“Again, from bar fifty-five’s pickup into the D.S. al coda. One, two—”

An unholy chorus of woodwinds, brass and percussion reverberated throughout the soundproof audio-visual recording studio on the fourth floor of Korolev Senior Secondary School. It was early in the morning for the little band of students who were immersed in their music practice, some time before their first period class at ten past eight.

The fourth floor of the school was a floor of spare classrooms, used according to the variance in the local demographics. In recent times the floor slowly fell into disuse due to the dwindling student numbers. Fortunately, this meant that specialty rooms like this one were up for grabs for students to use, and many groups and clubs did take up these spare classrooms for their own use.

“Kato, you’re still coming in too slow on the pickup. Do it again, from two bars before.”

Halting the ensemble, Alice shook her head along with her wavy and volumized pure blonde hair topped with a red hair band. There was an acuteness in her words that matched well with her sharp features and personality. In the absence of the other girls, her tone was one of paternal arrogance that, to be fair, was needed to control the little group of newbie musicians, for the boys here were a bunch that were normally too independent-minded for their own good.

“If you’re having trouble with that pickup, which I’ll admit is unorthodox enough because it’s on the third beat rather than the fourth, instead of counting the beats, you can count the eighth notes. It takes more effort, but more importantly you’ll come in on time.”

“Got it.”

Kato nodded at their new music instructor who was also their classmate, and once more played his trumpet at her command. His short, dull auburn hair was even messier than usual because he was now committed to waking up early, and as a bad morning person he left his cowlicks and all in sleep mode. Although Kato and his younger sister Teto were Auxirian by birth, they both had smaller, narrower eyes and a comparatively flatter facial geography that were more characteristic of the Yue people from the Orient, making them less obvious that they were technically foreigners to this city of Livia.

As Alice took out her dissatisfaction on Kato, the other three in the room let go of sighs of relief at the draconian drill that Alice had put them under for the past week they began playing.

“Heh, Kato’s getting it again.”

On the trombone was Eon, a black-haired and glasses-wearing Yue native of their city. Still sometimes termed as a border town, Livia straddled along a strategic pass in the mountain ranges between the two territories of Auxiria and Ava. Founded by Yue refugees long ago, it and its surrounding towns became a multiethnic region of all kinds of nationalities that assimilated and spoke the Old Yue language, the vernacular of the Yue homeland. Somehow, the pass was blessed with a very warm and mild climate, actually close to subtropical, making the valley one of the most suitable for a sprawling major settlement. On the Auxirian side of the range, it followed a major tributary river towards the capital of Auxiria, New Karine. On the Avian side, it followed the only reasonable path from Auxirian territory to Kalmar, the second-largest city in the Kingdom of Ava.

“Alice’s been on top of him the whole time, yeah?”

Letting the alto saxophone hang by the shoulder strap, an edgy comment dripped out ever so softly from the short blond with curly hair sat next to Eon, drawing out delighted chortles from the men around him. For the uninitiated, Caius’ baby face did not give any indication of the absurd things he said on a regular basis.

“I’m not sure what to say to that…”

Behind the drum set was a tall redheaded Rinian boy, quite toned and sporting a bowl cut that was popular from the last decade or two. His taste in fashion was baffling, but because his macho stature was somewhat imposing it never affected him. As his chunky presence suggested, he was the stereotypical no-brains type of brawn that became both the butt of many jokes and a peculiar source of aggravation for the rest of the boys.

“Huh? What did you have to say about me?”

A menacing glare accompanied the snap from Alice, immediately silencing the three at the back, but they were all smiles nonetheless. Alice’s face was tickled pink against her porcelain skin, her emotions amply apparent to all around her, but at least this time it could be blamed on the physical activity they had been doing. Kato on the other hand heard every word and was enjoying the show, and turned away from them as he stifled a snicker.

“Hey! Don’t you give me that look! Man, why are the Elites always like this?!”

Still red-faced, Alice tried to push it out of her head as her imagination ran too wild too often. Her mental efforts manifested in a superficial slap on Kato’s head, ending their tangent as she picked up her flute from her chair. She returned to her stand in front of their little group, lifting her instrument up for the first time in a while.

“Let’s try again with everybody. Yes, everybody. One, two—”

It had been three weeks since the standoff between Alice’s former Class 3-A and the Elites’ Class 3-F, in which Kato had won it all against Class A and under the peace terms brought Alice over into his class. Masked as a crackdown against seditious elements, the marshal of the Public Safety Committee, who was contemporaneously Class A representative and Alice’s formerly arranged fiancé, Gilbert de Lafayette, laid siege to the 3-F classroom in a vengeful effort to bring Kato to heel, but the ensuing Class War led to Gilbert’s defeat and Alice was released, at least in part, from the chains of her family responsibilities. There were other crucial motivating factors, but at least on the surface, the PSC suffered a major setback as one of the foundational pillars of student institutions in Korolev Senior.

With her newfound freedom and friends, they decided to form a small band with Alice in the centre and the four horsemen of the apocalypse around her. Because she was an outstanding music student, she was able to convince the faculty to give her use of that A/V room on the fourth floor.

The fourth floor was technically an abandoned floor ever since an education reform removed the thirteenth year of public education, also known as grade thirteen, almost a decade ago. This meant that senior high used to be four years long, but the de facto first year, the tenth year of education, was not actually called first year but called a probation year, and was assigned a zero in its notation, as in Class 0-A or Class 0-B. Thus, what used to be the thirteen year would have been Class 3-A or Class 3-B and so on.

Though the fourth floor slowly fell into disrepair, over the years some students found use in these old rooms, but like the rooftop, most of the fourth floor was normally off-limits. Under normal circumstances, the student organization known as the Activity Council would be responsible for the management of student facilities, like these kinds of rooms, but for prohibited areas of the school those rights were reserved with the faculty.

As the bell rang and music played for the imminent start of first period, they returned to the third floor to head for their homeroom. It was a simple stratification where the first-years were on the ground floor, second-years on the second floor, and third-years on the third floor. The school building was huge but simple in design, which was basically a hollow square without a fourth side, and at its two open ends was an auditorium and a gymnasium.

“Alice, how much longer until the guitars come in?”

“I told you already, Eon, it’ll take a few weeks’ time. Meanwhile, I’d rather have everybody learn the basics of music through classical instruments first.”

They all initially wanted to form an amateur rock band, and they would eventually. As a part of the top of the bourgeoisie, Alice bankrolling their hobbies like this was not even a dip in her wealth.

“Hey, it’s good to know a classical instrument. You can disguise yourself as a music student if you do.”

Caius nodded, the only boy in the group who was already well-trained in music. He played piano for a long time.

