As the frozen water hurled towards Chinen, he prepared himself for the impact. When the attack reached the border, it completely vaporized.

“Tsch.” The guy mumbled. “They still have that barrier up. Well, why am I wasting time on a non-user anyway.” He looked back down onto the boy. “Do you have anything else to say for yourself?”

The boy shook his head.

Regaining the ability to move, Chinen rushed towards the gate.

The taller guy poked the other. The shorter one looked at Chinen again and laughed. “Are you kidding me? You want to get killed or something? If you come over here, the ice is really going to hurt.”

Chinen hesitated. The ground that the guys were standing on was considered out of bounds, but would he risk rescuing someone he does not even know yet.

The taller guy poked again. Then, he poked his own watch. The other guy sighed. “I guess the fun and games are over today.” He looked at Chinen. “Listen, you won’t be this lucky the next time. We’ll find you. Remember that.”

Chinen gulped.

It was only after the two guys left did the boy stand up and approach Chinen. “Thank you very much.”

Chinen smiled. “I didn’t do much really.”

“I almost got attacked by them. They are a part of Kusamine. They don’t forgive and they never forget, so you should be careful the next time you approach the border. ” The boy bowed in front of the gates and left before Chinen could even ask for his name.

=====

“Well?” Takaki’s fingers tapped the wooden table with great force.

“Sorry…we d-“

Takaki slammed the table. “I told you to do a simple task, and you come back empty handed? What is wrong with you guys?”

“We’re so-“

“We need that kid’s element if we’re going to get our hands on the treasure.”

“We encountered some trouble just when we caught him.” One spat out in a shaking voice.

Takaki paused. “What do you mean by ‘trouble’?”

“There was a non-gifted student who was yelling at us over the fence.” The other replied. “He interrupted us and so I had to deal with him.”

“And why would you care about that student?” Takaki asked angrily. “He can’t do anything to you guys at all.”

“We won’t mess up next time.”

Takaki smirked. “You better not, or else I’ll strip both of your positions as part of the ‘Four Aces’ away from you. Don’t do anything for a while though. I’m sure that you’ve already caught the attention of the student council – even if it’s just the two of them.”

“Okay.” The both of them replied.

“You guys can go now, but as a punishment, you guys will have to buy lunch for the rest of us – for the next two weeks.”

The two of them walked out of the room and closed the door gently.

“What are we going to do?” The taller one was worried.

“What CAN we do?” The other replied. “We’ll have to get them soon.”

“Them?”

“Both that non-gifted kid and the kid that we want.” He smiled slyly. “That non-gifted kid has to pay for what he has done to us.”

=====

“You said what?” Yuto jumped onto his bed.

When Chinen arrived at the dorms, he checked the room numbers, only to find out that Yuto was his roommate. Excited and shocked by the past events, he blurted out everything to Yuto when he arrived in their room.

Each room had two beds, desks, closets…basically everything was doubled – except for the bathroom. There’s only one bathroom. The pair was on the fifth floor and the view outside their window was the lakeside.

“Kusamine …Do you know who they are?” Chinen asked.

Yuto had a confused look on in his. “The students from the other side never share anything with non-users, so it’s a mystery to me too. It sounds like a group or something though.”

“But…why would they fight with other students?”

Yuto looked around to make sure no one was in their room and whispered into Chinen’s ear. “Sometimes, things are better left unknown than to find out.”

“What if they come back and see me? Would they kill me?” Chinen shivered.

Yuto blinked and then laughed. “I don’t think that they’ll go that far as to kill you. They’re only students as well.”

“Even though they are students, they sure can threat well.” Chinen mumbled.

Throughout the night, Chinen could not sleep very well. He kept on thinking about what he saw during the day: the girl sitting at the back of the room, the boy who was being targeted and the two bullies.

Does this mean that the guy has the element of ice? Chinen wondered. There were too many questions for Chinen to think off. He even began to wonder why he was at the school in the first place.

=====

“Yabu, the Kusamine are making their move again. A student reported an incident near the border.”

Yabu looked up from his desk and saw the vice-president enter. Yabu casually shrugged and went back to looking at his files.

“Why aren’t you worried at all?”

Yabu smiled gently. “Hikaru, they can’t strike now. At least, not in their current state.”

Hikaru shivered. “I still remember the last time they tried to attack us.”

Yabu began to type some data onto his computer. “Well, last time, the so-called ‘Four Aces’ couldn’t work together at all. Even if they start something, as long as they are doing something against the school rules, I can declare a punishment on them.”

“I’ll be on the lookout then.”

Yabu gave a little laugh. “Takaki is smart. He won’t do anything against the rules, but he can get what he wants.”

Hikaru frowned. “So that means…?”

“We’ll have to watch the other ones more carefully. I have all their data on file.” He clicked on one of the profiles. “If I’m not mistaken, this one should be the one we need to watch out for.”

“The shorter one? What’s his element again?”

Yabu sighed. “To tell you the truth, there must be a mistake in the profiles…”