When the final school day of the week came to an end, Izuru rushed out of his classroom, without waiting or even saying something to Tate or Ban. He made his way to the lockers at the entrance of the school as fast as he could, where he waited.

When the school building closed as all other students left, he waited by the open gates, staying long after some teachers and members of clubs that didn't use the main building.

And when night fell and school's gates closed, he waited outside the school, and kept waiting for any signs of Minami. Even if she didn't appear, he'd remain there in his almost mindless search for an answer.

"My classroom is closer to the stairs than yours, you couldn't have left before me..." Izuru muttered, staring at the time on his phone's screen, his breath taking the form of greyish puffs of air under the night's low temperature.

And then, just as he was about to put away his phone, it started buzzing with a call, which he answered, much to his distaste because of already knowing it was most likely Tate calling about either Ako or Tamaki.

"Yo."

"Dude what the hell was up today- Is that the sound of you freezing? Are you for real still at school?! Dude, what the hell?!"

"Huh... Kendo club stuff."

"That's a lie, I'm also in the club and I'm right here!"

"Yeah, Katsu-chan's with me, dude!"

"Call me that one more time and I'll kick your ass, Rasputin!"

"Oh a russian joke, just how adult of you! But that's besides the point, when the hell are you stopping by?! We agreed tonight was pizza night at my place because of my constant need to drown my bad grades in food!"

"Oh yeah, we were doing that tonight. I'll be there soon, promise." Izuru lied.

"Do you swear on your Nero doujin? The one atop the great Doujin Tower?"

"Doujin Tower? Don't tell me you're a degenerate too, Katsu-chan!"

Izuru sighed as the sound coming from the call just became inaudible yells and sounds of something being punched. Taking advantage of the two being distracted, he ended the call and turned his phone off as a whole.

'Where could you be, Minami? Did you leave before I arrived? No, I was the first student out of the school I know it. Did you skip class? No, that's not something the headmaster's daughter would- The headmaster's daughter!' Izuru thought.

His eyes widened as he arrived at a conclusion. He was aware of the day's weather forecast and had seen the headmaster driving at some point in the previous year, and as a member of the student council, he knew the headmaster always tended to be the last staff member to leave Heiwa.

Izuru took off in a run, with his destination being a small parking lot close to Heiwa, the ideal place for someone to leave their vehicle if they were to work in the school.

As he arrived at the parking lot's gate, he could see a bright pink colour at the distance, and that was enough to find where she was. He ran past the rows of car belonging to those who worked in the area, until he arrived at his final destination.

Minami stood behind a black car with an open trunk, and as she was about to place her bag inside it, Izuru called out to her.

"Minami!" Izuru yelled.

She looked back at him, and though her eyes widened briefly, she grit her teeth and glared at him.

"You absolute creep! You actually waited around and then stalked me here?! Can you get even creepier?!"

"I just want a straight answer!" Izuru declared, steeping forward.

"Stay where you are! Don't you dare come close to me, you weirdo!"

"Be honest with me!" He exclaimed, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Can you really look me in the eye and say all you said before and actually mean it?!" Reaching for the right pocket of his jacket, he grabbed the buttefly ribbons and shoved them against her chest. "Can you?!"

"You..." Minami looked away. "You wouldn't understand!"

"I do understand something, I understand you can't say again because it was a lie!"

"Allow to me give light to the accusations Sachi-san may have made earlier. Please."

Heiwa's headmaster stepped out from the shadows that covered the right side of the car, an apathetic look in his eyes as he showed his traditional flat smile.

"Endo!" Izuru grunted, gritting his teeth. "It's all you-!"

"Now, now, let's not get ahead of ourselves, Sawada-kun. If I heard it right, she said your little friendship was just a lie I forced her to give? I'm afraid most of that statement is incorrect. It's true that I had Sachi-san do some things regarding you and some other individuals, such as Ban-kun, but that wasn't something that started right away. No, in fact, I'm afraid that most of the start of your little friendship with Sachi-san was built on truths. But, such as a general would do the midst of war between two nations, I knew when to seize that bond." Endo explained.

