time. These two decided to mess around on their own.”

“Is that true, Braun?” she asked looking down at Garth.

On the flip side, Garth stayed quiet and stared at Hannah like he was looking at an angel or something. Left unanswered, Hannah slammed the table with her palm and demanded a reply immediately, “Answer me!”

“Huh? Y-yes, Ma’am!” he stammered.

The three boys stood there ingesting the spectacle in front of them. This was a very new face of Hannah that they witnessed. Moreover, they learned that Hannah did have a certain degree of authority over them. ‘Prez’ or in other words, she was the Class President. Although understandable to a certain degree, they were unsure of whether such behaviour and communication was the norm in foreign schools.

Before the conversation could get any more ugly, or so it may have seemed to be getting, a student sitting near the entrance whispered, “H-hey, what’s she doing here?!”

As quiet as the class was, any whisper could probably still be heard. Everybody turned around and watched as the individual entered the room.

A beautiful girl of about 168cm in height, slender but well rounded figure walked into the classroom. Her long silver hair fluttered under the gentle breeze from outside as her deep red eyes searched for an empty seat. Somehow, Diavolo felt a sort of familiar feeling when looking at her and subconsciously assumed she was the subject who was staring at her from the garment store.

Taking a seat beside the window, she quietly stared out through it as the sunlight reflected off her clean, fair skin.

“Whoa, look at her! She’s so pretty! Is she a foreigner?” a student whispered.

“Hey man, watch what you’re saying.”

“Huh? And why is that?”

“Didn’t you know?! Last year, there were rumors that a girl with silver hair had put the Natura examiner to the verge of death!”

“No way! For real?!”

“Yeah! I heard something like that too! They said that she didn’t want to show her skills when the examiner told her to; and when he yelled at her, she went berserk and…” they gossiped.

“Really, that’s all? Because, I also heard some seniors whispering that they saw her growing claws or something and that her eyes started glowing and pupils turned sharp! Some even say that they spotted her canines growing and protruding out a little during the chaos!”

“Now that’s just…well…um…”

“I know. It’s hard to find the right words. Now you know, that despite her quietness and princess-like looks, there’s a demon inside her that might snap anytime!”

“Then why on earth did they still let her stay?!”

“She was gonna get expelled of course. But I heard that her family begged the principal for another chance and that they would pay for the examiner’s hospital bills, so she remained. But as a punishment, she was held back.”

“Damn! So much for planning on asking her out. So basically she’s repeating her second year?”

“Probably.”

“What bad luck! We should try to keep a distance from her as much as possible then.”

“Yeah, I agree.”

But there are always certain people who do not care about any rumours simply because they want to hang out with pretty girls. And yes, that is the exact kind of narcissistic person who approached this girl, “Excuse me, but I couldn’t help but notice your exquisite grace as you entered this humble classroom. Ah, how unworthy such a place is for you! People like us deserve much more! Would you care to spend the evening with me?” he flamboyantly complimented her.

“I-idiot! He’ll get himself killed!”

The girl slowly turned her eyes up at his face. He still smiled at her hoping for an approval and thinking she might even leap into his arms.

“Out of my way, insect,” she said coldly. Astonished and bit angered, his eyes and mouth twitched, but he tried to calm himself.

Trying once again, he now stood just beside her and said, “Now, don’t say that. We could have a lot of fun together!” and then slowly rested his arm around her shoulder.

Both Hannah and Diavolo scowled at his improper behaviour. Diavolo’s muscles flinched, and fist tightened, as he felt an urge to punch the guy that instant.

However, before anything else could happen, instantly, the girl grabbed the guy’s arm *WOOSH* swung him around *DOGAN* smashed him to the ground, threw him up in the air and *BAM* kicked him so hard that he flew all the way to the other end of the classroom, where he *BANG* smashed into the wall; all within 2-3 seconds!!

The entire classroom, along with Garth and Shin were so surprised, that their eyes and mouths opened wide; really wide! Yukio and Nicolas, dumbfounded, had their jaws drop. Conversely, Diavolo felt relieved and his arm relaxed. The expression on Claude’s face, on the other hand, spoke out ‘interesting’.

Hannah, with the same strict face and arms crossed, confronted the girl, “Listen, I don’t know the details of your circumstances, but I’m your Class President right now, and I will not stand violence. But since he looked like he was bothering you, I’ll let the matter slide for once. Next time will be different, you got that?”

