Friends?

-Izume’s perspective-

The bell rings signaling lunch and my doom, I get up and walk out of class before Ken can even get up. I start heading to his practice room and on my way I remind myself of his power just in case we fight. ‘From what I know Ken Bakuhatsu has the ability to create and control large amounts of fire.’ I find practice room four and start stretching, I don't like waiting so to pass the time I'll listen to music and review my favorite powers to use. I slide into the splits and lean forward so my elbows are on the ground. Instead of using numbers to keep track of how long the stretch lasts I simply think of good powers to use against Ken. After that I move on to a different floor stretch and think of powers that would work well with his. Not long into the stretch my thoughts about how maybe a power revolving around air and wind would pair well with someone like Ken were interrupted by the door opening. The music in my headphones is too loud to hear anything but I can see Ken walking up to me from the corner of my eye. He walks past and puts his bright red backpack on the bench, then starts doing stretches of his own. We both finish and I pull down my headphones. “So why am I here?” I break the seeping tension with my question and he shrugs. “After yesterday I thought it would be a good idea to spar a bit. That way it’s not so awkward, plus...you skipped the outdoor fitness test we did instead of orientation so I never got to see what you can do.” He leans back a bit and points a finger at me.

“Get ready because I'm going to kick your ass on the count of three.” I do as suggested and get ready to use evasive maneuvers if he tries to burn me. “Three” he launches himself at me and I almost couldn't dodge his fist. “WHAT THE HELL, YOU SKIPPED ONE AND TWO. DO YOU NOT KNOW HOW TO COUNT!” he doesn’t respond and just keeps throwing attack after attack my way. Eventually I gain my composure back and bait him into a hard right hook, as he does exactly as I want I grab his arm and easily flip him over my shoulder using the momentum from his hook to send him tumbling on the floor.

By the end of lunch no one was victorious, I couldn’t do much damage to him but he didn’t land a single attack on me. Both of us are heaving for air as we try to catch our breath before having to go back to class. “I...win.” I look at Ken as he puffs out his words. I try to speak but don't do any better. “As...if you burnt...pomeranian. I’m the one...without a scratch.” He takes a deep breath and gets up on his feet. “Get up, were going for round two .” I huff out a breathy laugh. “Says the boy who lost.” he turns his face away while I sit up on my elbows. “Whatever, we’re still going for round two and I'm going to beat you.” I stand up and grab my stuff making him look at me confused. “Maybe next time, but right now there's only five minutes untill lunch is over.” Looking at the clock he also grabs his stuff and we walk back to class in a comfortable silence.

The next few days go by and for some reason I find myself sitting with Ken and his friends during lunch. Ken and I have gotten closer over the past few days, we do homework together after school in the library where he helps me with math and I help him with science, and during hero lessons we often partner up and try to come up with ultimate moves. When you understand how to decode all the shitty stuff he says he's actually quite charming. The people that call themselves his friends are all easygoing and definitely extroverted, it almost seems as though they adopted him into their little circle. Ken himself is very rough around the edges and only really acknowledges people as strong or stronger than him, when someone weaker hangs around him they practically get bullied away with name calling and threats. Nanashima isn’t sitting too far away from the group but he's still close enough that I can see the colour partition in his hair, a few of the black strands mixing with the bright green. “Izume!” I jump slightly from being ripped from my thoughts. “What’s up?” Ken scoffs towards the group of people sitting around him as he stands up. “I’m done sitting with these weaklings, let’s spar.” He walks out using the closest door and I get up and go the opposite direction. I really don’t feel like fighting today.