"Today seems off to a great start, does it not, Nijimura-san?"

The headmaster of Heiwa raised his head from the paperwork, that he then set aside, to look at his assistant as she entered the office, carrying a small silver tray with some cups and a tea kettle on her hand, that she placed down on the desk.

"So it seems. There hasn't been any rowdy behaviour from the delinquents or anything of the sort recently. It seems as another normal day is ahead of us." Nijimura spoke, pouring the tea into one of the cups.

"Oh please, Nijimura-san. You don't need to hide it. I know you, above all else, are the happiest with what's to come in two weeks." Endo chuckled, taking a small sip. "Sawada-kun's expulsion is at hand. The semester began roughly two weeks ago, and he chose to still come to Heiwa until everything is finished. It would seem he is not too concerned about the matter anymore. In fact, more than ever, he's enjoying his time with his friends."

"He accepted that he cannot overturn his expulsion. There is nothing else that needs to be added, correct?" The grey haired woman asked. "So we can just leave the subject at-"

"You're a fool if you are actually happy with the current situation, Nijimura-san. Yes, he has spent these last two weeks enjoying his time with others, but that will be his own downfall. He will understand just how much he appreciates those moments, how much he needs them to not live a pitiful life. He will miss the 'good old days' too much to accept his expulsion. In no time, before these final two weeks come to pass, he will be begging for the expulsion to be stopped and offer himself to become the front image of Heiwa." Endo extended his palm and looked at it with a cold glare, a small smile forming on his lips. "Soon enough, the Sawada name will fall onto Heiwa and be put to good use."

"...if you allow me, Endo-sama, I think you're underestimating his-"

"Be quiet, Nijimura-san. You'll forever be the last person I want to hear when it comes to knowing Sawada Izuru. Afterall, if you truly knew him so well, then how come you never expected him to beat your brother to a bloody pulp?"

"Y-you're correct. I'm sorry for doubting it, Endo-sama."

Just as the headmaster's assistant bowed and prepared to return to her position in front of the office, the door opened to reveal the soon-to-be expelled student, with a part of his face covered by bangs of his black hair.

"...oh, there wasn't anyone at the door, so I thought it was fine to come in..." Izuru muttered. "I came to speak with Endo-sama, if possible..."

"Learn your place. You are not welcome-"

"Nijimura-san, please just cease speaking and leave my office. If this concerned you, I'd have invited you into the conversation." Endo sighed. "Have a seat, Sawada-kun."

"R-right..." Izuru nodded and sat in front of the desk.

"...as you wish, Endo-sama." Nijimura nodded aswell, and left the office.

"Now then, do you want some tea, Sawada-kun?"

"N-no, I'm fine... I... I wanted to know how the expulsion process is coming along..." He muttered.

"Everything will be finished by the end of the month, as I informed you of on our previous discussion. I'm truly glad you chose to still come to Heiwa and spend time with your friends during this last month."

"M-me too... Can I... Ask something of you...?"

"If it is within my abilities. Please, speak your piece."

"After I'm gone, don't do anything to Tate and the others because of our internal issues... Tate and everyone else worked hard for where they are right now, it isn't fair to go after them because of my mistakes..."

"That's foolish." Endo smiled. "Of course I will not pursue them because of our problems. Our problems will end at the end of the month, when your expulsion becomes finalized. Have you found a new school to attend to?"

"Hm...? Oh, thank you for the interest, Endo-sama. Yes, I found a new school..." Izuru answered, showing a small smile. "It's called..."

'Wait a minute...'

Having spent the first half of the month observing Izuru closely, Endo narrowed his eyes at the small details that were different from what he became used to see. From Izuru having his hair in bangs once again to the quiet attitude, and even the small, almost meaningless change in what he wore under the Heiwa jacket, something felt off.

And then, that eerie and uneasy feeling exploded.

Endo's eyes widened as the small smile of the younger Sawada had turned into a confidant smirk.

"...Heiwa Academy." 

Izuru ran a hand through his hair to make it return to its normal style, and at the same time, he leaned back on the chair, and then slammed his feet down on the desk.

"Let's negotiate, Mi-tsu-a-ki-kun." Izuru requested, carrying a sleazy grin on his face.

"...I'm afraid I do not understand your response, Sawada-kun." Endo replied, having recomposed himself. "How can your next school be the same one from where you will be-"

"That's the thing. I'm not really going to be expelled from Heiwa. Come on, fess up, Mitsuaki-kun. I don't doubt you actually got the papers to boot me outta here, but if you actually wanted me out, I'd have gotten the boot already, yeah? So that leaves just one question. Why did the allmighty and omnipotent headmaster of Heiwa Academy, Endo Mitsuaki himself, waited so long to get it done?"