The girl didn’t say anything, but her face said ‘fine, whatever’ as she turned her gaze back towards the window, with elbow on desk and head resting on palm.

The students helped the dizzy boy to his seat and everyone else sat in their places, except for the three newcomers. The seats in front, behind and beside the silver-haired girl were empty for obvious reasons.

The 8:00am bell rang and it was time for the teacher to enter.

“Listen, you three. We’ll discuss everything later. Right now, I just recommend you don’t get involved with that girl. She’s trouble. Now go grab seats…”

Diavolo, staring gently at the girl, thought otherwise. He did not see a potential raging beast, but a sad, lonely individual who had been cast aside from her peers. Nobody was trying to understand her and were simply judging her for one occurrence.

The girl, probably realising a stare being directed at her, turned around, meeting Diavolo’s eyes.

His heart skipped a beat, making him feel uneasy. He felt a nudge of some sort the moment their eyes met. He already felt a certain uneasiness building up from when she entered the classroom, but it seemed to have suddenly exploded right now.

Wanting to put himself together, Diavolo looked away and took a few quick silent breaths. The girl looked back outside again.

“Hey Diav, where should we sit?” asked Shin. With no reply, Diavolo started walking in a certain direction. “Hey... you listening?”

But after realizing where Diavolo was heading, Hannah spoke out, “H-Hey, Diavolo. Where are you going?” having very little pitch to her voice.

“Um…excuse me, but you mind if I sit here?” asked the gutsy Diavolo standing beside the girl while putting his palm on the desk of the empty seat to her right.

“IDIOT! WERE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME??!!” she mentally shouted in astonishment.

“Hmm whatever…Do as you please,” replied the girl with little to no feeling.

“WHAAA~! SHE ACTUALLY LET HIM SIT~??!!” she thought, even further astonished.

“Thanks,” he sat down. With a clueless, innocent look on his face, as if he had no idea what a surprising thing he just did, he continued, “Hey, you guys just gonna stand there?”

The door slid open and entered the teacher. “Alright, everybody sit down!” she said as she made her way to the front of the class. Hannah had no choice but to suppress her urge to tell Diavolo her thoughts since she basically ran out of time. Shin and Yukio giggled at her expression as they too took a seat.

Shin sat to Diavolo’s right and Yukio in turn sat to his right. Hannah was in front of Shin. In front of Hannah, was Garth, right to whom, sat Claude, right to whom, sat Nicolas. Five seats were currently unoccupied.

The homeroom teacher introduced herself. She had an average height, a moderate build, short red-brown hair, and wore spectacles. She seemed a little awkward and frail and didn’t look too experienced. As if she was fairly new to the job.

Either way, this young woman was their teacher. Having introduced herself, it was now the students’ turn. One by one, the students stood up and announced their names.

“Jirou Manabe.” “Next!” “Lucy Aylen.” “Next!” “Radeo Carmel.” and so on.

“Would it be a hasty move if I approach her on the first day?” thought Diavolo staring aimlessly at the ground, “But I really need to know…” “Lector Frost.” “Next!” “...exactly what is this odd sensation I’m only getting from her?” “Claude Brandt.” “Next!” “I barely even know her! So then…” “Li Ho.” “Next!” “...why?!” “Hannah Rose.” “Next!” “I don’t even know her name, do I?” and he turned his gaze at her.

“Suzume Shiro.” “Next!”

“Ah, so her name was Suzume, huh…?” he didn’t respond to his turn.

“Next please! You there!”

Shin poked Diavolo with his elbow, “Oi, Diav! The teacher’s calling!” he whispered.

Startled, he stood up, “Oh, sorry ma’am! What topic were we doing?!”

The whole class started laughing at his absent mindedness, while Diavolo looked around, confused. “Oh god…” Shin put his palm on his face. Hannah hid her face behind a book, not wanting to appear in any way that she was related to this person.

In the meantime, the silver haired girl, Suzume Shiro, simply gave an uninterested glance at the spectacle and returned to her normal posture of staring outside in solitude. When Diavolo finally realized his silliness, he simply scratched his head and thought, “Oh, great…”

It was 3pm and school had just ended. “That was quite the first impression, newbie!” said Garth, grinning and immediately turning to Shin, “Yo, your name was Shin, right? That was a nice bout! But you better use Natura next time, okay?”

