The current situation, namely Okuda punching a high school student out cold, was not what Koro believed he would witness upon arriving at the kidnapping scene.

Let us go back a few minutes prior, shall we?

After leaving their teacher to his phone call, Kanzaki's group made their way to the more isolated parts of the shopping district. The street was empty, leaving only the six students as they observed the alleyway. Although shops boarded both sides of it, all were closed, and no customers were in sight.

"—That's because it's made up of shops that turn away first-time customers," Kanzaki explained, a calm smile adorning her features as she looked at her excited classmates. "The people who come here don't aimlessly walk around, so we won't have to work around them. That's why it was the route I wanted," she told them with a raised finger as she gestured at the isolated place. "It's the perfect place for an assassination, isn't it?" she rhetorically asked, her smile a tiny bit brighter.

"As expected of Kanzaki!" Kayano praised, hands brought together as she looked up at the class' Madona with stars in her eyes. "Your preparations are perfect!" she chirped, enthusiastically clapping as Okuda nodded along.

Kanzaki chuckled, feeling warmth in the pit of her stomach at her peers' acknowledgment.

"Eh~ Then I guess we'll conduct the plan here," Karma grinned, leaning his weight back and crossing his arms behind his head.

And then all went south, a trio of high schoolers, all more cliché than the previous one, emerged from one side of the alley. They were tall, much taller than them, and wore black gakuran in an unorderly way. They seemed to be coming straight out of a bad low budget movie, starring as gang member 1, gang member 2, and gang member 3.

Karma was the only one left unfazed, provoking the trio before lurching at them and blinding one. The one who seemed like the leader as he walked leading the group.

"See, Nagisa?" he'd said, carelessly turning to look at Nagisa behind him. "If there aren't any witnesses, then there's no problem even if I fight," he explained.

And probably because his name was Karma, another thug knocked him out cold with a blunt weapon the second those words left his lips.

Okuda's breathing hitched. She tightly covered her mouth to prevent herself from breathing too loudly as she kept herself hidden. Red rimmed her eyes as she refrained a whimper from slipping past her lips. She was so scared. Why were they attacking them? What did they do to provoke them? They only wanted to scout the place before trying their new assassination plan tomorrow.

Tears wheeled up, her breathing coming out at an irregular pace. She tried to calm herself, counting in her head as she heard dull thumps and noises. The boys were fighting.

Were they going to kidnap them? Like in movies?

Okuda's face paled the more she thought about what was to happen. Perhaps it was the adrenaline or a coping mechanism, her trembling stopped, and her breathing, although unregular, significantly calmed down.

Could she prevent what was happening?

But she was only good at chemistry!

She was so weak!

"This one's property should enhance your strength."

She froze, eyes widening under her glasses as she recalled her history teacher's words. Her hand went to her pocket, pulling a handkerchief and the pill that was carefully nestled into it out.

Would it make her stronger?

Okuda's dark purple eyes glinted as she resolved herself. She had the opportunity to help her classmates out! With one swift move, she swallowed the pill dry. She almost choked on it but managed to take it. There was a weird feeling bubbling in the pit of her stomach. Her footing grew unsteady for a fraction of a second before she found herself somewhat clear-minded, the energy in her limbs coming back at a high speed.

For some reason, she felt unbeatable, as if nothing could stop her.

Okuda emerged from her hiding place, making the thugs notice her at once and turn to look her way. Sugino was on the ground, groaning, and when he saw her, his eyes widened in distress as if pleading for her to get away. Karma was out cold on the ground, and they were just about to knock Nagisa out.

"Well, well, look what we got there? Another rabbit?" one of the men leered. Kanzaki and Kayano's eyes widened from their position near the perpetrator. "Don't be shy. We'll take care of you," the man lecherously grinned.

Okuda felt the fear coming back in tiny droplets.

"D-don't come closer," she stuttered.

"Come on. It'll be fu—"

Before his hand could even touch her, as if on reflex, her limb shoot forward, punching the high-schooler in his solar plexus and knocking him out cold.

There was a moment of silence. Incomprehension and incredulity surged within the group of gangsters at what just happened. The same could be said of the 3-E students that were still conscious. Since when was Okuda so strong?

Unlike them, probably because of the adrenaline that rained on her at once, Okuda charged forward. Confidence ran through her veins. Putting the lesson Karasuma-sensei taught them regarding hand-to-hand combat, Okuda began to take down the thugs.

There was no doubt that the surge of strength played a prominent role in her conquest. She sometimes stumbled, the hit still hurt her very much, but it didn't seem to stop her. The surprise had played in her favor, and with relative ease, Okuda came out on top.

She was slightly breathless, the adrenaline coming down as she observed the scene in front of her. Her eyes met her friends before flicking to the entrance of the alleyway, where she saw their teacher, his pretty green eyes wide open in surprise. Okuda blinked, a shaky grin painting her lips. She swore she saw the blond's eyes gleam with pride and affection, which made her heart swell.

"Ah—ahaha," she breathlessly laughed. With the adrenaline going down, her energy seemed to drop. "I-I did it," she whispered, incredulous. She tottered from where she stood between the bodies, and the moment she felt her legs give out, a large arm was there to catch her fall, preventing her from hitting the ground.

"Good job, Okuda," the blond teacher whispered.

Okuda stared up at the blond teacher, blinking in tiredness. "Sensei," she called, still out of it.

