Not even a day had gone by since our incident with Toshinori's bullies. Denki and I were, of course, pulled to the principal's office to be questioned about it. He had completely reverted back to his normal self and was ready to accept any punishment dealt since schools didn't much care about the reason for a fight: whoever came forward about it first was presumed the innocent party.

  We sat in the school office waiting to be seen and for our parents to join us, because involving them at that point made so much sense.

  "I'm sorry for dragging you into this mess, Kazuma," Denki said in a sad voice as he looked at me. "You shouldn't be here. You didn't do anything except help him up. I was the one who lost my cool and beat down the others... even though they deserved it."

  "No, you're right," I quickly responded. "They were bullies that needed to be taught not to behave that way; however, we'll keep that way of thinking to ourselves. When we go in, we'll calmly tell Principal Moporo what happened before we got involved. He probably won't pull in Toshinori if we don't mention his name. Notice how he's not here with us now?"

  Denki did a quick look around. "You're right," he said. "That's because they didn't mention him when they called in on us," I continued. "Because they knew that he could turn the entire incident on its head by exposing their bullying." Keeping a calm and analytical mind in all situations was one of the first things that Eclipse taught me when I trained to be an assassin.

  My mother arrived with Denki's mother, and the four of us were called in. Denki's mother seemed almost the polar opposite of my own mother. She had an intimidating aura around her, but she smiled all the same. She looked like she could have been his sister. If her genes were strong enough in him, he would look the same age for dozens of years to come.

  Principal Moporo sat behind his desk with his hands folded when we walked in and exchanged greetings. He was an old man who had been an educator for his entire life. He was a small man with scarce white hair left on his head. His glasses were thick, and his voice was stern but weakening with his age.

  "Mrs Ishigami, Mrs Fujimori, have your sons told you why they are here today?" he began.

  My mother was the first to speak."Yes sir, my son told me he stepped in to save a fellow student from being bullied." Principal Moporo's eyebrow raised as he glanced at my mother.

  "He acted on behalf of a bullied student? That doesn't sound like what I was told." Of course they wouldn't tell you why they were there. They almost certainly didn't even mention Toshinori.

  Denki's mother chimed in. "Sir, my son told me the same thing when we talked." Denki's face suggested it was hardly a talk. "He and Ishigami were walking home when they found three students bullying a fourth, and they stepped in to stop them." Principal Moporo's gaze shifted to Denki's mother.

  "I don't want to consider that your sons lied to you, ladies, but the original story that was told to me was that the two of them went out of their way to harass and assault three students resulting in one being sent to the hospital."

  Denki's hands clenched on his knees. "Sir," he struggled to get out calmly. "The three of them were bullying one of our classmates. Kazuma and I called out to stop them, but they turned on us. Kazuma didn't get involved in the fight. He is completely innocent in this. He was the one that helped the student up and walked away with him."

  "And who was this student that was being victimized, Fujimori?" Principal Moporo's voice became pointed, spiteful. "You keep mentioning them, but give no name. Without that, they cannot be confirmed-"

  "The student's name isn't important, sir." I spoke up. "What is important is that the three that brought this to your attention wanted to seem like victims, so they left out their own victim. They are playing you for a fool and trying to get revenge on the two of us for stopping them from preying on other students. Even as we speak here, they are likely targeting them again and will continue unless acted upon. Denki and I did what we saw as right: protecting someone who couldn't protect themself."

  Principal Moporo sat back and crossed his hands again. "That is a bold statement, Ishigami," he said glaring at me.

  Fools loathe being called into the light. Even if he was simply ignorant of the situation, my words seemed to strike harder than I had anticipated. I never took back what I said, regardless of who felt any kind of way about it. Hardly anyone had ever seen that resolve in person, though, especially at this point in my life. Only one way to go: forward.