“Eh? Natura?” Shin asked with a confused expression.

“What, you don’t know what Natura is?”

“Of course they don’t. They’re… ‘rookies’, remember?” intervened Claude.

“Even so, bro. I mean, they’re second years aren’t they? Not even knowing what it is is just…”

“Which is exactly where our Class President Hannah comes in the mix, right?”

“Don’t you dare speak my name, you vermin!”

“My, my, such rough words from a pretty girl!”

“Shut up!” she yelled angrily, flushed red.

“Well, whatever. Good luck with your training, then! You’re gonna need it. Although, I’m sure you’re going to fail like always…” Claude said as he brazenly waved his hand and walked out the classroom, “Let’s go, Garth, Nic.”

“Ah, wait, bro!” and he followed him out.

“They were all YOUR fault, you bastard! They weren’t even prepared for it! COME BACK HERE!” she shouted, to which was basically now just a door. Exhaling a couple of times, “Tch! He pisses me off so much!”

Shin, feeling like he needed to say something, placed his hand on her shoulder, “Hey, I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but he’s gone now. Calm down.”

“Y-yeah, you’re right,” and she took a deep breath without being needlessly angry, “Sorry about that. Should we leave now?” she smiled.

“Just hold on a sec, guys,” Diavolo replied just as the other two were about to nod. He walked towards Suzume and said, “Um…”

“What? Leave me alone,” she instantly cut him off with an emotionless expression.

“S-Shiro, was it? You wanna tag along with us?”

“WHAAAT??!!” the three mentally shouted as their jaws dropped wide.

Suzume packed her final books and replied, “I appreciate the offer, but I’ll pass. Trust me, it’s best for both of us if we don’t get close,” with a faint smile, “And besides, I’m not really interested in weaklings. Later, then!” she stood up and was making her way out.

“And for a moment I actually thought she was going to join in!” Hannah whispered with a sigh of relief.

Diavolo did not like where this was going. A feeling of something very important was about to slip through his fingers.

“In that case!” he exclaimed, causing Hannah to cease in the middle of her sighing. “If I get stronger… will you reconsider?”

Hannah aside, Shin and Yukio were really surprised. They had never seen Diavolo so persistently going after a girl before. They really couldn’t point their finger at the cause. Whether Diavolo simply had a crush on her or was there some other motive, they didn’t know. They never even saw Diavolo having a crush on anybody, so that was a likely option, but it would be odd if the serious Diavolo suddenly ended up liking someone.

Suzume stopped in her tracks. After a moment of pause, without looking back, she replied, “I’ll think about it,” and walked out.

As the four of them were walking back home, Yukio decided to bring up the topic, “You surprised me there, Diavolo.”

“Yeah, what were you thinking? Did you wanna get killed?” said Shin.

“Honestly, if i knew you had a short attention span, I would’ve explained things much earlier!” said Hannah pressing on her forehead.

“I know what you said, Hannah, and I didn’t forget it. But don’t you think that’s a little sad? Isolating her for a mere rumor. I’m kinda disappointed in you.”

“Hey, stop blaming her, Diav! And Hannah wouldn’t tell us to keep away simply for a rumour! If she’s warning us, then that means it definitely happened!”

“Thanks for supporting me, Shin, but Diavolo is partly right. It’s not right as a fellow classmate, to isolate her for just one occurrence. I’m sure she has problems of her own to deal with and just couldn’t handle the pressure back then. To be honest, I’d like to help her. But everybody’s so scared of her now that it’s hard to find the right moment to approach her because of my position as Class President. I can’t pick sides. That’s why I have no other choice but to prevent others from interacting with her. I wanted to make people keep their distance from her so I can later comfortably talk to her alone.”

“See? She definitely has a legit reason!”

“Sorry, but I’m not following. Didn’t it ever occur to you that if you’re the one telling people to stay away, she’s less likely to open up to you later on? She wouldn’t know if you’re really trying to help or simply putting up a front.”

“Dude, Hannah wouldn’t put up a front.”

“True, that’s what we know. But would she? Sorry, but I’m against her methods. And besides…” he said looking at his fist, “I get a very strange feeling when she’s near. I really want to get to the bottom of this.”

“Yeah, you have a crush on her,” Shin casually let it out.

“What?”

“Yeah, that’s right! That’s right! Diavolo likes Suzume! Or no wait, ‘Shiro’, right?” Yukio said grinning.

