School Meeting

When Jack, Mary, and Yune got back to Janken City, the first thing they did was go back home and fall straight to their beds. They all shared the same room. It looked like any average bedroom, but with three beds lined up against the far wall. Mary's was on the far right. Jack's was in the middle. While, Yune's was on the left.

During the night, Yune sprung up and exclaimed, "Shit! There's school tomorrow!" waking up Mary and Jack.

Yune ran over to her bag and tried to quickly finish her homework. Meanwhile, Mary shrugged, went back to bed, and said, "Who the hell cares? I don't even remember how many days we missed."

"Oh, crap. We missed days. This is going to be a nightmare to catch up," Yune complained.

Jack looked outside through the window. The moonlight brightened the whole neighborhood. However, Jack had no time to take in the beauty of it. Instead, she worried about where Annie was. She also knew that she couldn't stay at Janken City. She had to keep moving, but for the time being, she was still too tired to really think about it, and so she dozed back off.

Yune tried to work tirelessly on her homework, but after a minute, she fell right back to sleep on top of her work.

They all snored away their long journey. But as school approached, they had an unexpected meeting.

When they all awoke, Yune prepared some boiled eggs for breakfast for the three of them. She was disappointed that she couldn't finish her homework, but tried not to think about it.

Mary and Jack couldn't care at all, but did appreciate their breakfast.

They all walked together to school and when they got to the entrance, they were approached by three familiar girls. Nina, Anne, and Kira.

Mary whispered to Jack and Yune, "They probably don't know who we are. Let's casually keep walking."

"Stop. We need to talk to you," Nina ordered directly to the other three.

"Damn it. They know who we are!" Mary exclaimed.

Yune facepalmed herself. "If they didn't, they're certainly aware now," she said.

"We know you three are those new Light Guardians that's been giving us trouble," Nina said, "Even if you didn't announce yourselves, it was obvious. I knew you three would take time to get back from wherever the shopkeep dropped you off. And you three were the only girls who became absent. Also, you all stick out very much."

Jack looked back at Anne, and then at Nina and Kira.

"So, you want to fight us, now? We can finish what we started behind the school or somewhere," Jack threatened.

"No. No," Anne replied, "We're not here to fight."

"That's right. We want to make peace. There is plenty of room for other Light Guardians in this city," Nina continued but noticed other people walking by them, "Let's talk somewhere more privately. I don't want to give more work to the shopkeep. "

Even if those people weren't listening, she just didn't feel like getting in their way.

They met on top of the school rooftop and met up with some of the school punks.

One of them looked at those six girls angrily and said, "Hey, what are you doing here? This is our spot? Go find anoth-"

He was cut short by Jack and Anne grabbing and throwing them back inside the school.

"Alright. Now, that we have a little privacy, we can discuss things," Nina said.

"Discuss what?" Yune asked, "As you said, there's plenty of room for other Light Guardians, so I guess that's that."

"We don't appreciate you stealing our black coins," Kira, who previously stayed quiet, chimed in.

"I didn't see your name on it," Mary replied.

Jack and Anne looked at each other.

"It's been a while, Jack," Anne said.

"A while? I wouldn't know. To me, it seemed like yesterday that we fought."

Jack could tell that Anne grew, but couldn't be sure how much time really had passed.

"Have you been taking care of yourself?" Anne asked with a caring tone.

Jack nodded her head even though Anne could clearly see red marks on her body. "As much I can, I guess. I may have gotten out of control. I do apologize for it, but that doesn't mean that we're friends."

Anne became worried for her, but could see that Jack didn't want to talk. It was as if Jack was trying to control herself.

Meanwhile, Yune and Nina discussed about how they would coexist.

Nina started. "We can each split up the cities into different hunting grounds. You get a piece and we get a piece. Or we can just simply decide by which team attacks first."

Yune thought to herself. "I prefer whoever gets the last hit in. That's the one who really deserves it."

Nina shook her head. "That's not going to work. Your team will just hide and wait, while another Light Guardian would have to tire herself out."

Yune and Nina looked at each other with tensions. Either one of them looked like they were about strike at each other. Yune crossed her arms and stared her down.