"I am a busy-"

"Heiwa is your stupid perfect haven, Mitsuaki-kun. You're not busy with anything regarding this school. You aren't concerned with your students, you only care about their results. You got people you trust handling budget problems and all of that too. And it's not like you spent all this time being the loving and caring father Minami deserves either."

"There is more in my life than just-"

"No, no there isn't. How did my good friend and boss Enomoto Risei put it..." Izuru muttered, tapping his own forehead. Then, he snapped his fingers. "That's right. It's like you became a hermit for this school because your life isn't anything besides growing Heiwa into your perfect success factory."

"What I do and do not is none of your concern, whether you are a student here or an expelled scum!" Endo exclaimed, gritting his teeth. 'Wait, no-!'

"Oh? I actually got a reaction out of you? Maybe all this charisma would have gotten me friends earlier." Izuru sighed.

"To rephrase myself..." Endo said. "If you are unhappy with the current state of affairs, then I can just try to have your expulsion finalized by the end of the-"

"Mitsuaki-kun, just drop it." Izuru yawned. "Your big plan of having me crawl into your office and beg to overturn the expulsion failed. So if you want be outta here, go ahead. Have my expulsion done my the end of the day. I'll just get into some other school and join their Royalty to pummel you down. Call it petty, but my image isn't great so I got nothin' to lose."

"So you'd be actually up to destroy the place where your friends are..."

"You bastard, how dare you bring them into this, you piece of shit?!"

Just as Endo truly believed he had regained the upperhand with Izuru's heated response, it all came crashing down when Izuru's rageful teeth gritting just became another grin.

And then, Izuru clapped his hands.

'...w-what was that for...?' Endo thought.

The answer to that came in the shape of Nijimura's voice coming from outside the office.

"Hey hey, stop, you are no allowed-!"

The door of the office was slammed wide open by a swift combo kick from Tate and Ban. The two walked into the office, followed by Aimi and Minami, and then Chika and Yumi.

"Return to the hallway right now! You do not have permission to enter!" Nijimura exclaimed, rushing past the group.

"What's the meaning of this...?" Endo asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Thanks for showing up, I didn't thought the hand clapping thing would work outside a volleyball game." Izuru joked. "Sorry but I'm gonna have to wreck your school after I get the boot. Wanna hit that diner with the natto after I do that?"

"Miyuki-kun, I appreciate you went through all the trouble to set this challenge perfectly, but your jokes are just, well..." Chika sweatdropped.

"They're worse than bear puns." Aimi nodded.

"You dumbasses, that wasn't in the script!" Tate whispered. "Huh, I mean, yeah man! Go ham on Heiwa, we'll just have Ban pay for snacks after!"

"That wasn't on the script either!" Ban exclaimed.

"Please just shut up, I think we got the point across." Yumi deadpanned.

"All of you, leave at once!" Nijimura demmanded. "You do not have-"

"You have alot of guts to be saying that after you brought this upon you and that bastard yourself." Minami said.

"Sachi-san, as your father, I'd appreciate if-"

"My father? I remember my name being Sachi Minami, not Endo Minami. Don't got acting like my father whenever it's useful for you in your little science project you call a school, Endo. As far as I'm concerned, you're just the guy paying for my expenses. I only have one parent, a mother, and her name is Sumireko!"

"...I-i see..." Endo muttered. "Now, what was that about Nijimura-san bringing all of this upon us...? Enlighten me, if possible..."

"You do not know what you're speaking of!" Nijimura exclaimed.

"Just drop it already, Airi." Izuru said, glancing at her from over his shoulder. "When I was in rock bottom, they came to me saying I could over turn my expulsion, and how this was all just a plan for Endo to either get me on his side or get rid of me for good. And it was you who told them about all of that."

"Those are nothing but-!"

"Nijimura-san, your silence would be more than appreciated!" Endo exclaimed. "Very well then, Sawada Izuru... You got your friends supporting your take down of Heiwa, so what did you come here for?"

"Let's have a final game, Endo. Name the day, place and time, and I'll be there. You win, I'll happily leave Heiwa and not pursue you. I win, I stay where I am, and you cease to force this joke of a controlled habitat on the school."

"...fine then." Endo answered. "I'll inform you of everything by the end of the day."

"Great to hear." Izuru replied, jumping off the chair. "Maybe if I lose again, I'll actually use that dusty GEN invite I got on my shelf. Seeya later, Mi-tsu-a-ki-kun." He said with a small grin.