Diavolo is the type who usually doesn’t care too much about formality and hence casually speaks to people with their first name. Having heard him use someone’s last name was a really rare event and so Shin and Yukio took advantage of it.

Diavolo was flustered, “You guys...no! That's not it! It was a complicated matter and I didn’t want to appear too friendly right off the bat!”

“Yes, yes, of course. Love really is a complicated matter, isn’t it~?”

“Yes, you’re right, Yu~!” the two smirked and grinned.

“You guys are definitely asking for it,” he said annoyed and cracking his knuckles.

“Oh my! So scary! We better run!”

“Hehehehehe!” Hannah giggled, “Okay, Diavolo. If you’re going to go so far with it, then I’ll leave her to you. Unlike me, who needs to keep a social balance, you are free to interact with anybody. If you really want to know about her, I won’t stop you. Just make sure you don’t get hurt, okay?”

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind,” he smiled.

“Well, guess this just brought bad news to Bianca,” said Shin shrugging.

“Bianca?”

“She’s our friend from back home,” explained Yukio, “She’s really pretty and nice. Although she can be clumsy at times, she—”

“That’s not the thing! The main story is that she likes our Diavolo here!”

“Oh? Now this sounds interesting,” Hannah grinned.

“Bianca is really popular in the village, especially among the guys,” Shin explained, “But she keeps turning them down and chases after Diav. Back in the woods, where we trained, she would bring us food even if we were perfectly capable of gathering them ourselves. I bet she was using it as an excuse to hang out with him. I felt like a third wheel sometimes.”

Shin remembered and explained away a flashback.

「“No! You’re tired and your hands are dirty! Let me feed you!” 7 year old Bianca would say, childishly angry.

“Fine…” sighed the 8 year old Diavolo sitting next to the campfire.

Feeding him a spoonful, she would ask, “How is it, Divo?”

“Whoa, this is really good!” and she would smile and continue to feed him.

After the meal was done, Diavolo would be drowsy and lie down. “Say, Divo. Wouldn’t I make a great wife for you?”

“Hmm? Y-ye….yeah, sure…..” he replied yawning and half asleep.

“Really?! Then it’s a promise, okay!” she jumped up in joy, “We’ll definitely get married when we grow up!”

With the sudden rise in sound, Diavolo’s nose bubble popped and he woke up all confused, “H-huh? What’s gotten into her?” he asked shrugging at Shin.」

Returning back to the present, Shin continued to say, “And you have no idea how bad Diav’s timing was for the next few events!”

「And on a different day, young Bianca cheerfully said, “Hey, Divo. Let’s make our own house together when we get married okay?”

“Y-yeah sure…” he replied, half asleep.

On another day, “Hey, Divo! What do you say we have three kids in the future, huh?”

“O-ok…ay…” he replied yawning.

Once again, “Hey Divo, can I sleep beside you tonight?”

“Yeah o...kay” he replied snoring and scratching his belly in his sleep.」

“Hahahaha! Sounds like quite the pair!” Hannah laughed heartily.

“If you’re done with the unnecessary small talk, I’d like to discuss more important matters at hand,” said a flustered Diavolo, trying hard to hold back his embarrassment and also in attempt to change the topic as soon as possible.

“Hehehe! Okay, okay! I’ll be sure to use this as blackmail material later on then, lover boy. Coming back, first thing’s first. I guess I should start out with Natura, right?”

The three nodded.

“Natura is, in essence, the energy we get from our body and environment. The Art of Natura is the ability to manipulate this energy we get from nature, hence the term, to do our own bidding. I was unsure of whether you guys already knew about it, but I assumed you did, so I refrained from asking. But it turns out, as expected, you guys are completely new to the concept. We’ll do some practical demonstrations once we get home, so I’ll leave the details till then.”

“Is it that strange that we don’t know about it?” asked Yukio.

“Well there definitely are people who can’t control Natura, but it’s existence is common knowledge. You, having being admitted as second year students, it kind of is strange. Then again, you’re from an isolated place. I can’t blame you much, I guess.”

The three simply hum as a sign of saying ‘I see’.

“About Twinsoul Academy however,” she continued explaining, “it is a school that trains us Natura. Although, that is half of the story. Like I said before, there are people who cannot use Natura. So, the school is divided into two sectors. Sector A is where the ordinary students reside and Sector B is where the energy manipulators, we reside.”