“I need to go undercover to infiltrate the music department. Just like in those undercover cop movies, I’ll bust down the drug ring disguised as a wind ensemble.”

Kato snickered with the rest of the boys as Alice shook her head and felt a bit exasperated. They made their way to their seats at the window corner at the back of the classroom; to say it was the back of the classroom though was a misnomer, because behind them were several rows of counters with sinks and faucets that were characteristic of a chemistry lab than a regular classroom, but they were left to disuse ever since this classroom was reserved to be 3-F’s homeroom. Because of this extra space, it was some twenty feet or so longer than the average as it was more like a massive double classroom than a regular one.

“Yo.”

“Hey, everyone.”

There were two other girls already there waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive. The first was the cool supermodel and Kato’s stepsister, Evianna. The second was the kind and gentle longtime classmate who grew up alongside the old guard of Class F, and under extenuating circumstances recently joined Kato’s and Evianna’s household, Yui.

“Evie, did you remember to bring the lunch we left for you on the counter?”

“Yeah, it’s right here.”

“Yui, how ‘bout you?”

“I’ve got it too.”

Though Kato asked the two of them the question, it was Alice who prepared the food. Because of the fallout with her family, Alice chose to live with Kato’s family for the time being.

“It’s better to eat homemade food once in a while instead of eating from the cafeteria all the time, y’know.”

Alice usually spoke in New Yue in contrast to most everybody else in the school who spoke the common vernacular of Old Yue, mainly because her Old Yue carried the embarrassing reverse accent that reflected her order of learning these two languages. A foreigner by both circumstance and technicality, her first language was her ethnic Rinian.

“The cafeteria’s food’s awesome, what’re you going on about.”

“So are you saying my cooking is not good enough?”

“No, of course not. Yours is the best, I swear.”

Kato put his hands up but the smirk on his face put an asterisk on it as the other men joined in.

“You’d be real amazing if you’re able to make barbecued and roasted meats in Kato’s kitchen.”

“Or frying the rice noodles, although his gas stove might let you make something close to it.”

“Are any of those even good for lunch? They’re best served hot, not reheated.”

“...”

If you squint just hard enough, you could see the steam spurting out of Alice’s head, but that was only for a moment before Evie weaved her fingers through Alice’s, holding her hands firmly and calming her down.

“You’ll get used to it soon. If you keep up the insults, they’ll bend eventually.”

“Since when did we bend to you?”

Alarmed at Evie’s lack of discretion in her words, the four turned their heads toward her in sync, giving Evie sideways looks as well as checking out her alluring form. Even with just a simple platinum blonde bob cut and fringes pinned to the sides, her face and form exuded such an overwhelming aura that it was hard to avert your gaze. Her facial features were neither too sharp nor rounded, only could be described as Yue’s most perfectly balanced. Also showing her half-Yue ancestry, her skin was smooth but not as fair as Alice’s, though Alice’s might be too far to the other side.

Evie stared back with an evil-spirited ghoul behind her blue eyes, immediately making each and every one of them break off eye contact with the devil.

“If those loose tongues of yours aren’t bent already, I can do much more than bending to fix that problem.”

Knees weak and palms sweating, they eventually sat down in their seats obediently, giving up at Evie’s aggression as they usually do. They took out their textbooks quietly for first period and remained eerily silent for the bunch of troublemakers that they were.

“See? They’re dogs who know their place.”

Once again her incendiary commentary drew synchronized incredulous eyes, but no sound was made. Alice sighed at how her best friend took the draconian method to put down the men of the Elites.

“It only works when you do it, Evie. It’s not something that’ll work coming from me.”

“It’s easy. Train them.”

“You’ve had years to do that! I can’t do it in this short of a timeframe.”

“Of course you can. It starts today.”

“More like it started a week ago, but again, it’ll be a miracle if it worked.”

The bell finally rang for first period, indicating that the boy band plus Alice had made it to their homeroom just in time. The door opened simultaneously and their homeroom teacher entered, strutting to the front of the class with her notebooks in one hand and a piece of chalk in the other.

“How come Sisi’s late? Teachers should make it to homeroom easily, no?”

“Did you come to school with her?”

“Yes, Sisi came to school with us.”

Yui, who sat in front of the square phalanx of the four men and away from the Evie-Alice pair to the east side, answered for them. Between her shoulder-length orange-red hair, soft visage and dimpled smile, she seemed too much of a gentle soul for this group of merry men.

“With Teto, it should be the four of you coming to school together. Huh, strange.”

“Yeah, and Sisi’s not at all a sloppy person. If anything, she’s the most punctual of everybody.”

As their teacher took a pause writing on the chalkboard, she turned around and shouted in their direction, high-pitched and squeaky as usual. It was a noise that matched her very small physique, and her partially tied-back shoulder-length blonde hair puffed out fittingly together with the outburst.

“Don’t use ‘Sisi’ in class! This is not home!”

They immediately straightened their backs, remembering that their teacher was not only a by-the-rules kind of person at school, but also the matriarch for Kato’s humble household of lost children who possessed sharp enough senses to overhear that bit of their conversation among the noisy chatter of their class, which naturally didn’t quiet down until their teacher got their attention with the squeal.

“Yes, Ms Romana.”

Even though Sisi was some seventy years old, her outer appearance was no different from a primary-schooler’s, a consequence of an old alchemical experiment. Of course, they were well aware of her seniority, and they responded in unison as to not get into too much trouble at the very start of the day. A bit miffed by the interruption she herself made to her flow of work, Sisi decided to just get going with homeroom and cleared her throat to address the class, leaving the print on the chalkboard half-written.

“Ahem. Mine beloved class; as you all know the first midterm period for the advanced classes are starting middle of next week, which shall last for almost two weeks.”

Advanced classes were the afternoon classes that followed a course selection scheduling method that would mix up the students from the different classes, unlike the compulsory morning classes that moved from one subject to another with the same class of students and homeroom teacher.

“As a result, the first midterm period for the morning classes shall begin a week after the advanced classes finish. In terms of dates, your advanced classes’ midterm period shall finish on the… eighth of October, so the seventeenth shall be our expected first midterm.”

Already struggling to extend her reach because she was too short, Sisi went to finish writing the dates on the chalkboard. Acknowledging the difference of schedule systems between morning and advanced, the faculty tended to set aside designated exam periods to make sure they didn’t overlap. Of course, exam periods weren’t blackout periods. If there wasn’t an exam for the subject on that day, then the class would move on as usual.

The class murmured amongst each other, but the situation was within expectations. The first month of school was over and with it their free time. Because there were three semesters of advanced classes a year on top of the partially standardized morning classes, it was pretty much for certain that there would be some kind of examination period every month.

