Chapter 17

Inside Sōgetsu High…

Kurumi looked at the three open seats next to her, sighing. "Where did they go? Did they get lost? No, Mykhail and Kumiko know the school well. Did they go to get food? No, they just ate. What could it be then?"

The teacher, Mr. Hoshino, closed the door as the bell rang. "Good afternoon, class. Today, as your Science teacher, I will teach you about robotics."

Some of the class got excited, and one student raised his hand.

"Will we be making fighter bots?" he asked.

Mr. Hoshino laughed and shook his head. "Nope. Just harmless projects. They're only to teach, not to harm."

"Aww…"

Mr. Hoshino looked around. "Huh. Seems we're missing Mykhail and Kumiko today. Kurumi, have you seen them?"

Kurumi looked a bit pale. "Well…urm…kinda…?"

"Well, if they aren't here soon, I'll have to mark them absent," Mr. Hoshino pointed out. "They've only got a few more minutes."

"They'll be here soon! I'm sure! They were walking with this new kid and I'm sure he's probably holding them—-!"

There was a knock on the door, and everyone saw who it was through the window. "Look! There they are!"

Mykhail, Kumiko, and Yasuda walked in one by one as Mr. Hoshino opened the door. "Ahh, you've made it just in time. Take a seat, kids. We're diving into robotics."

He stopped Yasuda as he tried to sit down. "Who are you?"

Before Yasuda could open his mouth, Mykhail stepped in front of him. "He's a new student, he skipped a few grades."

"Hmm, must be pretty intelligent then. What's your name, young man?" Mr. Hoshino asked.

"It's Yasuda!" the boy eagerly answered.

"Nice name. Well, have a seat, Yasuda. Since we're already a good portion through the school year, I won't try to catch you up on what we've learned. How much do you know about robots?"

"A lot!" Yasuda answered.

"Alrighty," Mr. Hoshino stated. "We shall see."

He turned to the table next to his desk, which had a bucket of mechanical components. "I'll be pairing you up in groups of two. I want you and your partner to work together and try to build the most sophisticated robot in the class. I'll be walking around judging once you're done."

He went around the class, pairing nearby kids with each other. Soon enough, only Mykhail, Kumiko, Kurumi, and Yasuda were left.

"Let's see here…" he remarked. "Kurumi, you and Mykhail are pretty smart, how about you two team up?"

"Okay," Kurumi replied.

Kumiko looked between Kurumi and Mykhail, noticing what was going to happen. "…Crap."

"And as for you, Kumiko," Mr. Hoshino continued. "How about you and Yasuda? Great pair, yes?"

Kumiko buried her face in her hands as Yasuda clapped. "Will do!"

"Awesome! Good luck to all of you, students! I hope you do me proud! We've been falling behind in our grades compared to other schools; I'm sure you know that's for obvious reasons."

He passed each group a bucket filled with mechanical parts, before heading back to his desk to check over papers. "You've each got an hour and thirty minutes."

Kurumi looked over the parts. "Alright, where should we start?"

"Well, I want my robot to look cool," Mykhail stated. "How about a giant death-bot?"

"Mr. Hoshino said we can't make anything that causes harm," Kurumi admitted.

Mykhail groaned.

"Fine. Plan B. Let's make it fly."

"That sounds cool!" she agreed. "We'll need a layout, a design, and hover parts, hopefully, they're all in here!"

"Yeah," Mykhail said. "Hopefully."

Meanwhile, Kumiko was picking up various parts out of the bucket. "All these wires and motherboards!" she groaned. "I feel so dumb…"

Yasuda dumped the entire bucket out onto the table, looking over it bit by bit.

"What are you doing?" Kumiko asked.

"I'm going to make the coolest robot ever!" he answered. "I'm going to use the microcontroller, motors, sensors, frame, and connectors to build the most awesome spider-robot you've ever seen!"

"Oh!" Kumiko exclaimed, a bit confused. "Well, good luck!"

As the world seemed to slow down around him, Yasuda analyzed what was on the table and got to work. Kurumi and Mykhail did as well, both starting with the legs and frame and working their way up.

"It's not looking too bad," Kurumi admired. "Maybe we could make it a bit taller?"

"Oh, yes, oh yes," Mykhail agreed.

All the while, Kumiko watched as Yasuda continued putting parts together, beginning to form what appeared to be an advanced-looking machine. It had 3 heads, 6 legs, and a full range of motion.