  "Sir, if you were to call the three of them in separately and ask them the same question about why they were in the place that Denki and I supposedly went out of our way to find and assault them, you would almost certainly get three different answers. The truth of the matter is that they were there bullying one of your students, our classmate. We handled the bullying, and they felt their pride injured. They called you to play the victim and get us punished for their own actions."

  He seemed to uncoil a little even though I hadn't taken back anything that I had said. I could feel the other three staring at me. Denki in absolute wonder, his mother in borderline shock, my own mother in frustrating curiosity. Principal Moporo uncurled his hands.

  "I will think about this. The two of you are dismissed for now."

  We quickly left the office, and I glanced over my shoulder to see him staring at where we were sitting, likely deep in thought. My mother told me that she started her work week that night and that she would get plenty of groceries for us. Denki's mother was still upset about being called to the school.

  "Sheesh, Denki, I understand standing up to bullies, and I'm proud of you for it. But sending someone to the hospital? I still can't believe it." Denki looked down and she left.

  By the time we got out of the principal's office, it was lunch time. Denki sat with our friend group - Ino had prepared too much again and Rito was present to enjoy it too this time - but I looked around for Toshinori.

  Bullies usually strike back at both their victims and those that put them in their place instead of stopping their own behavior. He wasn't in the classroom, so I left to find him and made sure Denki didn't follow me. I knew that they would likely get him away from any cameras to protect their story of being the victims.

  As I walked the halls, I saw them between buildings about to turn the corner to be completely unseen. I knew it would take a long time to run there, even longer to get a teacher to intervene. It was time to try to use my power again. I had been meditating the past couple of days since the incident, and I felt that I had a better grasp on my power again. I closed my eyes and breathed. In. Out. In. Out.

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  I opened my eyes, and everything stood still. Practice does make improvement after all. I ran to the building that they were at and saw them doing the same thing we stopped them from doing before. One of them held him up while the other was about to punch his face. His bag was spilled on the ground along with his wallet: they were shaking him down. Pathetic. I had to think of how to handle the situation.

  The clear danger of Toshinori getting punched was my first priority. Redirecting the punch to hit his buddy was too easy, nothing like a nose punch when you're not expecting it. I stepped back to the corner to make it seem like a missed punch and closed my eyes again. In. Out. In. Out.

  "Ahh!!" The punch had landed. I opened my eyes and walked around the corner. The one holding him had let go, Toshinori was on the ground, and the other was dazed and confused as to how he missed.

  "Look at the two of you," I said aloud. "Shaking down the same kid you forgot to mention when you tried to get me and my friend in trouble. Pathetic."

  He looked at me, and the other got up and joined his buddy. "What's your problem, huh? This doesn't concern you. And where's your creepy friend, huh? Did he get kicked out of school already?" They sneered.

  "No, no, he's fine. Enjoying lunch, actually. How's your friend? Broken nose? Bruised ribs?" I replied.

  They rushed me together, and Toshinori looked scared again. I didn't need my powers at this point. Two inexperienced fighters were more of a danger to themselves than each other.

  The one on the left was faster and tried to tackle me. He met my hand on his face that redirected him behind me where he met with the ground again. The other tried to punch me, but he learned that Denki wasn't the only one who knew how to throw people. A simple matter of weight distribution and redirection of momentum resulted in him flying over me and landing on the ground. Another simple maneuver and his arm was twisted with him crying in pain. The other one was up and rushing me again. This time, he was met with my foot in his face.

  "Ahh!! Again!!" he yelled out as he fell to his knees. I finished dislocating the shoulder of the one on the ground.

  "Please! Please! Don't! AHH!!" he squealed. I walked over to Toshinori and helped him up.

  "Are you okay?" I asked. He was clearly shaken up again. We packed up his bag and started to walk back. I turned back to the two on the ground. "Final warning, leave Toshinori alone, and stop bullying other people."

  I turned to walk away and heard, "Screw you, asshole!" They both got up and rushed us again. I prepared to break something else on each of them but then, something happened that I wasn't prepared for.