Koro could feel the effect of the pill begin to dissipate. Okuda was not used to flames. Even with her affinity, as she wasn't someone that trained them often, she would be unable to retain what she didn't need anymore. Her body was instinctively pushing the surplus out.

"I ate the pill," she muttered, her head lolling to rest against Koro's torso as he walked to the wall and crouched down to seat her. "I won't be able to exp—" she fell asleep.

Koro blinked. He gave an incredulous chuckle before covering the raven-haired girl with his trench coat. Pulling his phone out, Koro made his way to his two other female students, Kanzaki and Kayano. He untied them with one hand, telling them to tie up the high schoolers as he called the authorities.

The two girls were still in disbelief at what just happened. The fact that Okuda so easily knocked out those brutes twice her size made a weird feeling settle in their stomach.

"Okuda was— really cool," Kayano breathed in a whisper as she tied one of the guys up with the leather belt they used to keep their pants up. Kanzaki gave a silent nod, her eyes seeming lost in a daydream. "I didn't know she had this side of her," Kayano continued, filling the silence with her thoughts. "I wonder why she never said anything. Maybe she was embarrassed?" Kanzaki flinched at that statement.

She also had a side she did not wish her schoolmates to know. But why would Okuda be embarrassed about her strength? There was nothing to be shy about. In fact, Kanzaki found herself admiring it. She admired both Okuda's unexpected traits and how the timid girl had broken out of her shell to help them out.

She wondered if she could also be like that.

Kayano and Kanzaki moved to take care of their classmates once done with tying up the high schoolers. They moved the unconscious Karma and Nagisa to the wall next to the sleeping Okuda. Both boys were moving, showing they would wake up soon. Kanzaki moved to help Sugino up so he could lean against the wall.

"Ah, you guys were so quick!" their teacher's cheery voice rang through the alley. His bright grin painted his face as usual as he grinned at the awake students, his head tilted to the side as he looked at the group of thugs on the ground. He ignored the bodies, shamelessly walking on them and not over them to join his students.

"Aarden-sensei," Kanzaki called as she turned her head to look up at the male. "Will the authorities be there soon?" she asked him, a worried look on her face.

Koro hummed. "They'll be there once we're gone~" he waved. "Did you find anything while you were tying them up?" Koro chirped as he began to inspect the three male students for their injuries. He didn't want to use Sun flame pills for every little thing. Overuse could create a sense of dependency and lead to overdose or other nefarious states.

"Ah, I found my notebook with our itinerary," Kanzaki said, waving the tiny book. Kayano came closer to her to peek over her shoulder as she stepped on her tiptoes. Kanzaki did not obstruct her. She opened her notebook to thumb through it, only to stop at the sight of a picture of her at the arcade. Her clothing was much more different from her usual style, as was the air around her. "Ah."

Kayano looked at her quizzically. "Is this you, Kanzaki? You look so different!" she exclaimed.

Kanzaki gave her a wry smile before explaining her situation. The now half-awake half-lucid boys, listening to her story.

Koro let them talk. After making sure that apart from a bruise or two, there wouldn't be any problem with the students' organism, he concluded that there was no need to use any Sun pills, much to his relief. With one ear, Koro listened as Kanzaki opened her heart to the few classmates in front of her before Kayano and Sugino began to tell her of her greatness and how she didn't have to be ashamed. Karma added a layer by telling one of Nagisa's embarrassing secrets, making the bluehead blush and cover his face as his groupmates laughed at his misfortune.

Koro smiled a genuine smile before silently inhaling.

His lips twisted in a plastic grin as he clapped. "Okay, let's go back to the inn, shall we?" he chirped as he went to lift Okuda in a princess carry, his trench coat still covering her body. "I'm sure all of you must be really tired, so chop, chop, go, go, go!" he sang, leading the way out of the alleyway.

The students followed after him, eyes flicking to Okuda in mild worry before looking back at the deserted shopping street.

"Don't worry, the police will be there in seconds~" Koro chided, his green eyes going down to look at Nagisa's figure as the boy kept on stealing glances at the alley they came from.

As if to confirm his words, police cars drove by them. The students followed them with their eyes, and sure enough, they stopped in front of the alleyway they just exited.

"See? Didn't sensei tell you?"

They felt a bit scared of his accuracy. It was as if the police had been waiting for them to come out before moving.

::

Night fell, the students all went back to the inn and changed into the kimonos lent by the owners. They were going at their recreational activities, playing arcade games in Kanzaki's group as she showed off her abilities and confided more into them.

Kanzaki, Kayano, and Okuda seemed to have grown closer from the incident, and it could be seen that Sugino and the other two boys also got more comfortable around them. They joked around, getting a bit rough sometimes but never crossing boundaries.

Tomorrow would be the third day of the Kyoto class trip, making for group three and four's assassination plan. Koro had no plans to get involved. In fact, he was thinking about planning out the following days by booking a hotel as he projected to stay here a bit longer.

Perhaps until June, who knows?

He finished typing his report on the situation group four encountered today and mailed it to Karasuma before stretching his back and sore muscles.

His phone gave a faint sound, screen liting up with it as a bubble icon appeared on the locked screen, signaling the arrival of a new text message.

He unlocked the device, entering his extended code that consisted of letters, lowercase and uppercase, numbers, and special characters. It was a tedious task each time to unlock it, but it was the best thing to do as it guaranteed more safety. Koro refused to use something like facial scanning to unlock his mobile phone.

The sender's name appeared a small text message underneath.

I want booze for after the mission, brat!

Koro gave a wry smile, sending a thumb up in reply.