“This time they’re cutting it a bit close though, eh?”

“With two exam periods per semester of advanced classes, and then four big exam periods for the morning classes, sometimes they’ll have to cut it close. That’s ten exam periods in total.”

“The advanced midterm periods are easy. The big chunk of the morning midterm periods are the worst.”

“Well, yeah. We only take two elective advanced classes a semester, but the morning classes are year-long courses so instead of writing two midterms we’d be writing six or seven? I don’t remember.”

“Must be nice to be someone who consistently aces their exams so that they don’t even need to worry about which exam they’re writing.”

In response, Eon’s grin was wide yet cryptic like a chameleon’s. Out of the Elites that sat in a bloc together for many years, he was the only one that was able to make study seem effortless.

“Ahem. Then onto the second order of business. Starting today, there shall be a new transfer student from Regia Miriam All-Girls Private Academy joining our class. Romana says new, but she has been told that some of you may already know her, so perhaps it is more appropriate to say ‘welcome back’.”

As Sisi spoke, she moved across to open the classroom’s sliding door so that the new student waiting at the door could come inside. Tapping lightly on the floor tiles, a short girl who seemed to belong in middle school arrived at the front in her former school’s summer uniform, which was mostly navy blue on white in comparison to Korolev Senior’s white or white on baby blue.

Though her uniform was clean and tidy, her black hair was too messy for comfort and shiny to the point of seemingly greasy, though it was actually not so. At least it wasn’t long and didn’t reach her shoulders. Her complexion was as pale and rosy as Alice’s, but nonetheless evidently Yue, a bonafide face of a girl from the Orient.

Naturally, eyes followed the girl with interest. Or more accurately, their eyes followed her one brown left eye. The other was hidden behind a large white eyepatch, one of a medical rather than decorative use. Her slim frame was similar to Sisi’s tiny stature, but neither her height nor her apparent disability could make her unidentifiable from her past form from long ago. In fact, her current form made even more sense to those who knew her. She wrote her name, a New Yue one, on the chalkboard before turning to the class, eye sparkling, cheerful and full of energy as she had always been known to be.

“Hi! For those who don’t know me or have forgotten about me, my name’s Mayumi Hanamiya. Though I’m transferring from Regia Miriam, I also was formerly of Class F from Korolev District Public School. I wasn’t able to finish it there, but I have returned to do so here. I’ll be in your care!”

Speaking in surprisingly perfect Old Yue and smiling radiantly, the class gave her curious looks before a warm applause spontaneously materialized alongside salutations and cheers, indicating that some of the class did remember who she was. To be exact, around a third of them did, growing up and staying within the Class F caucus all these years.

As Mayumi waved to her old and new classmates, she scanned the classroom. And when she finally saw the Elites sat at the back, showing expressions varying from bewilderment to impishness, she jumped from her spot and ran into the rows of desks for the group with her arms out wide.

“Kato!”

Somewhat baffled at the call of his name, he stood up and kicked his desk to Eon’s side just before Mayumi was due to trip into it and caught her in his clutches brilliantly. It was as if he was a soldier who just disembarked from a warship returning from an overseas deployment, greeting his ecstatic wife who was eagerly awaiting his return.

“Mayumi!”

They all exclaimed together; all meaning Kato, Eon and Caius. Plus Evie, the ever reserved one, they were the Elites who knew Mayumi from their childhood. Eon was especially alarmed with Kato’s desk slamming into his on short notice, demonstrating Kato’s natural disposition, a trait known as physical superiority. Born with this greater-than-normal physical ability and combining it together with paramilitary and martial arts training all throughout his life, he slowly and steadily reached this abnormal degree of physical strength, reaction time and coordination.

“Ahahahahahaha! I missed you so much! Didja miss me?”

Looking up at Kato with her arms around his neck, her smile stretched from ear to ear. He could feel the warmth rushing into his cheeks as he was reminded of how brazen this childhood friend was, the shock especially strong after this many years of separation.

“Y-yeah, missed you loads, Mayumi. It’s been years. How’ve you been?”

His stutter was all that was needed to tell the newer Elites who was the dominant one in their relationship. Both Alice and Evie turned colourless at Kato’s submissive attitude.

“I’ve been all right, but much better now that I’m back here with you.”

“Uh, mm. Thanks, I guess?”

“Heheheh. You’re still the same old Kato, aren’tcha? Letting me have my way with you without a fight?”

“And you haven’t changed much either, have ya? Dialling it up when you don’t need to?”

Without letting go of her tight embrace she giggled at Kato’s mere slap on the wrist and turned to her right, where Eon and Caius watched on curiously.

“Eon! Caius! How’re ya?”

“Still kicking, Mayumi, and you too it seems. They must call you a bee gee ‘cause you’re stayin’ alive.”

“I guess you could say, the Elites are like the hotel California; you can check out any time you like, Mayumi, but you can never really leave.”

Her raw laughter that was akin to a squawking goose was loud and piercing to the point of annoyance, but that was also a part of what made up her uniquely infectious personal charisma. It wasn’t only Kato who was accommodating; the other two were just as amenable, albeit Kato was overly so.

However, awkwardly for the rest of the class, in her words or her actions there was no intention of letting go of Kato. The moment that realization set in, a restless impulse within Alice urged her to get up from her seat and reach out to grab hold of Mayumi from behind, attempting to peel her off. The strain in her voice was about to burst into outright shouting.

“Excuse me, but could you let go of Kato?”

“Ah.”

And suddenly, a coarse and unruly pounding of a fist on the chalkboard brought everyone’s attention back to the front, where Sisi had had enough of the disruption already.

“Hanamiya! Please take your seat. It is the empty one in front of Misaya.”

“Okay, Ms Romana~”

Mayumi and Alice both extricated themselves from the melee, turning to head back to their seats in earnest. For a moment their eyes met, and in Mayumi’s was an unrestrained kind of mischief while Alice’s were with impassioned apprehension.

Kato noticed the minor exchange and sighed as he pulled his desk back into position. While Mayumi set up shop in front of Evie quietly, Alice shot Kato an angry glance, obviously demanding an explanation for later. He forced an apologetic smile, tentatively agreeing with her.

“Let us get started. We shall pick up right from where we left off yesterday, and then we shall discuss it. Misaya! Start reading from the last passage on page sixty-seven.”

Sisi decided to move on as quickly as possible, and so Evie stood up to recite the passage from her textbook. Mayumi waved at the Elites from below the desk, and with a cheeky parting grin at Kato she turned to the front. He sighed again, having a feeling that things would explode once they all were freed from class. Recalling those times with Mayumi from long ago, he couldn’t expect anything less.