  Toshinori yelled, "ENOUGH!" and I felt the pressure around me change. The two collapsed in front of us under immense pressure. Like gravity had increased ten fold for them alone. They were being crushed, and Toshinori was manipulating gravity.

  "Toshinori, look at me!" I called out. "Look into my eyes! You need to calm yourself down before you hurt them. Breathe with me. In. Out. In. Out."

  He looked into my eyes. He was more terrified than he had been before. We stared into each other's eyes and breathed deeply. I felt the pressure return to normal and looked back at the two bullies. They were alive, but beaten down worse than they had likely ever been in their lives.

  "We need to leave, now," I said. He agreed, and we left. We found a teacher on the way and mentioned that we heard yelling behind the building that we didn't mention that we were at. The two of them were bullies, but they still needed to be taken care of. I wasn't looking forward to explaining this one to other people, much less Principal Moporo again. That didn't matter, what mattered was that Toshinori was safe.

  "Why don't you join us for lunch, if you have an appetite?" I suggested.

  "Um, would it be okay?" He asked timidly.

  "Of course, we'd be happy to have you."

  We walked back to class, and sat down with everyone. Chika was the first to welcome him followed by Denki. Ino let Rito go from the headlock he was in - apparently he had fallen into her chest again - and they both greeted him.

  "Thank you for having me," he said shyly.

  I glanced around to everyone and gave them a look that said that he would be joining our friend group. None of them disagreed: having him with us would both give him friends and keep his bullies away.

  After school, I went by the nurses office on the way out. The two bullies were getting sent home after recovering their consciousness.

  "What do you want?" One asked. "Come to laugh at our misfortune?"

  What is he saying?

  "Where's your creepy friend, huh?" The other asked. "Did he get kicked out already?"

  This seems familiar.

  The nurse looked at me. "Oh, are you their friend? I'm sorry, these two have a mild case of amnesia. They'll be recovering at home. I honestly don't know what could have happened to them besides falling off a building and somehow surviving."

  That clears that up.

  Toshinori's ability must have had them on the ground so fast that they hit their heads and forgot everything.

  Oddly convenient.

  I turned and left to find Toshinori by the lockers where I asked him to wait. The rest of our group had club activities and wouldn't be joining us, so it was just us two metas. We started walking home, and I started the conversation.

  "You know, that was pretty incredible, what you did earlier."

  "I almost really hurt them," he replied in a soft voice.

  "But you didn't, you controlled your power. That's admirable, and astounding, really."

  "How did you know to calm down and that my power would stop?"

  "I didn't. It was honestly just a lucky guess." A half truth, I figured that if it helped me, maybe it could help others. "How long have you been able to do that?"

  "I don't know... that's the first time it's ever happened." He kept looking down and glanced further away from my gaze.

  He's lying, but I'll let him lie for now. His existence actually gives me hope. In my previous life, I never saw him at Makarov Academy which meant his ability never manifested in school, and was never recruited. He probably died nonetheless when it did, but he survived the hell that was that academy. With his ability, there had to have been scouters on him before we became adults.

  How did he avoid being recruited? Was his academic position that undesirable? Did he have no athletic potential? Was there something that I missed?

  We continued walking and making small talk until we went our separate ways for the day. I walked home and thought more to myself. If he could avoid Makarov Academy's recruiters, so could I.

  In my previous life, I had never been in any kind of trouble. Staying to yourself and spending your time studying tends to make one seem a model student. Doing your job quickly and hiding out before and after said job tends to make one seem a model employee. I had already strayed so far from that life in a couple of days - sacrificing my own time to help others, receiving my first punishment for something that was ultimately both my fault and not my fault, sacrificing my perfect record to save someone in need.

  I wondered if it would all amount to something and if I would be free from Eclipse's clutches. I only had a relatively short time until they would start their crusade on metas. I had to make sure the ones I cared about would be safe when the time came.