Aki Komatsu walked the second-floor corridor with worry etched on her face, an hour already passed and her friends haven't return to class yet. First was Megumi whom Rikki said went in the washroom then next was Ai, the pretty slender girl was busy chatting on her phone when she suddenly stood up and got out without a word.

She shook her fingers and flexed it whilst looking around the corners and the vacant spaces, "Where could have they gone to?" Her fingers ached writing notes for her friends but any pain is worth it for them.

The athletic brown-haired girl was not in the washroom when she checked there. And Ai...well...

"You bastard! How dare you! AAARRGGGHHH!"

Beside the staircase was one of the two subjects she was looking for—tear stained and pain filled a pretty angry face while beating her fists on the chest of the tall familiar guy that Aki would definitely not forget in her memory.

Ai may have a budding crush on their adviser but it's an entirely different thing when it comes to that guy.

"Stop it, Daisuke-san! You are causing a scene" The tall lanky male tried pushing Ai away from him. "Do you want the teachers to come here? You are making a fool of yourself!"

"So, it's Daisuke now huh?!" The sudden formality of how she got addressed caused more veins to pop in her head and increased her anger towards the guy she loved to the core. "That bitch just jumped on you one time and you already forgot about me!" Her fist raised to his face but he caught and held it tight.

Recovering from being stunned, Aki ran to them and pushed John off her friend.

"Get your hands off her, Tremor-san!" She stood in front of Ai, her slightly taller stature almost covered the other female from John's view.

John's face scrunched up, "Don't look at me like that, she—" An accusing finger pointed behind Aki, "started it not me! Maybe try securing a leash around her neck all the time?"

Ai moved forward to lunge like a wild feline at her now-ex boyfriend, teeth gritted and jaw clenching along with her rising temper. "I am not a dog! You bastard, I am going to kill you and that bitch!" Successfully brushing past Aki, she pushed John to the ground with all her might and began hitting his face, manicured nails dug on his skin without any hesitation.

Aki stayed rooted on the ground for the second time, her dark green eyes watching how Ai beat John on the floor. Suddenly, she caught a figure on her peripheral vision and there she saw another student—this one is taller with an air of prim and properness in him.

Crap! Who is he?!

The guy crossed his arms over his chest, raising a brow at the scenario happening before him. "You two, that's enough" He wasn't entirely yelling but his voice was octaves deeper than normal. It was smooth, thick and rich like wine.

What the hell?! Aki internally slapped her forehead and shook her head at the exaggerated way she interpreted his tone.

Ai stopped and quickly scrambled away from John Tremor.

"Why are you here?" His dark blue eyes raked over them, "There are classes going on, do you want to get mark on your record?"

"No! We're not skipping" The green-eyed girl quickly answered, "He is cheating on her—"

"I do not care about your trivial episodes," He waved his hand in dismissal, "If you have any personal issues, you can do it after class outside and I won't even bother stopping you" He turned to the beaten male on the floor, "Go back to your class now, Tremor-san, I will have a word with you so come to the Student Council Office later or else..."

John got up, ignoring the painful throbbing in his person due to Ai's hits and claws, he left them without a mere glance.

Ai watched the tall guy go with tears brimming on her eyes again.

"Daisuke-san, please go back to your class" He ordered.

Aki looks at her friend, pain still etched on her features. "Go on, Ai, we'll talk about this later, ne?" She pulled the slender girl in a hug.

A heavy sigh escaped the guy's lips, "And you, come with me" He pointed at her.

With reluctance, Aki walked behind him, still unsure who he was but based on how he spoke to John earlier, he's definitely in the ranks of SC and probably an ace student.

"Are we going to get detention or something, sir?" She asked hesitantly.

He glanced at her, "Hamael Overden," He introduced, "And no, I am not that petty to do such thing but I will need to talk to those two about what happened. By the way, do you know Matsumoto Megumi?"

Aki's eyes widened, "Yes, she's our friend and classmate, I was looking for her that's why I went out of the classroom"

"She is in the infirmary"

Worry fully took over the braided girl, "What?! Did something happen? Of course, something happened, I mean that's why she's in the infirmary but why?! Is she hurt?!"