"You really don't remember me, do you?" Nina asked.

Yune's eyes widened. Did she ever meet this girl before, she wondered. But her memories wouldn't come back. "What do you mean?"

"We've had this same conversation before. Although, you had a different group of... friends."

"I think you might have me confused with someone else."

"No. I didn't recognize you at first because your Light Guardian form was slightly different, but I remember you. Your face. That hook-chain weapon. It's not hard to forget, especially since you did the same exact stunt."

Yune had no recollection and didn't bother trying to remember. And Nina even believed that she didn't recognize her. For a second, Nina even second-guessed herself, but she couldn't believe that it was a coincidence. Two girls with the same face and similar Light Guardian form.

Meanwhile, Mary and Kira only stared at one another getting ready to fight at a moment's notice. They had no words to exchange between them.

As tensions grew, Nina made one more attempt to negotiate.

"Fine. How about we just simply leave each other alone? If you see us fighting a Night Demon, then you don't steal the kill or bother helping. Same goes for us."

Nina expected this to fail, but she at least wanted to try.

Yune pondered for a moment. She knew that Nina, Anne, and Kira worked very well as a team. And she also knew that their own teamwork just started to build. It would be wise to take this, she thought.

Yune nodded her head in agreement to Nina's surprise.

"Really? I wasn't expecting that. Last time I tried to make this offer, you flat-out rejected it," Nina exclaimed, "Well, at least that's settled then. Our team won't bother you, as long as yours doesn't bother us."

Right after she spoke, the school bell began to ring. The bright sunny day and the pleasant breeze made all six of them want to stay up there longer.

"What a beautiful day," Nina said right before she and her two friends left.

Anne waved a goodbye to Jack, but to her disappointment, Jack didn't wave back.

When those three girls left, Mary, Jack, and Yune stayed for a little while longer.

"It is a nice day," Yune said, "Too bad we have to get to class."

"You really act like some scholars I knew. Why don't you just enjoy the breeze a little longer? Not like we'll miss anything important," Mary suggested.

"Yeah. Maybe, I will."

"Hmm. It sounds nice. I sure wish I could feel it," Jack said.

Yune looked at Jack worryingly and noticed there were a bunch of cuts on her body.

"Oh my god. We should get these looked at by the nurse," Yune said in a panic.

"What? No, I'm fine," Jack complained.

Mary sighed. "Yune, you can take her to the nurse. I'm going to enjoy a couple minutes of peace up here."

Yune began to drag her, even though she resisted. Eventually, Jack just gave up and went down to the nurse while Yune kept dragging her.

And so, Jack came out of the nurse's room with a bunch of band-aids plastered all around her. When Mary came down to see how Jack and Yune were doing, she began to laugh at how ridiculous Jack looked. Everywhere, except her face, was covered.

"Now, this is funny. I wish I'd never forget the moment I saw a Goliath patched up," Mary gleefully said.

Yune took out her phone from her bag and took a selfie with the three of them. The sound of the snapshot startled Mary.

"What's that?" she asked.

"I just took a picture of us," Yune said as she showed the other two the photo, "You did say you wished you'd never forget. I'll send this to you, so you don't."

"You can't be serious," Jack complained, "This picture looks so embarrassing."

"I really do love the magic this world has," Mary exclaimed happily.

The photograph had Yune giving a soft smile in front. While, Mary was laughing hysterically at Jack - who looked like she just wanted to leave. Jack, covered in band-aids, couldn't physically feel anything, she did feel a sense of embarrassment.

"Hey, you three? Shouldn't you all go to your class," the nurse said.

"Yeah. We'll head out, now."

For a moment, all three of them were happy and didn't feel a care in the world. Later, Yune would print that photo. She would hang it up and have it as her phone's wallpaper.

And for a moment, Jack completely forgot about Annie. She felt like she finally had some friends. Friends that she felt wouldn't betray her.

As for Mary, she didn't feel one way or another about Jack or Yune. She was just happy living in the moment.

They all laughed together, disturbing some of the classes, as each one walked to their respective classes. They didn't care if they bothered anybody. They were too joyful being with each other to care.