"Wow…!" Kumiko gasped.

Mykhail and Kurumi finished just as Mr. Hoshino stood up. "Times up! Class will end soon, so let us see how you each did!"

He stalked around the room, giving some kids approving nods, some others a disappointing look, and even a cringeworthy look for a particular group that couldn't even figure out how to put the motherboard into their robot.

"That's the easiest job…" Mr. Hoshino pointed out. "How's it supposed to move?"

"Well," one of the students remarked. "Maybe it could be a statue bot?"

Mr. Hoshino shook his head and moved on to Mykhail and Kurumi.

"Ahh, what is this?" he questioned.

"It's our Super-Bot," Mykhail introduced. "It can walk, it can run, it can FLY."

"Fly?" Mr. Hoshino inquired.

"Yep!" Kurumi stated. "Watch!"

She pressed a button on its back and the robot began to lift into the air, hovering a few feet off the ground.

"The rotors inside do all the work!" Kurumi bragged. "It's super awesome!"

Mr. Hoshino clapped. "Impressive! That might be the best one I've seen so far. A flying bot definitely isn't something you see every day!"

"Of course, of course," Mykhail bragged. "Now give us our A."

He then moved to the final robot: Yasuda and Kumiko's.

"My…goodness!"

His glasses nearly fell off as he tried to comprehend the machine before him. The robot was moving, jumping, and turning on its own. Yasuda snapped his fingers and the spider-bot walked over to him, right into the palm of his hand.

"What IS this?" Mr. Hoshino asked.

"It's a fully functional, automated, omnidirectional, gyroscopic AI robot that can move, turn, and interact with objects at will! It's even responsive to sound and touch!"

Yasuda touched the bot and it backed away. "See?"

"Yeah, what he said!" Kumiko added.

"An automated bot?" Mr. Hoshino wondered. "I didn't even know the parts for that were in this stash!"

Mr. Hoshino checked off his paper. "Easy A+! You two have won this challenge, guaranteed!"

Some of the class groaned, some clapped, and others stared in shock. Mykhail narrowed his eyes.

"Damn."

Soon after, in the hallway…

The four gathered outside in the hallway, waiting by a batch of lockers as Mykhail grabbed some gym clothes out of his.

"Here, you'll need these," Mykhail said, giving them to Yasuda. "If you wanna know why, it's because—"

"We're going to P.E.?" Yasuda finished.

"….Yeah, exactly."

"Yay!" Yasuda cheered.

Yasuda followed the three as they walked into the gymnasium. Once they got in, there was a group of kids waiting for them on the bleachers along with a buff coach in sports gear.

"Mykhail, Kumiko, Kurumi!" the man greeted. "Take a seat!"

He eyed Yasuda as he sat down as well. Before he could even open his mouth, Mykhail spoke up.

"This is Yasuda, by the way. He's a new kid."

"Hmm," the coach remarked. "Doesn't look like much."

Regardless, the coach shrugged and held out a hand. "I'm Coach Hayashi. Nice to meet ya."

"Hello!"

Yasuda sat down, and the coach began roll-call. Once he was done, he brought out some soccer balls, volleyballs, and basketballs for them to play with.

"There will be free play for the first 30 minutes. After that, we'll begin our dodgeball unit."

He prepared to let them play but he suddenly stopped. "One more thing. We're going to have a few new students in this period as well. Sorry if it stole your shine, Yasuda."

"It's okay!" Yasuda assured.

Coach Hayashi heard a loud knock at the door, and once he opened it the door thrust open, with a group of three girls walking inside past him, not a care in the world.

"Well. Rude," Coach Hayashi remarked.

As soon as they got close, Mykhail noticed the three girls, especially one in the middle.

"Kaori?" he thought. "Why does she have this class? And aren't those her friends?"

She seemed to notice him too, glaring directly at him. For a moment, they both stared directly at each other, but then Mykhail shrugged and raised his hand.

"Anyway, can we go play now, Coach?"

Kaori and her friends almost seemed to fume, but Coach Hayashi cleared his throat. "How about we let your new classmates introduce themselves first?"

Mykhail slapped his face.

The blonde-haired one spoke first. "My name is Yumi Okabe. I'm super cool. So don't talk to me."

She nudged the girl with red hair, who reluctantly spoke up. "Tomoe. I hate people."

Both of them looked at Kaori, who sighed. "You all probably should know me. If you don't, too bad."