"You-! What did you do?!"

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. Do you know who first spoke those words, Sawada-kun?"

"The chinese general Sun Tzu. But that's besides the point!"

"No, I believe it isn't. In fact, I know it isn't. Allow me to make you three questions."

"Who cares about what you know or don't know?!" Izuru asked, putting himself in front of Minami.

"My first question. Did you ever stop to think how you always found so much about the delinquents of Heiwa? How the rumours about them began in the first place? Did you ever stop to think who knew the original information and who had someone spread rumours about it like wildfire? It was more than clear than a limited number of people would know the real and original information, and one of those people was always me. All that was left to do was have Sachi-san spread rumours, and then, you'd run into the scene, pretending to be a hero and protecting Heiwa, such as you always desired."

"How could you do this to your own daughter?!"

"My second question. Do you know the law of equivalent exchange, Sawada-kun? It's even in the name, so I don't have any need to explain anything. Sachi-san's mother was a good for nothing woman who ran away being the useless nobody she was, so all Sachi-san did was walk a path that didn't lead her into the same route her mother took. Parents spend years and money raising their children, some with the goal of projecting themselves into their sons and daughters, but not me. I do my hardest to never allow Sachi-san to ever become an embodiment of her foolish mother, and being used for Heiwa's future is already much more than that retched woman could ever do."

"So you've just been using her all this time?!"

"And haven't you, Sawada-kun? And haven't both of us been using those around us for what we want? Have I actually overestimated your methods all this time?"

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"Ah, perhaps this is a conversation for another day. But yes, I have been using Sachi-san for the future of Heiwa Academy. But she isn't the only one I've used. Did you ever wonder how all those delinquents got into Heiwa in the first place? How only the less bad ones got in? How someone like Ban Katsuhito-kun ever entered the school?"

"You- You've used Ban too?!"

"Why, yes. I expected that to be obvious for you from the start. Can you imagine just how much light would shine upon Heiwa should it reform a professor-beater into a valuable member of society? It was a gamble that was I ready to abandon should it fail, but things just ended up working. I've always handpicked the students that entered and didn't enter Heiwa. That's the truth. So now allow me to make you my third and final question. Now knowing this, why do you think you were ever welcome into Heiwa?"

(Media - Devil Beat)

"W-what are you talking about?!" Minami asked.

"You..." Izuru muttered under his breath, gritting his teeth.

"Do you believe you became a Heiwa student because of your good grades? Because of your desire to protect Heiwa? You are no hero, Sawada-kun. The world isn't as nice as you see it. Despite your past, any other school would have accepted you, but none of them would know how to use you to the fullest. Nothing about you makes you special, Sawada-kun. The only good thing about you is your last name. If your past was the same but your last name wasn't Sawada, you would have never entered Heiwa. In fact, you would have never entered any other school."

"Shut up..."

"I-izuru?"

"Oh? Did I strike a never? Or perhaps, you never told Sachi-san about your past? That's understandable. Telling someone you were Hirabayashi Middle School's berserker would change things... Or so it would have been if not for your following actions."

"Shut up... Shut up!"

"Hirabayashi- What is he talking about?!"

"I must admit, when I heard about it, I was shocked. In years of using fools to reach the place I am at, I never heard such a shocking story of someone using someone else. Allow me to congratulate you."

"SHUT UP!" Izuru roared, his eyes brimming with rage.

"Were those the eyes he saw on that day? Were those the eyes that destroyed Nijimura-san's family?"

"Wha-what are you talking about?!" Minami asked.