“Y’all still go to that park? It’s been so long since I’ve been there!”

“If you come with us after school, we can hang around there for a while.”

“Yeah! Let’s do that!”

It was already lunchtime before they had a chance to continue the reunion, and even then a lot of old and new classmates came by to greet or welcome back the old Elite, so it wasn’t until everybody got their food and was halfway into their lunch that they had time for themselves.

Those from Kato’s household had lunch that they brought from home, but the others bought theirs from the school cafeteria. They had moved their desks together to sit around it, and after exchanging some of his food with Kato’s, Eon gave it an appraisal.

“Although the caff’s Yue lunches are really good and made on the spot, Alice’s is almost as good and it’s been microwaved. Kato, do you have a big gas-fired stove at home or something?”

“It’s in Karl’s kitchen, that’s why.”

“I ‘member Karl! He’s like your uncle, right, Kato?”

Suddenly, Mayumi interjected emphatically.

“Yeah, something like an uncle. He’s got reassigned to a new job this year though, so Sisi’s our new caretaker instead.”

“Ms Romana? She’s like, living with you but also is your homeroom teacher?”

“Whack, I know, but that’s just how things turn out. We’re Eternians, after all.”

“Ah, it’s got to do with that.”

Evie shrugged. Eternia was a secret society, or an underground mob, who was the patron of Kato’s household. It wasn’t only Kato but also together with Teto and Evie, that they had undergone training to be the top soldiers in service with Eternia. As plain as their daily lives could be, the inexplicably abnormal was also the norm.

“It’s not that unexpected, I guess. After all, Kato and Evie were selected long ago to become Hearts, and Korolev is basically the Eternian school.”

Eon explained in place of Evie’s characteristically lack of explanation. If there was anything that Evie was good at, after her physical ability, giving half-baked commentary was her next best trait.

“Anyway, I guess I have yet to formally introduce myself to the Elites who have come after me, don’t I?”

With a breakfast wrap being eaten for lunch still in her hand, she stood up from her seat and postured elegantly, surprising the original group more than the newcomers. Their little gathering at the back of the classroom became more of a club meeting than lunch hour.

“I’m Mayumi, one of the original Elites along with Eon and Caius, and together with Kato we were the Elite Four. Due to my fam’s circumstances, I moved away from the Korolev district right at the end of grade four to Regia Miriam’s in Tuenmun. Now, I’ve returned when that was no longer a problem.”

She smiled earnestly at the newcomers, Alice, Franco and Yui, although Yui was a classmate from that time too.

“I’m surprised that Yui out of all people joined the Elites. How did that come about?”

“I’ll have to thank you, Mayumi. The Elites are a good group of kids because of you, and they helped me get away from my old life in the Shamshuipo ghettos. I live with Kato and them now.”

“Hmmmmm? Since when did that start happening?”

Mayumi leaned in to Yui’s face with an exaggerated expression, a stunt that was normally associated with Eon and Caius. While Alice was still cautious about her, in this moment she begrudgingly acknowledged that Mayumi was undoubtedly the origin of the Elites’ eccentric idiosyncrasies.

“Several weeks? Since the start of this school year. It wasn’t that long ago.”

Yui didn’t budge and returned an earnest smile to Mayumi. She was surprisingly steady when under pressure.

“Ah, I see. It’s a very very recent thing. Well, we kinda know each other well enough anyway, eh?”

“Like Kato said before, I don’t think you’ve changed much either, Mayumi. Welcome back.”

Mayumi reached over to clap her on the back cheerfully, grinning like a gremlin, although that was her usual state of being. Yui could only maintain her warm smile, relieved that that part of Mayumi had not changed.

“If I may, Ms Hanamiya. I’m Franco Atkinson, the first of the Elites that came after your time. I moved to the area about five years ago, at the start of middle school. My original home’s in Breisgau. Nice to meetcha.”

Alice perked up at the name of a certain familiar city, but said nothing.

“Same, Franco. Just call me Mayumi.”

Although Franco intended for his extended right hand to be a normal handshake, Mayumi grabbed it by the base of the thumb instead to turn it into a bro shake and quickly followed through with the hug with her free left arm. He stumbled at first but he was able to successfully recognize and reciprocate the camaraderie in the end, even though the other guys burst out laughing at Franco’s expense.

“Hey! What gives?”

“Mayumi’s not actually a girl. She’s the eldest brother of the brothers here.”

“It’s not your fault for tripping over, Franco. Mayumi’s been like this since forever.”

A mischievous spark illuminated Mayumi’s eye.

“But gosh, Franco is a real looker, eh? Poster boy material?”

“What are you, a grandma? I’m a handsome man too, y’know. In my own world on some standard.”

“For as long as I’ve known him, Franco is a blessed creature, that’s all I gotta say.”

“Blessed creature indeed. And yes, Eon, only in your own messed up world that you’d be anything close to Franco.”

“What the hell, man…”

“C’mon, Mayumi, at least throw him a bone.”

“I can throw other things at him if you want, Caius.”

Franco’s forehead began sweating buckets. Eon and Caius were usually already overwhelming enough, but he can’t help but suspect that Mayumi only added more fuel to this fire. He had got to manage that fire.

“But hey, how come it’s the Elite Four? Weren’t there six of you if Kato’s already there?”

“Kato, Evie and Teto count as one. Don’t ask me why that’s the case, but we kept our fights with the Jupiter sisters on fair numbers.”

“So they’re like a substitution team.”

“Rotating in for that one spot, yes.”

Evie leaned back into her chair, feeling comfy about the old times as Mayumi turned to meet her eye to eye.

“And Evie, you’re as relaxed as always, aren’t you? But I guess now I have to look up to see your face. How the bodies have changed.”

“I know, right. It’s been seven years of puberty, after all.”

To condescendingly emphasize her point, Evie puffed out her chest, jiggling her nice rack in plain sight of everyone around her. The boys, of course, stared at the tall hills intensely, but perhaps surprisingly Mayumi was doing the exact same thing too. In fact, there was a naked lust in her eye which accompanied an open mouth that was on the verge of salivating. It was hard to imagine that this was what Evie had become when she was a midget as a little kid.

“Well, I can agree with everybody else’s silence that you possess an unworldly physical attractiveness compared to the rest of us, but can I touch those—”

“—no.”

Evie calmly turned herself away from Mayumi’s hands that were in grabbing mode, which snapped Mayumi out of her trance just in time to wipe away the drool at the corner of her mouth. She cleared her throat to put a stop to her unbecoming behaviour, but nevertheless showed no sign of repentance.