"Her name's Kaori," Yumi stated.

"Hmph."

"Well aren't they cute," Mykhail thought, shaking his head.

"Nice to have you kids," the coach said. "Anyway, now you kids can play. Go have fun!"

Mykhail got up and grabbed a basketball. "Finally."

The rest of the kids followed, each doing different activities as the coach went into a storage room and got some dodgeballs ready. Kumiko followed Mykhail as he went to shoot hoops.

"Um, Mykhail?" she whispered.

"Yes?" he responded.

"I don't feel comfortable with her here," she said, gesturing toward Kaori, who slowly got up off the bleachers.

"Oh. Just ignore her," he suggested. "She's like a bug, she'll have to go away eventually."

"Okay…" Kumiko said.

Kurumi came over to join the two. "Whatchu two talking about?" she asked.

"You know," Mykhail remarked. "Life."

"Life? That's great," she stated, picking up a ball and making a shot immediately.

Yasuda basically hopped over. "What now? What now?"

"Uh, just grab a basketball," Mykhail shrugged.

Yasuda grabbed one and instantly made a half-court shot.

"Okay," Mykhail sighed. "This is getting ridiculous."

Kumiko grabbed him by the shoulder. "See? Now you see!"

On the other side of the gym, Kaori was walking around, her friends right behind her. Yumi gestured to the kids playing volleyball.

"Should we join?" she asked.

"No," Kaori immediately shot down.

She looked over at Tomoe, who was deeply invested in her phone. When Kaori looked at what was on the screen, she saw a costumed individual swinging a sword.

"What is that?" Kaori demanded.

Tomoe, calm as ever, simply held the phone close to Kaori's face. "It's videos of Justice and his latest takedown."

"Why are you WATCHING it?"

"Because look how strong they are," Tomoe pointed out, fast-forwarding. On the screen, Kaori saw Justice slicing through an army of copies, even slicing one in half. She also saw Kita evading the attacks from a superhuman, and Xenova pummeling another into the ground.

"Who are those other two?" she asked.

"They call themselves Xenova and Kita. They're pretty strong too, but Justice has such a cool weapon. I'm jealous. No other known superhuman has one."

"Huh," Kaori remarked. "Send me the link to that channel."

"Sure."

While they did that, Coach Hayashi came out of the storage room with a cart that had over a dozen dodgeballs in it.

"Balls up! It's time for dodgeball!" he announced.

"Wonderful," Mykhail muttered.

Everyone placed their balls in an empty cart before gathering in the middle to hear the coach. "Listen up. There will be two team captains. They'll pick their teams. Since it's 18 of ya, there will be nine people per team. You all know the rules of dodgeball, if you get hit or someone catches your ball, you're out. If you catch an opponent's ball or hit them, they're out. And the only way you can get back in is by catching a ball for you."

He tapped his chin. "With that being said…let's see here. Let's have our two captains be…Kaori and Kumiko!"

Kumiko clapped her hands but Kaori didn't even move a muscle.

"Stand in front of each other, we'll flip a coin to decide who gets the first pick," Hayashi ordered.

Once they were face to face, sizing each other up, Coach Hayashi flipped a coin, landing on heads. "Kaori, your pick. Who are you taking first?"

She stood still for a moment before tilting her head towards Mykhail. "Jordan. You're with me."

"Me?"

"WHAT?" Yumi exclaimed.

"HIM?" Kumiko gasped. "But I wanted to take him!"

"Hmph."

"Well, seems she got him," Coach Hayashi pointed out.

"Fine!" Kumiko relented. "Yasuda, come over here!"

Yasuda eagerly ran behind her.

They continued, and Kaori had Yumi, Tomoe, and a few others as well, while Kumiko picked up Kurumi along with Yasuda and some randoms.

"This…is weird," Mykhail admitted.

"Sorry, Mykhail!" Kurumi called out. "We'll do our best to play fair and not get you out too fast!"

"Ugh."

Coach Hayashi stepped back. "No injuries or anything, got it?"

Most of the kids nodded.

Yumi leaned into Kaori's ear. "Why did you pick up that boy?"

Kaori didn't even look back at her, but her demeanor got suddenly serious. "Testing a theory, that's all."

Her eyes began to glow.

"And if I'm right…then me and him will need to have a little chat," she said to herself.

Coach Hayashi blew his whistle. "Go!"

—-