"You look like you wanna beat someone, friend" A snarky and unfiltered remark from Leo Kurosagi, popping out of nowhere and intentionally destroying his classmate's solitude.

Vagastrom had this spacious artsy-looking garage space attached to their dorm building, this was where Sho Haizono was at that night and he just finished feeding his beloved motorbike—a special artifact—some food to keep her lively. Then afterwards, he made sure to dust her clean. Sho was deep in his thoughts, still not over the events recently when Frostheim House made a surprise barge-in and turned a tiny spark into a tense fire. Although civil in talking to each other, there was no hiding something restrained between their captain Alan and Frostheim's icy king.

But Sho's concern was mostly on the icy King and the way he was so damn close with Mary.

Tsk, why must he so affected? Love at first sight wasn't a real deal, for certain whatever he felt right now was only short-lived and impulsive.

Leo didn't stop pushing his fellow freshman on the side, ribbing on him. "Hey, spill it out, Sho"

"I don't have anything to spill" The grumbled reply sounded irked, meaning Sho didn't want to explore this ridiculous subject further tonight but knowing Leo...

"Yes you have, lover boy, you think no one noticed? I bet the others too!" Leo continued wearing the devilish grin. Finally moving away to sat down the couch and checked his phone for any notifications.

Leo had been a company to Sho before they stepped inside this strange school, side-by-side in taking care of jobs not exactly spelled legal and other things that would have gotten them behind the bars but despite the former's loathsome nature, they were a good tandem so Sho mostly endured whatever rubbish Leo said.

A deadpan expression sculpted on Sho's face, "I really don't know what you mean, can you just go elsewhere and let me go to my room in peace?"

But the golden-eyed devilish freshman was not going to rest his case, nuh-uh. "Why are you so in denial? It's not like I'm going to tell Honor Roll" He showed him a stolen photo of the recent events underground—Jin holding Mary's hand while having a confrontation with Alan. "I don't know what you see in her, friend but it might be proven useful to us in the long run"

Oh god, Leo wasn't bluffing. Shit. "You asshole..." Sho palmed his face, there was no point in denying. "Look it's nothing serious, probably just part of being a teenager y'know? Hormones and whatever"

Leo found that comically absurd, he cracked a taunting grin. "You're tripping, hah!"

--

Mary did what she could to stay out of any Vagastrom students, she already got used to the silence disdain and indifference from Frostheim House's members but Vagastrom was in a different level of hostility, she noticed that they didn't hold back expressing frustration and their sharp tongues. Also, ever since the display of unexpected retaliation from Kaito—when he beat the crap out of his housemate—got a few students to just stop picking on them, that was a good thing.

"Sorry I can't be around you 24/7, Mary..." The boy with blonde cap-like hair sighed sadly, dejected as he leaned against the doorframe of the classroom. "I cannot miss my remedial classes otherwise I might not see you anymore if I get expelled" He heard about the commotion in Vagastrom from Lucas, it only pushed his jealousy level up to the roof and created nonsensical What If scenarios afterwards.

It was Grim who voiced out his reaction, "You are not required to be around her 24/7, that is creepy." He didn't need to do a complicated Math formula to know that Kaito had a budding crush on the redhead.

'Meanwhile she never moved past being clueless and dense like a palace wall, whatever will I do with you, Mary?' Was it a good thing his ward was naive or not?

"It's fine Kaito, Grim and I will be okay. Lucas also can't be pulled away right now because Tohma suddenly thought it's a good idea to have him work on mini tasks around Frostheim" And Mary recalled that Lucas found the ad hoc tasks thrilling, his eagerness never lose its spark.

Kaito reached out to take Mary's hand, squeezing it gently. "Please be careful in your next mission, don't do anything too drastic"

The gesture sent a faint unnoticeable pink on her cheeks, she gazed down and was caught by the sight of Kaito's pendant—hm? What was that insignia? It looked familiar. She never asked him about his necklace, didn't really dwell in it or regarded it as something relevant.

"You're the one to talk, you almost shot me by the rear when you fire your arrows" Grim brashly interrupted.

The Ramshackle Duo went to the Faculty Office after bidding a goodbye to Kaito—they already saw Lucas that morning. Inside the office was Professor Hyde.

"My new favorite pair! And Grim--" Professor Hyde glanced down at the creature, although his eyes couldn't be seen with the whole black blindfold cloth around it. "You're not sickly anymore, that's good!"

Grim subtly scratched behind his head, feeling that embossed branding there he didn't know where it came from. "Whatever, what are you going to make us do this time?"

The cheerful blindfolded professor with longish hair took a file from the shelf and handed it over. "I have a case that needs to be looked into, you will work with Alan Mido for this one, I want them to get more field work to get extra credit for their House. This is going to be a fantastic way to start"

Hang on, Alan Mido... "The Vagastrom Captain?" Mary's jaw dropped in surprise, came an involuntary cold nervousness seeping in. So much for staying away...

--

If yesterday was a stellar, entertaining mood for Leo, today was the opposite. He had been in a foul mood for the rest of morning. The ash-gray haired online influencer was in the bathtub of his room for more than few minutes now, with furrowed brows and trying hard to get past through Darkwick Academy website's security. He wanted to get back at them because they forbade him to leave campus grounds for leisure, unless a case was ongoing.

"Hn, how irritating..." It only dampened his mood that no matter what he did, the security of the school's website was too strong.

Why would they not let him out? Did they want him to die of boredom stuck in the campus? Even the ghouls here were so lame and not fun to be around, well for him, they were.

After the literally long relaxing bath in the tub, Leo changed into his House uniform and was about to head out when he saw someone talking to Alan in the garage. Huh? Honor Roll returned? Along with that weird pet creature.

Leo approached closer to hear what they were discussing about.

"A mission from Professor Hyde? May I see the files?" Alan wiped his hands clean from the grease after being under the car for lengthy hours fixing it.

Mary gave him the file without objection, "Here and...Professor Hyde made it clear Grim and I need to be involved as Inspectors in this mission" She hated the restricted feeling around here, Alan was just as intimidating as Jin.

"Hey Captain," Leo barged in them without consideration, he wasn't interested about their topic—all these missions talk were not going to benefit him. If the Chancellor wouldn't permit him to leave for leisure, he would make Alan approve it. "I need to talk to you, it's more important"

The apathetic expression wasn't lost on Alan's face as he turned to Leo, "This is more important"

"Tsk," Leo scoffed, irritated at the obvious way Mary was trying not to fold under Alan. She was so dang spineless, how did Sho become infatuated with her at first sight? "Nah I deem myself more important, I want an indefinite approval from you"

"Huh? An indefinite approval?"

"Yes, means it won't expire"

"For what?"

"To go out of the campus anytime I want"

Alan glanced back at the files, opening it to scan the content. "No, you cannot leave out of leisure. Unless it's granted by the faculty, the Chancellor or if you're going on a mission" He gestured to the folder as he noticed Leo was displeased with his reply, "You want something? Earn it. We have an important case to work on, get Bandana"

This whole exchange Grim witnessed was pushing him to laugh loud, he wanted to but needed to hold back and save it later once they were back in their temporary room. To see Leo's face etched sourly because he didn't get what he wanted, hah.

"You're kidding me, right?" Leo was inches closer to exploding, who the hell did he think he was?! He had million followers online, Alan didn't. And despite the not-so-good hearsay surrounding the towering green-haired Captain, Leo wasn't a spineless scaredycat like that girl over there. "You can't force me to join a mission if I don't want to"

Alan was unfazed, "Then no permission for you to leave campus grounds."