“Mm. But I’ll have a squeeze of those in due time, just watch me.”

“We’ll see.”

Evie only shrugged, prompting an ill-advised idea from Eon and Caius.

“Evie! What if we said we want the same?”

“I’m on board too. Whaddo’yasay?”

“I’m gonna break your necks the moment you touch me.”

Delivering yet another threat calmly and securely, the two receiving it were spooked but sadly not unfazed, which meant they continued talking.

“See, this is discrimination! What of equal rights for men and women? This is preposterous!”

“Sadly we live in a new age of feminism where double standards and affirmative action takes precedent. We’d be better off just keeping our head down and minding our own business.”

“Oh my god, you guys.”

Surprisingly the bemused dissent was from Mayumi, but it was because she had already made her way to the front of the latest Elite to join the ranks. Despite being about to lay down a challenge, she still smiled good-naturedly.

“Well? What’ve you got for me?”

Mayumi laid her free hand on Alice’s desk, making a loud and clear thud as she took a bite out of her sandwich. Alice didn’t take offence to the flippant attitude, and decided that holding her ground cautiously and observing a bit more was a more prudent strategy.

“I’m Alice Westgrove, formerly of Class A, and joined this group only a month ago. As for Korolev, I’ve only come here at the start of second year. My old home’s in Breisgau, the same as Franco, apparently.”

“Oh, actually? That’s a coincidence.”

“I guess there’re a lot of people who move between Breisgau, Livia and Lien. They’re all big Yue majority cities.”

Franco was pleasantly surprised, though it was true that the interchange of people between these cities were definitely significant. Breisgau was some five hours away by train in the neighbouring, formerly independent Kingdom of Rine.

“Hm, you seem like you understand Old Yue, but how come you use New Yue?”

Of course that question would come up. It came up every time for Alice, so she was used to it by now.

“My Old Yue sounds awful, so I tend to stick to New Yue. Sorry.”

“Oh really? Then you should speak more so you can get it right! C’mon, give it a whirl!”

Eye sparkling again, the presence that Mayumi possessed felt the same as when Kato too egged her on to use Old Yue when they first met. Alice attempted to brush it off, but to no avail.

“I’ll pass. It’s already an incurable habit, so there’s no way I’m going to use it.”

“Aw c’mon, just say something just once. I wanna hear it!”

“No! We’re not doing it!”

“Please? Please? Pretty pleeeeeaaase?”

“Your perfect Livian standard is not helping your case!”

Food still in her mouth, Mayumi laughed at Alice’s flustered resistance. The Old Yue language was in fact a group of linguistically similar but only partially mutually intelligible dialects, the lingua franca being the Kwangchow dialect. Within this lingua franca, the Livian standard was one of two standards, the other being the Homeland standard, where they differed only in minor pronunciations. However, in mass media, the Livian standard was the preferred variant.

“Then all right, I give, I give. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“Likewise.”

Mayumi clutched Alice’s free hand with her own, beaming as she was the whole time. Alice could feel that their relationship was going to be a bumpy one, yet at the same time she couldn’t help but be impressed, though also envious. For Alice, it was difficult to bring that kind of a smile to her face, but Mayumi readily showered everyone with her happiness.

Bleeeeeeeee—

The blaring noise of the P.A. system rang loudly, bringing everyone’s attention to the imminent announcement that was sure to follow.

“Attention, school. A casus belli has been claimed by Class D against Class C. As a Supervisor of the Class Wars, namely Elizabeth Miklos Romana of Class F, senator, acting on the authority of the principal, namely Lady Eterna, while in her regrettable absence, shall determine that the casus belli claimed is true and justified. Romana shall now declare the commencement of war between Class D and Class C.”

The students around them rose up in curiosity as their peripheral vision turned mysteriously purplish, signifying that there truly was a Class War starting. The barrier that encased the school grounds was activated, and outside the window they could see the barrier boundaries some distance away materializing as rainbow-coloured auroras.

“Mayumi, do you have your cleanse tag yet?”

“Yeah. Ms Romana gave me and briefed me about the cleanse tags this morning.”

Kato asked Mayumi as he held up his left wrist, where he wore his own cleanse tag. It wrapped around his wrist and forearm like a ribbon-like bandage, but it was in fact his student identification with his name and class printed on it along with the school chop. Mayumi lifted hers up to show them the same, also already personalized with her New Yue name.

“Then remember to keep it on at all times, especially during a Class War. And especially during a Class War involving our own class. And even with it, still try not to get hurt.”

While wearing a cleanse tag with the boundaries of the now-rainbow-coloured alchemical barrier, it protected the wearers from injury by instantaneously reversing damage to a previously healthy state at hyper-speeds. However, the system was far from perfect.

“Umu. I get it, I get it. We’d still feel most of the pain, minor injuries tended to not trigger the protection effect, and major injuries don’t get fully restored, right? Like if ye got a big ol’ cut, it would get reduced to a li’l cut.”

“Sisi’s taught you a lot then, eh? That’s good.”

“But this Class War is between C and D only, right? It won’t involve us.”

“Right. And at least during a war, when the barrier is glowing like city lights, even if you lose your cleanse tag for whatever reason, the activated barrier will still prevent you from getting injured.”

“And you win a war by beating up the… opposing class rep? I remember this whole thing is a martial tradition, but it’s kinda whack in this day and age.”

Mayumi retreated back to her seat in front of Evie, barbarically sitting down on the chair in reverse, her front leaning on the backrest and her legs open wide with her feet on either side.

“Beating up? Yeah, that’s the basic method. Nowadays, though, Class Wars are mostly just answering subject-focused trivia questions overseen by a teacher. It’s called the Duel system, which basically means a teacher-mediated fight of some sort.”

“So the loser allows himself to get beat up? Heh.”

Eon was unperturbed.

“Your cleanse tag slowly turns from white to black as it reverses your injuries, and it turns completely black when it’s fully saturated. However, in a Duel, the teacher artificially saturates your cleanse tag. Once the class rep’s cleanse tag is fully saturated, they lose the Class War.”

“The Duel system is supposed to bring a peaceful way to resolve conflicts between the classes, but pop quizzing like Who Wants to be a Millionaire isn’t the only method. Sometimes we do get brawls. Right, Kato?”

“Indeed we do.”

Kato nodded satisfactorily at Caius.

“Geh. Isn’t that kinda unfair for Kato’s opponents? And Evie’s too. They can probably take on everybody else in this school at the same time.”

“That’s exactly our class’s advantage.”

“Yup. Do you think we have enough nerds in our class to fight an orthodox Class War with our competitors?”