“I guess that was why I couldn’t sense anything from a lot a of them,” Yukio whispered to himself.

“Hm? Did you say something?”

“Ah, no, it’s nothing. Continue,” he smiled and waved his hand to show a ‘no’.

“Anyways, things are pretty peaceful between the two sides. And it would continue to be so, if only ‘they’ hadn’t interfered,” Hannah suddenly switched to a very solemn look.

“They?”

“You’ve already met them. Claude, Garth and Nicolas. They call themselves ‘rookie crushers’, but to me they’re just a bunch of troublemakers who only cause harm. It pleases them to see newcomers, especially transfer students, suffer. They even go as far as doing something despicable, like swapping out Sector A student forms with Sector B ones!”

“Swapping them out? But aren’t they in code?”

“That is actually Nicolas’ specialty. He is highly skilled in intricate work like this. Plus, coupled with a little Natura, he can further enhance his capabilities. Unfortunately, as much as it pains me to say, those three are actually few of the top tier students in our, no, perhaps in all three years combined!

They have so much potential, and yet they spend it on such despicable behaviour! Naturally, students have a really hard time in keeping up, yet still, to top it all off, they then try to make the student quit by force! Nicolas might be skilled, but he isn’t very strong. It’s Garth’s job next. He would repeatedly bully and pressurize them until they can’t handle it anymore.

Twinsoul Academy is a very prestigious school, and quitting or getting expelled midway leaves a mark in their permanent records. As such, I try my best to teach them basic Natura by the end of the first month, but!”

“Wait, teach them? But weren’t they unable to use Natura?” asked Diavolo, furrowing.

“Ah, no. Natura isn't an innate ability one is born with, but a skill one can develop. Some people just find it more difficult to learn than others, that's all.”

“I see…”

“I hate this! I don’t want to see helpless people struggle without a ray of hope! That’s why I worked hard! I had finally become Class President so I could try to make a difference! But so far, I’ve only been able to prevent excess violence that Garth could cause,” she started to tear up.

“Don’t cry, Hannah,” Yukio tried to console her, “But you said it, right? Natura can still be learnt, right? I bet at least one person has been able to learn it till now?”

*Sniff* “No. So far, none have succeeded,” her voice got slightly deeper, “At the end of the month, on the review tests, they would all fail. This is all because of my incompetence! I’m just not skilled enough!”

“Hannah…” murmured Shin.

“But *sniff* you guys seem different, I can tell! Please, I’m being selfish on my part but, I want you to put at end to this!” she begged, bowing, “Please succeed and become stronger! Please prove to those bastards that not all newbies will end up how they want them to!”

Hannah’s voice sounded like she was trying really hard to hold back her emotions. She really was a nice girl, was what the boys thought. Normally, people wouldn’t give it much thought if strangers suffered behind their backs. But she was trying her very best for them regardless. One could not be that selfless unless it was part of their own nature. This girl had the qualities of being a very gentle leader.

Squinting her eyes to prevent tears from coming out again, she still stood there bowing.

“Of course!” Shin was the first to break the silence, as he put his hand on her shoulder, “We’ll do our best in improving! That’s not just because of you, but we too have our own goals, right Diav?”

Diavolo smirked in reply.

“But on one condition!” Shin continued, “No more crying! But if you have to, just go all out! You really suck at holding back your emotions, hehe!” he grinned.

Hannah reddened in embarrassment, “D-don’t stare at me like that, you idiot! Dummy!” she quickly turned her face away and also shoved Shin’s face the other way, “D-don’t go talking all high and mighty! I wasn’t crying!”

“That’s more like it!” he said and the three started laughing.

“Don’t laugh!” she childishly nagged.

Reaching the Rose Household vicinity, the four enter the gates. “Oh right, I almost forgot to tell you something!” Hannah spoke out as they were just about to enter the building, “Tomorrow you’ll ha—” *BAM* she was interrupted by a loud noise.

Someone had kicked the door open from the inside and the person emerging from within confronted them. Short stature and messy hair. There was no mistaking it, it was Marvin!

He wore a samurai robe and had three bamboo swords, one in each hand and another hung on his waist. Staring down at the startled and confused bunch for a few seconds, he slowly raised his right hand and pointed his sword at them.

“Diavolo bro…” they all stood in silence, waiting for him to finish his sentence, “Fight me!”