"Huuush!" Hamael placed a finger on his lips, his eyebrows furrowed, "Kami, you talk too much and you are not making any sense. She wasn't bloodied or anything but a student saw her collapsed in the washroom"

~XXX~

There's no God here, human, there's only us...

Megumi closed her eyes, heartbeat going at a rapid pace and cold encased her completely. The demonic-like voice of the humanoid cockroach and its words repeat itself continuously in her head, she tried pushing it off but it was no use and her inner voice asking for help continue to lose.

Am I going to die now? But I'm too young to die! This is not how I perceive my death will look like.

But instead of torn flesh, the brown-haired girl felt warmth followed by screams of both annoyance and defeat. She heard them speaking in a foreign language amidst the sound of clashing blades.

What's going on? Did Kami somehow hear her?

The sticky membrane thingy that held her captive was taken and she slid off from the wall down to something soft and hard. Arms wrapped around her torso.

Megumi tried opening her eyes but a hand quickly covered it then she blacked out.

...

"Megu-chan!"

When the girl being called woke up, she was greeted by the white ceiling and surrounding within the infirmary. She got up in a sitting position, her body felt heavy while her head was light, floating.

"Aki?" She furrowed her brows, holding her temple.

Aki, who was standing beside the bed, enveloped her in a loose hug. "I was told you collapsed in the washroom earlier, how are you feeling?"

She fainted? Huh. Why is her mind sort of hazy?

Pulling away from the hug, Megumi saw another person standing inside with them—he was smiling cheerily at her, long navy-blue hair and indigo eyes, it's Subaru Yoshioka.

One of Toshiro's weird friends.

"Hello!" He waved a hand casually at her, still smiling. "I was the one who found you,"

Megumi looks him up and down warily. "You went inside the girl's washroom?"

Subaru shook his head quickly, "No I did not! A classmate asked me to bring you here when she saw you" Chuckles, "Sorry for the misunderstanding but I will take my leave now, please take care"

After the tall bluette left, Megumi turned back to Aki and spoke, "First is Toshiro now his friend, I can't believe I had an indirect interaction with these weirdos this day,"

"Yeah, maybe you will encounter the other one later," Aki laughed a little, "Anyway, do you remember anything before you collapsed?"

"Not much, maybe it's because of my period though" Megumi shrugged, leaning back on the headboard and pillow, "I did feel kind of unwell earlier," But internally she begged to differ, although she could not recall everything the memory of someone putting a hand over her eyes did not leave her mind.

~XXX~

Subaru Yoshioka packed his bag and left the classroom quickly after the bell signaled the end of day, not bothering to look at anyone in the busy corridor he exited the building with haste. The grounds in the back of the buildings was a wide-open space, it was intended for the school's sport activities and festivals. The covered areas meant for swimming and basketball were also located there.

The swimming area was quiet when he went inside, no sign of anyone except for the two familiar figures standing before something that he couldn't see yet.

"Those disgusting assholes" The dark blonde with highlights scoffed and exhaled loudly.

Subaru frowned, "What are you talking about, Kentaro?" He moved closer now and saw two skin of girls lying in an almost drying blood on the cold floor. There were left over flesh here and there but it was obvious that the entire muscles, heart and internal organs were taken.

Toshiro crouched down, holding the skin between his fingers. "How is she, Subaru?" His dark brown eyes slid down as he saw black roaches crawled out beneath the skin.

"She is okay, her friend came to check on her and she did not seem to remember anything" The long-haired male replied, his indigo eyes also directed at the putrid scene before them. "I take that we are dealing with August again?" Stress laced in his tone. "I thought he was dead,"

Toshiro straightened up, "No, it's not him" He stepped on the black roach that came near his shoe.