“No, I guess not. Ohhhh, I get it now.”

A lightbulb went off in Mayumi’s head, illuminating her face.

“Yeah, that makes sense now. Korolev’s classes are stratified by merit, so because we’re Class F out of, like, ten classes or something, we’re smack in the middle of the pack. We’re not supposed to win against the higher classes.”

“But miraculously, we did win against Class A a few weeks ago, courtesy of Kato’s fists. And you all say I’m the one who always uses brute force.”

Evie said as if it completely justified her own twisted tendencies, which naturally frightened the men here.

“Really? Then is that why—”

Mayumi paused for a moment before a crafty grin spread across her face. She turned at Alice, closely observing her as Mayumi’s eye sparkled once more with mischief. Like a time goddess, she wasted none with anything and pounced at the first opportunity.

“That’s why Alice is here, isn’t it?”

As if receiving an electric surge Alice’s back was straightened immediately. Mayumi got it right on the mark, and Alice’s inability to speak as she turned red as a tomato pretty much confirmed Mayumi’s thinly veiled insinuation. Too late. Kato was a moment too slow to intervene before Alice’s face gave it all away.

“Well, that’s true, but it was also an opportunity to put a dent into Class A and its reign of terror.”

“Opportunity?”

Leaving no trace of the smugness in her face, Mayumi returned to normal, almost abnormally so. Both Alice and Kato were glad that she didn’t insist on pressing the issue.

“Most of our school outside of academics is essentially student-run. We exist in a system that’s patronized by the parents of the elites, not us Elites but the bourgeoisie. It has always been that way, so the privileges of the students are grossly disproportionate.”

“Yes. Unlike in other schools where those powers are invested monolithically in the student council, Korolev split those powers into two branches, the student council and the Assembly.

“The Assembly is the legislative branch of student government that passes policies, resolutions, laws, et cetera, for the student council and the rest of the school to run on.”

“On the other hand, the student council is the executive, responsible for the day-to-day functions of student government and carrying out most of the policies passed by the Assembly.”

“In practice, we’re under the rule of the Assembly, and it’s an elitist club that’s controlled by Class 3-A. The constitution gives Class A an almost majority of seats.”

“Meanwhile, a good portion of the student council’s nominal powers are actually split off into two different and independent organizations, the Public Safety Committee and the Activity Council.”

Eon and Caius began explaining to Mayumi in tandem once again.

“A few weeks ago, the Mona faction of Class A, or the Activity Council faction, put forward a bill in the Assembly called the Act of Neutrality. The substance is here.”

Caius threw a file folder on Kato’s desk, already the focal point where everyone was turned facing for their lunch gathering.

“In essence they wanted, for the sake of so-called neutrality, to ban political campaigning in relation to the real world situation in Lien right now. This was proposed immediately after the defacing of national symbols in the legislative council in Lien.”

Lien was a neighbouring Yue-majority city on the other side of the border with Ava, and heavily integrated with Livia on many levels, the most tightly at the socio-cultural level. However, the difference was that while Livia enjoyed de facto independence from the imperial government of Auxiria, Lien was nominally under the control of the Kingdom of Ava, a possession of the Auxirian Empire for almost two centuries. Decades of struggle between imperial power and localist demands came to a head in a storming of the legislative building by protestors four weeks ago, directly challenging the current political arrangement between Lien and Auxiria.

“Our class is spearheading the lobbying for striking down this bill. Most of the lower classes are on the ‘yellow’ side of the conflict, so to speak. They tend to be more localist-leaning than collaborative with an oppressing ‘blue’ power. It’s the spirit of the Yue people.”

Eon said confidently, proud of his people. Of course, it included the non-ethnic Yue people around him as they were every bit Yue on the inside, regardless of their race or skin colour.

“Yeah, but it isn’t you who’s doing that. It’s Chantal and them who’re doing that, and somehow Alice’s been the poster girl for the anti-neutrality movement.”

“I’m only a figurehead, okay? It’s the result of circumstance, not because I’m a capable leader.”

Alice pointed out quickly to correct Caius. Mayumi tilted her head.

“A result of circumstance?”

“If only me joining Class F was as simple as you thought. Imagine, the fiancée of the marshal of the Public Safety Committee leaving him behind and crossing the floor for the class that was the explicit target of police action by the PSC. Not only that, but that class was being charged with sedition, or in other words, undermining the authority of the PSC. That was me. With such a high profile defection, the story’s romantic to the point of delusion, so of course it’ll turn the whole school upside down.”

“Ooooooh! It does sound amazing! So you’re no longer his fiancée? Are you now Kato’s?”

Both Alice and Kato almost gagged while the people around them snickered.

“So that’s all you’ve got from my explanation?!”

“Well, for the other parts, I already have a sort-of-an-opinion on it based on my political views. So what did you end up doing for the anti-neutrality side? Making speeches and public appearances?”

“Pretty much. It’s tiring sometimes, but Chantal and them are good people. I wished I was in this class earlier.”

“But do you have your own political position?”

“I do. I’m on the yellow side, but as rude as it sounds, it’s not my fight. I’m not from here, and I can only cheer from the sidelines within the limits of my abilities.”

Alice shrugged without much emotion as Mayumi looked towards Eon and Caius.

“Then are the rest of you guys in on this project too?”

“In on the project? Sure, but a lot of the on-the-ground work is left to the rest of our class. Our fight is in the Assembly.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Me, Caius, Kato and Yui are Members of the Assembly from our class constituent, while Alice is a Member by virtue of being our class representative. Originally, Class F only had one seat, but it got expanded to four after a couple of wars. By stealing it from the losing classes of course.”

Mayumi just as quick turned back to Alice on the other side.

“You’re our class rep too? Didn’t you say you joined this class only a while ago?”

“The rest of Class F thought I would be a better public-facing figure for the class than Kato, who is now our former class rep. I’d tend to agree, don’t you, Kato?”

Needling Kato was second nature to Alice, but at least in this instance he didn’t mind the jab. She was probably better than him at that job, to be perfectly honest.

“Whatever, dude. You’re way better than me at public speaking, so it’s a lot better for us both inside and outside the Assembly.”

Mayumi’s eye lit up again, doubtlessly another great idea spawned in her brain.

“Hey, can I join in too? If Alice needs someone else to do the public speaking outside the Assembly, then I’m the perfect replacement. We’re doing this.”

She puffed out her chest arrogantly and directed the last sentence to her two oldest lackeys, to which Eon and Caius nodded readily. Alice smiled, albeit bemusedly.

“You’re welcome to do that. It’s Chantal who’s calling the shots anyway.”

Mayumi stood up from her seat again.