As the students left his office, leaving only behind himself and Nijimura, Endo grabbed his cup of tea and drank the rest of it in one go.

"Endo-sama, I-"

"JUST SHUT UP, YOU USELESS COW!" Endo screamed, smashing the cup to bits with his right hand. "YOU'VE TALKED ENOUGH FOR ONE DAY! It's incredible, I went out of my way to accept an useless failure like you into my school and all I get is this?! If not for you father asking me to get you this job, you would have just kept being a useless piece of shit who offers nothing to the world! Remember what I said about missing those good old days?! It's about time you choose, Nijimura! You can't kept wanting to both avenge the fall of your family and go back to before you became an useless insect!"

"...as you wish, Endo-sama..." Nijimura muttered, and then left the office.

"Shit..."

Gritting his teeth, Endo tightened his right fist, still with the shards of the broken cup inside of it, and smashed a hole through his desk in that moment of anger.

"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT! SO MUCH TIME SPENT ON STOPPING HEIWA FROM EVER BECOMING THAT SHITHOLE AGAIN, JUST TO BE CHALLENGED BY A USELESS DICKHEAD?!" The headmasted yelled, kicking his desk into the ground.

During lunch break, part of the usual group stopped by the student council room to have lunch, that being the original quartet of Izuru, Tate, Aimi and Chika. Ban was gonna have lunch on the rooftop with Keiki and Doujima, Minami with some her her friends, and Yumi with her class. Kasumi was still adamant on not leaving the library.

"Miyukiiiiiii, I want some too!!! Please, give me fried chicken!!!" Tate cried.

"You dumbass, I made this fried chicken for myself, go get your own!" Izuru deadpanned. 

"But Miyukiiii, I know that one was made by auntie Yu-chan, I can smell it in the spices!"

"Goddammit, the spices snitched on me... Fine, I'll give you some, but you gotta do something for me!"

"Fried chicken?!"

"Go get me a cola from the cafetria." Izuru said, tossing his wallet at Tate.

"Wait wha- Hm, how much do I actually want it though..."

"I heard Ako and Tamaki were-"

And Tate was gone already. Izuru losing his money over games was fast, but Tate being able to see Ako and Tamaki was faster.

"Alright then, now that he's gone... What do you two wanna know?"

"E-eh? What are you talking about, Miyuki-kun?" Chika asked.

"Did we hide it that bad?" Aimi asked, snatching a piece of fried chicken off Izuru's bento.

"Yeah, I played enough dating sims to know how to read people." Izuru sighed.

That was a lie. It was a lucky guess.

"W-well then... You have an invite for GEN, Miyuki-kun?"

"Answer that after you answer this. How did you actually get a confidance boost to stand up to Endo?" Aimi asked, snatching yet another piece of chicken.

"Leave my lunch alone, Eatmi." Izuru deadpanned. He got out his deck box and revealed a double sleeved card he kept there. "This baby!"

It was just a SP Susanoo. The only thing special about it was how having a special foil didn't made the deck any better.

"...ah?"

"I'll have you know that I got this SP Susanoo from the greatest person on the world- No, on the entire universe! Whenever I am feeling down, I can always look back on the kindness that came with his card and I'll get better right away! If I'll ever put someone in a pedestal, it will be the original bearer of this card!!"

"Ah, lame." Aimi and Chika said bluntly.

"It's not lame!"

It was pretty lame.

"Oh yeah, that GEN invite thing... My plan was to always come to Heiwa, which turned out to be the good route. I always heard the place was a shithole because of this friend of Ryuuga's who went there, and as I'd come to know from this football dude my brother knows, they are suckers for people with potential that have big smudges on their past. Well too bad for them, I never gave a damn about going there anyway. Miss me with that island school crap. Besides, I hate the sea, being in a school surrounded by it wasn't gonna help."

"R-right..." Chika sweatdropped. "But if you don't mind me asking about this, then... I'd like to know what exactly happened during middle school."

"Good point, I wanna know it too." Aimi nodded.

"Yikes, you really wanna go there? Guess I had to spit it out eventually." Izuru sighed, rubbing the back of his head.

"Out with it, you scummy playboy." The student council president deadpanned.

"Stop calling me that!" The black haired boy sighed. "So, everything that lead up to this, the whole thing with Nijimura-san and her brother, and the whole berserker spiel... Middle school was just the place where it all went downhill. It all began during the summer of 2048, when Tokyo got swept by this challenge called the Dream Team Challenge."