The men's return to Anzen-sei after their meeting was a solemn one. Joshua had called Katana on their return home to explain the situation, and the aura of the whole building felt like a cloud of sadness looming over them all. The only ones with relative measures of happiness were George and Adam.

When Adam saw his friend, he got the attention of Joshua and Chris.

"Josh-kun," he called as he hit Chris on the butt, then pointed in George's direction. "Meet my best mate George."

George radiated an awkward aura as the three men approached. He grinned without baring his teeth, raising his arm as if to wave, but instead of assuming the natural movements of a 'wave', holding his hand still in the air.

Tyler groaned audibly. "Goddamnit; he's another tall one. Are you a fucking mannequin? What are you doing?" Joshua's eyes widened at Tyler's harsh words.

Adam's head snapped up. "Josh-kun, take that thing out of your head."

Joshua raised his hands in apology. "Senpai, please. M-my head hurts and I just want to keep it in-"

"Take it out."

Josh frowned helplessly. "Please, he won't say anything like that anymore-"

Adam took a step closer to Joshua. "Josh-kun! Wakari masu ka? (Josh! Do you understand?)" It seemed as though the entire world stopped as Adam screamed. Joshua felt the entire building's eyes go to him. His lower lip trembled as he attempted to will himself not to cry.

"Hai (Yes)," he answered, ducking his head as he pulled the receptor out quickly, unable to stifle his pained cry. A bubble of blood rushed out, Joshua pulling the beanie back over his head to hide it. Blinking away tears, he looked up at George, who's face bled through with sympathy. "I'm sorry for what he said."

"It's alright. He - he's not... wrong, you know. I - uh, I have... I have..." George looked over to Adam sadly. "What's it called?"

"George has got pretty crippling social anxiety. As a child, he went through a lot of trauma with all the persecution that was happening to us metahumans. He got taken away for a long time, we thought he was dead. But... he's here." Adam clapped his friend on the back. "And I'm so happy about it."

"It's nice to meet you, George. I hope we can get to know each other." Chris nodded at the man, then turned on his heel to leave.

"It's nice to meet you, ..." George said to Josh.

"Joshua," he introduced himself, "or just Josh. And it's nice to meet you too, man. Senpai," he turned to Adam, "if it's okay, I'm going to talk to Katana-sensei now."

"That's fine. I'm sorry for raising my voice. I hope your head is okay."

Joshua's head was certainly not okay; it throbbed and bled and hurt so badly. Above all that, Joshua was upset that Adam had yelled at him. Instead of accepting the apology, Joshua nodded softly and made his way to his sensei's room. On his way there he (quite literally) ran into Dallon, who had a rather fidgety demeanor.

"Hey, senpai-" Dallon started.

"I've told you; you shouldn't call me that," Josh reminded him.

"Your abilities are the most impressive ones I've ever seen. So... I'm sorry if it offends you, but I feel that you've earned the title, at least in my book." Dallon's kind words merited a scoff from Tyler, but because the receptor was out, the taller boy could not hear it. Josh only blushed at his words. He really needed the validation right now.

"Thank you, Dallon-kun. What is it that you need?"

"I - well... it's about Mel-san."

Josh's brow quirked at the mention of his student. "What about her?"

"Well, you know, I've noticed that you two are... you know... close, and I just was wondering if, you know..."

"No, otoko (dude), I don't know," Joshua answered, losing his patience slightly at the nature of the question. If this was going where he thought it was going, it would be the same conversation as he'd had with Tyler countless times. The only difference was Tyler's blunt fearlessness. Dallon was terrified to let the words he was thinking of come out of his mouth. No wonder Tyler disliked him so much.

"Alright. Okay. I'm just... I'm just gonna say it. Alright? Are... Do...." Dallon sighed, trying again. Finally, his words came out, albeit jumbled. "Areyoutwofucking?"

"What kind of question is that, gesu yarō (asshole)?" Josh lashed out as Tyler howled in laughter.

"What... does that mean?"

"Why does it matter to you what me and my student are doing? Better question: do you think I'm some kind of kuso (damn) pedophile?"

Dallon lifted his hands to show his innocence. "Dude, I'm sorry, I was just curious!"

"Kutabare (Fuck you)," Joshua huffed, pushing past a confused Dallon and resuming on his way to find his sensei. He really was unaware as to why he was so upset. Perhaps it was simply because he hated the accusation. Maybe it was because he felt like he should be sleeping with someone, but if Josh was being completely honest, his right hand was good enough for him. He could take care of himself without all the drama of having a girlfriend... or boyfriend.

Boyfriend. Josh didn't know why that thought popped into his head, but it did.

He shoved all his thoughts back as he approached his sensei's door. He didn't bother knocking as he entered since the door was already ajar.

"Josh-kun," Sensei whispered as he came inside. Joshua could tell simply from the sound of her voice how disturbed she was.

"I'm sorry, sensei," Joshua said immediately. "Gomen'nasai (I'm sorry)."

"Do not be sorry, love. You are going to bring honor onto Anzen-sei. You will be one of the leaders in the squad we are sending down. Yourself, Adam-san, Chris-san, Lana-san, Max-san, Melanie-chan, and Dallon-san."

"Can we also take Janelle-senpai? And George-san?"

Katana twisted her lips in thought. "Janelle-san can go. George-san is too emotionally weak. He will only weigh you down."

Joshua nodded his assent. He didn't like that Adam and Dallon were in his squad, but he had to admit that their powers would be helpful. "When do we leave?"

"In three days time. You will take that time to train with Lana-chan and Chris-san. Janelle-chan and Adam-san will train Max-san. And I will take care of Mel-chan and Dallon-san."

The thought of Melanie and Dallon spending training time together made Joshua's stomach churn. He swallowed his negative thoughts and nodded. The three days would go by quickly for him since he was spending it with two of his favorite people while doing what he loved: training. He also knew it would involve him having to have his receptor in often and the murder of animals. He never liked doing that, but it was the only way he could train. Joshua bit his lip and left Katana's room in favor of Chris'. Korean rap blared from his speakers as he laid on the bed with his eyes closed, Lana on the edge of it painting her toes a sexy shade of red.

"You guys know you're going on the mission?" Joshua asked over the music.

"Yep," they answered unanimously, in the same bored tone.

"You guy know you have to train me for the next few days?"

"Yep."

"What the hell are you listening to?"

"EXO," Lana replied. "K-pop group. Most K-pop is complete trash, but these guys do a little bit of everything. Listen to him," she paused to let Josh hear the male voice rapping along to a trap beat. "Fucking amazing. The song's called Twenty Four. I can't get over it. Rapping with their little accents. And this fucking beat? Adorable." She called it adorable, Josh called it uncomfortable.

Chris seemed to notice his skepticism. "Everyone has their interests, dude. I'm sorta punk-rock, she grew up on hip hop."

"We're still cute together," Lana commented, blowing onto her toes to dry the polish.

"I fit you better than a sweater."

"That was corny."

"But you loved it," Chris laughed.

"Yeah."

Joshua blinked. "Are you guys gonna be like this the whole time?"

"Probably," Chris answered through a laugh.

Lana rolled her eyes. "Probably not. Turn the music down, babe. Let's get to work."

Short but important chapter. Gotta love that character development. I'm going to put a trigger warning on the next chapter right now as it does involve some slight but still rude speech about sexuality. I'm sorry if that makes you uncomfortable. If you don't want to read the next chapter because of that, message me and I'll send you the backup chapter that I wrote that has all the necessary information without the mean parts. Thank you guys so much for your dedication to this series.