“Where is she right now?”

“Right now? Busy with organizing the next protest most likely. Or already doing it. Sometimes I get pulled away for it too. It’s lunch time after all.”

“Don’t worry, Mayumi. She’ll show up sooner or later to discuss her next plan with us.”

“Good job, Kato. I’m glad to hear that the Elites are still the kings of this class.”

Both thumbs up, Mayumi laughed again, but without the background chatter of a fully occupied classroom it was a few decibels louder than normal. Included in the last flurry of students leaving the classroom for the hallways were Eon and Caius, who gestured to the remaining Elites to come hither.

“Let’s go watch. It looks like an orthodox Class War.”

“Because at this rate, we’ll probably get more abnormal wars than orthodox ones.”

After quickly tidying themselves, or in the case of Mayumi still holding onto her food, they followed the two out and after a short walk through the somewhat crowded corridor they made their way to the balcony that overlooked the atrium. Many other students too were looking over the balcony at the students on the first floor below, which they recognized to be students from Class 3-C and Class 3-D.

“Wow, I’m still impressed that your school’s atrium is really humongous.”

It was indeed a wide open space, probably enough to stage a small-scale performance with a sizeable audience. Though they were on the third floor, they could definitely still see all the tiny details of the class confrontation. Students from the two belligerent classes lined up on either side of the atrium with a big open space between them, all encased by a ring of crowds of mostly first-years. Immediately below them, they could see second-years lining their own floor’s balcony.

“What’re they fighting over?”

In place of the Elites, two girls, one short and one tall, suddenly appeared next to them to provide that explanation.

“A place in the upcoming talent show.”

“If they were just a bit smarter, they’d avoid the war, but hey, I’m not complaining about them fighting each other into exhaustion.”

“Ooooo~”

Eye lightening up again, Mayumi grabbed hold of the short one’s hands. Unfortunately for her, Mayumi was just a bit shorter than the newcomer with the sparkling platinum blonde hair in an old-fashioned hime cut. But like Mayumi, this girl hadn’t changed much from the last time they saw each other. On the other hand, the gal with the brown pixie cut standing tall behind her had a wide smile on her face, clearly physically different from when she was a little runt. She was as tall as Evie and equally imposing, a great contrast with her much smaller sister in front of her.

“We meet again.”

“Oi! Long time no see, Mayumi!”

“Ariel! Scarlett! Good to see you too!”

They were all smiles, exchanging salutations and subsequent small talk as Mayumi did earlier with the Elites. They were surprisingly amiable, as they used to challenge each other at the playground. The new arrivals were two of the Jupiter sisters, the antithesis of the Elite Four. Eon eventually waved at one of their childhood rivals for her attention.

“Hey, Ariel, what exactly are they going for when they win? It shouldn’t be just a spot in the talent show, is it?”

“Yes. They are definitely using it as a pretext to fight for seats in the Assembly.”

Ariel was a calm girl, serene to the point where as if her voice could make echoes all by itself.

“Why? How come they’re that desperate?”

“Class C is part of the Gilbert faction, while Class D is part of the Mona faction. Though Gilbert and Mona are on the same side at the personal level, at school they represent different interests.”

“So this is a proxy war? That kinda explains why they went for the orthodox method of war.”

“Exactly. Given Gilbert’s resignation, the next in line to succeed him in the PSC is the class representative of Class C, Donovan Avgothia. Gilbert and his inner circle will still control Donovan from behind the scenes, but the public will be seeing Donovan and his people more than Gilbert.”

Caius snapped his fingers, an idea clicking in his head after Scarlett’s commentary.

“Class C and Donovan are mostly people from the drama department, which is a big independent organization. But for Class D, they’re mostly a divided class of multiple smaller clubs that are under the Activity Council’s thumb, which is Mona’s territory. They’re fighting a war of big clan versus small clans.”

Mayumi put her fingers at her temples.

“What’s going on? I’m kinda lost.”

“The Mona faction is in charge of the Activity Council, or the AC, which is responsible for club activities and other cultural events, and naturally also manages their resources like manpower, facilities and to an extent finances as well. So they have a handle on Class D.”

“On the other hand, the Gilbert faction is law enforcement, as they’re PSC. Historically, the big independent organizations, like the drama, music and phys. ed. departments, are aligned to the PSC because of their natural conflict of interest with the AC. The AC tends to be a control freak when it comes to managing their external resources, like getting approved for a publicity campaign or whatnot. And these organizations are provisioned close to no representation in the Assembly or other parts of student government, so they leverage the PSC’s influence to retain their independence. Since the PSC usually doesn’t care about the endless resources that these organizations use up, they get along well.”

“Hey, aren’t all these supposed to be the responsibility of the student council? Where do they come in?”

“You mean, where do we come in.”

Ariel smiled easily as her older quadruplets sister Scarlett grinned as well.

“I am the undersecretary, head of the Department of the Administration and the Records Office.”

“And I am the executive manager, head of the Student Liaison Office.”

Speaking proudly, low-key in a pretentious way to show off to the Elite Four, they revealed their identities to Mayumi.

“No way! You girls are actually student council? That’s cool! And judging from your job titles, I’d assume Mira and Bia should be part of it too?”

“You’ve got that right.”

The Jupiter sisters were quadruplets, but only Mirabelle and Bianca were identical. It was a strange complement of twins plus two others with completely different physiques.

“I’m the most involved with the AC, since the AC and the SLO are supposed to be joint organizations sharing the same responsibilities. And I can say that Eon and Caius’ perception of the AC is accurate.”

“Hoho, politics. And I guess the SLO’s existence is to try to impose the student council’s will in the AC?”

“Exactly, exactly.”

Scarlett nodded excitedly as Mayumi caught on quickly.

“So then what’s Ariel responsible for?”

“General administration. Tabulating minutes, running Assembly sessions, making public announcements, data collection, espionage.”

“Espionage?! Did I hear that right?”

“Damn straight.”

Mayumi paused for a second.

“But if the Jupiter sisters are student council, then they’re on our side, right? The anti-neutrality protesters’ side. Then we have this triangular struggle for power.”

“Bingo. A triangular struggle.”

“And the struggle is going to get a lot more complicated because of the new incoming PSC marshal. He may be a puppet of the Gilbert faction, but he has his own clique as well.”

Eon concluded their thoughts as he watched the war, or more accurately, the trivia contest just starting down below.

There was a teacher standing in the middle of the clearing, flanked on both sides by the two opposing classes a safe distance away. He held his arm high in the air, showing a teacher’s cleanse tag wrapped around his wrist over the long sleeve and glowing blue. Immediately, one student from each side walked forwards to meet each other in front of the teacher, where they also held up their cleanse tags, glowing yellow instead before they lowered their arms again.