"He is the only one who can manipulate all these creatures," Kentaro pointed at the black, fat roaches. "Is there anyone else who can..." He trailed off, "Oh crap, his brother,"

"We have little to none information about the younger prince as we haven't encountered him yet but at this era, I am sure he is already ripe and old enough to plot revenge against our faction" Toshiro explained, "If he does plan to bring his soldiers here and kill at the same time in different locations, we might need to ask for reinforcement. We won't be able to take them all down"

"Unless we are within In-Between" Subaru took a medium-sized box from his bag and opened it, without a hint of disgust he grabbed the skins off the ground and placed it within the intricate-looking white box. "We have higher chances of killing them there plus no civilians will be involved" After locking the box, both of his hands glowed a pale blue light and spread on the dried blood and flesh. When it disappeared, the ground was clean.

"Oi, what are you three doing here?!"

Subaru almost slipped the box in the pool in surprise, luckily, he caught it before it went under and slid it back in his bag.

"Don't you know how to knock?!" Kentaro was close to jumping, his dark eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Jeez, Masiglat-san, are you trying to give us a heart attack?!"

The tall dark-haired man with dark brown chocolate complexion merely raised a brow, "Why, Fumi-san? Are you doing something that I am not supposed to see? And you do know that our club starts practice at this time"

Toshiro put a hand on his friend's shoulder before he could retort. Calmly he turned around and faced their classmate, "Sorry about that, we were just talking about something important, we're leaving now"

"Why do you need to go here for that? Kami, you trio are so weird, I can't comprehend you at all" Paul shook his head, he stepped inside fully and waited for them to leave.

~XXX~

"Thanks for walking me home, Rikki"

"What are you talking about? We live in the same street, duh"

Laughs, "But still! Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow, ne?"

"Ja'na"

After leaving the infirmary that afternoon, Megumi went to class normally, no ripples of sort to disturb her typical routine. The episode in the washroom was forgotten whilst she listened to Ai's story of finding out how John cheated on her, like for a long time already. And what's worse is the damn foreign exchange guy was doing it with his best friend, Odessa. Of course, Ai wanted to murder them both.

"She should just focus on Igaya-sensei and forget about that guy," Megumi couldn't help but murmur, recalling the gloomy mood Ai drowned herself in the rest of the day.

The Matsumoto Residence is a simple but pretty-looking area in the street, behind the gate is a small yard full of shrubs and wild flowers, and in between was a stone-made bordered path leading to the front door.

Megumi fished out her keys and put it in the knob, twisting it to unlock and pushed it open.

"Tadaima"

The light was on in the living room where a girl sat on the brown leatherette couch, hunched over a laptop on top of the glass coffee table. She was beautiful like Megumi but in a mature way with eyes the same shade as hers and short thick black hair.

"Okaeri, imouto-chan"

Megumi quickly took her shoes off and put it on the rack beside the door frame. "Tamaki-neechan, what are you working on?"

"Just doing my essay for public speaking presentation tomorrow, dinner is ready if you are already hungry"

"Nope, I am doing my homework first and I don't want to eat alone"

Smiles, "Alright, I will finish this quickly then"

For many years, it was usually Megumi and her older sister Tamaki left in their humble home; their parents are both in Singapore and working in a renowned RPO company. The pay is really healthy, it was more than enough for them and to pay the bills but the only con is they only get to go home during holidays in Japan if approved or if it's a Singapore holiday. Nevertheless, their parents make sure to keep in touch through video calls and messenger all the time.

After putting on a denim short and plain white top, Megumi brought her notebook and book out of the bag and placed it on the study table beside her bed.

"Hmmm..." She walked towards the window and untie the knot of the curtain, "Eh?!" Her eyes widened seeing a familiar person standing outside the gate.

It was Toshiro for the second time.

The funny thing is her heart skipped a beat.

"No way in freaking Hell!" She pulled the curtain together, heaving loudly, "I am not interested in him!" A blush dusted across her face, "Calm down, Megu, you are just feeling this way because he is handsome but remember he is strange and he's probably gay too so hold your horses!"

And what is he doing there? Maybe he lives nearby?

Moving away from the window she went downstairs to get some snacks to distract herself from the numerous What Ifs her brain is creating.

~XXX~