"Hirabayashi Middle School, the middle school Hero-kun over here went to! Ever since the end of the summer break of his first year, he had been forcing his justice upon others, sometimes even using his hands to do so! But one day, on his second year of middle school, someone suffered worse than all the others! Even after his forehead was bleeding, one of his eyes turned red from all the punching, his legs and arms at their limit, even after broken teeth and many cries for mercy, he kept going! He forced his justice upon that poor soul, he kept using his violence to force his views on others! And when everything finally calmed down, what did you expect that would happen? You'd expect Sawada-kun to be expelled, correct?!" Endo asked, grinning. "Incorrect! Using his brother's fame and the power of those his brother knew, he hid the truth and remained at that school! And what happened to that other boy? To the victim? He was the one to get expelled, but it didn't end there. That boy's family broke apart, his father kicked him from their home, followed by his mother. Because of Sawada-kun's actions, Nijimura-san lost her brother and her mother and was reduced to an useless piece of society! The saddeness he caused her became the only thing in her life! An academic failure who barelly finished high school and never had the chance to enter a college! He destroyed that boy's life, he destroyed Nijimura-san's life, he destroyed the Nijimura family, but he used others to protect himself and never let the world know the truth! That's the true face of this violent berserker named Sawada Izuru!"

"SHUT UP!"

Taking one step forward, consumed by the rage created from the memories of his past, Izuru slammed his fist against Endo's face, forcing him to step back.

"YOU DON'T HAVE ANY RIGHT TO SPEAK OF WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW!"

"Perhaps. But this is something I know all about." Endo muttered, smiling, as he grabbed a handkerchief from his jacket and used it to clean his face. "I'd like to first express that my following actions are those of a japanese citizen acting in self-defense and to defend the innocent around him from the violent beast before us."

"What are you-?!"

In the blink of an eye, Endo stepped forward before Izuru had any chance of reacting or fighting back. With his right fist, he striked Izuru's torso, digging his first far enough to make him fall to his knees the moment he removed his fist.

'This power...' Izuru thought as he stood back up for another round, his legs trembling. But as soon as he laid eyes on his opponent, he stopped and coughed, splattering the cold ground with his blood. 'H-how... But it was... Just one strike...'

"I-zuru!" Minami exclaimed, reaching for him.

"Stop!" Izuru coughed. "T-this... This is nothing...!"

"So you still chose to stand for another round?" Endo asked.

"You'll need more than that... You'll need more than that!" Izuru roared, charging forward.

"If that is what you wish."

Izuru hurled punch after punch, but Endo countered with the same defensive move over and over again. By raising his left hand and striking away Izuru's fists, Endo kept himself free from any of the strikes, though he was forced back from the barrage of attacks.

"It's my turn." Endo muttered.

The next fist Endo deflected was the last. After striking away Izuru's right fist, he moved forward with his right fist pulled back, and despite defending himself by using his arms as a shield, Izuru was pushed back by the strike.

'How the hell are his punches that strong...?!' Izuru thought.

"Stop..." Minami muttered.

Izuru charged forward once again, this time launching a single right hook towards the headmaster, but that would be what would end the fight.

Endo stopped the fist by grabbing Izuru's wrist, then pulled him closer and locked his right arm between his chest and his left elbow. Using the almsost nonexistent distance between the two, Endo striked his neck with his right elbow, with enough strength to force someone to stumble back, but because of the grip he held over Izuru's arm, he didn't went to anywhere. Releasing Izuru from his grip, Endo made his next strike, an uppercut with his left fist against Izuru's chin, carrying enough strength to knock and opponent into the floor, but yet, Izuru remained up.

"Y-you won't.... Y-y-you won't... You won't-!" Izuru moved his head down to look at the headmaster, but it was useless.

With his right fist, Endo striked Izuru, but this time, not on his torso, but instead on his chest. His fist pierced enough to knock the air out of Izuru's lungs, and with it, making him cough out enough blood to stain Endo's right sleeve.

"You may be a violent berserker, Sawada-kun, but you lack vision. If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself..."

Endo removed his fist from Izuru's chest, making him fall on the cold stone ground, writhing in pain.

"You will succumb in every battle."

"Leave..." Minami muttered.

"May you repeat yourself, Sachi-san?" Endo requested.

"Leave... I said leave...!" Minami cried, throwing herself over Izuru's body to protect him. "LEAVE!"

"I see this was the path you chose to pursue, Sachi-san. It's a shame." Endo muttered under his cold breath, looking down upon the two, before he took his leave of the scene.

"It'll be alright..." Minami muttered, pulling Izuru's body closer. "Everything will be alright..."