“This is the preparatory phase, where the Supervisor lays out the rules of the Duel. In other words, this is where the trivia question is asked.”

Caius explained to Mayumi, who was stretching forward and leaning over the ledge a bit too far. Without a moment to spare, the teacher asked the first question loudly so that even the third floor could just hear him with enough clarity to make out the question.

“In the play Macbeth, explain the author’s meaning and the significance to the play of the excerpt starting from line two thousand three hundred eighty-one, for five lines, in act five scene five, beginning with ‘life’s but a walking shadow’?”

They could see both sides’ cleanse tags glow a bright blue, indicating that the Duel had begun. Immediately, the student on Class C’s side raised their hand in the air first and the teacher acknowledged it, but with their distance they couldn’t hear the subsequent answer clearly.

“That’s a really hard question, what the hell?”

“Tough luck, I guess?”

Then, surprisingly, the teacher gave the Class D student a chance to answer as well. The student gave an empathic one that sounded more confident than Class C’s.

“Class C’s answer isn’t good enough? Wow.”

“Yeah. Normally, the first taker has the advantage because if the answer is sufficiently correct, they get the win.”

After Class D gave their answer, the teacher gave it a good ten seconds of thought before tapping his cleanse tag, which ended the challenge period. Class C’s student’s cleanse tag turned from blue to red, while Class D’s turned to green, which was accompanied by cheers and celebration by the rest of Class D.

“Well, Class D could have given a crappier answer than Class C too, but this year looks like Class D has some smart people.”

“You’d think Class C would know these answers better because they’re from the drama department.”

And that was exactly the sentiment among the bystanders. Right out of the gates, Class C suffered a loss on home turf.

“Even the Supervisor in charge here is Mr Nigel, one of the drama department’s advisors. Class D is already on the back foot ‘cause the Supervisor is definitely favourable to Class C.”

The Class C student had to retreat back to his class in disgrace, and another of his comrades had to step up to replace him, once again facing the same opponent from Class D.

“Wait, they’re replacing their vanguard already? What gives?”

“What do you mean?”

“Usually in this kind of trivia quizzing format, they’re given two or three lives before they’re considered ‘out’. I guess they’re playing with only one life this time around.”

“Hmm. That seems to be the case. Then they’re playing on really high stakes, eh?”

“How do they keep track of the antes?”

Caius held up his cleanse tag to Mayumi.

“Remember this cleanse tag turns to black as you get injured? After every one of these quizzing rounds, the Supervisor artificially saturates the loser’s cleanse tag, turning them black. Once it’s all black, the Supervisor won’t accept your participation anymore because you’ve used up all your chips. No ante, no game.”

“So it’ll end up with the whole class getting taken down, with the class reps the last ones to join the fray.”

“In isolation, that’s what game theory tells us. The bigger your class, the more defence in depth you have. But you can also win it all with just one genius at every subject. It really depends. But at the same time, classes play a game of resource management and damage control too. Cleanse tags don’t get fully de-saturated until the start of the new month, except for the class rep’s which gets de-saturated after every war.

“So, say if Class C is going to lose, and Class C knows that another class has beef with them and likely has a valid casus belli against them, they might not throw everybody at this war if they think the next one is more dangerous to lose.”

Mayumi sneered, just a little bit.

“Do you guys actually need to calculate that hard? Are the rewards of a war that good?”

“Of course! A peace treaty has the same effect as an Act of the Assembly. In other words, the peace terms become the law of this land. Within the boundaries of their reasons for war, naturally.”

“It just sounds surreal that you guys would wager your student life on a series of trivia questions.”

“Well, wars are supposed to be rarer than this, and this is the civilized way of doing things. Trivia quizzing isn’t the only peaceful method of war, just the traditionally most popular. We saw a couple of games of association football decide some matches last year, for example. That’s ‘cuz those classes had their own football teams that were pretty good. The Class War made the stakes in those games super-high, so those were really good matches.”

“Oh I get it, the classes can agree on any kind of competition that they can propose to the Supervisor to referee.”

“Exactly. And if all else fails, we go back to the barbaric way of settling things, by the way of fists.”

“Hmm. I can see why things trended towards peaceful measures. I assume that only classes with challengers or deities would consider the free-for-all option.”

Challengers and deities were existences that Kato, Teto and Evie were; trained in combat and physically superior. Depending on the level of superhuman ability, they were assigned the challenger moniker for green up-and-coming super-soldiers, or a deity for a recognized or established fighter of incredible ability. They were the latter, not through any established reputation of themselves but a recognition of such status from an established peer.

“Or be cool like Kato, proposing a one-on-one physical fight to decide the Class War. Stole a bride out of it too.”

Kato’s eyes narrowed at Eon’s choice of words as Alice, who was coincidentally standing with Kato, turned away in embarrassment.

“I understand the optics may appear that way, but that was the plan from the start, my foul-mouthed friend.”

“Nah, Kato. That was all you, my man.”

“Caius, what happened to one for all and all for one?”

“Nowhere to be found, of course. What, d’you think we’d soften up and let our feet off the gas pedal?”

Mayumi giggled but was also touched. Kato, as the edgy newcomer at the time, used to be the butt of their jokes until Mayumi left, and his role began to slowly shift away from that. It was nostalgic to see them all as if rewinding back in time. She peeled herself back from the railing and launched herself into Kato and Caius, hanging onto them by their shoulders.

“Hah! We never had, and we never will!”

“I can’t say that ain’t true, but we haven’t done that at my expense for a long time. And I implore you to keep it that way.”

“If only there was any other way, Kato. And no, Franco’s not gonna help.”

“I, for one, welcome Kato in reprising my role as the court jester.”

Franco said with comical arrogance, as if he made all the effort to make that happen when it was abundantly obvious it was Eon’s and Caius’ efforts.

“Isn’t it great? Things are the way they should be, right, Kato?”

Seeing her eternal smile made him choke on his retort, and could only laboriously bring out a forced smile of his own. Maybe it was because of her sudden reappearance that he was softer towards her than he used to.

“Agree? Agree on what? No matter how you look at it, you can’t convince me to throw away my self-respect.”

“Oh, right. I forgot that this doesn’t need the consent of the tormented. It’s okay. It’s already a done deal.”

Sticking her tongue out, she let go of the two of them and gave them the peace sign. Kato sighed, but was also relieved. It was going to be a long year with her here and thankfully too, because he didn’t want it to end quickly either. He was grateful that she decided to drop whatever she was doing, whichever path she was going down, and returned to rejoin her old friends one last time.