===== Chapter 04 (Chinen’s Arc) =====
 
A week has already passed and Yuto is still trying to befriend Ayaka.

“Yuto…I think we should just give up. Ayaka doesn’t want to be our friend, nor does she want to talk to us.” Chinen suggested.

“It can’t be that hard to make Ayaka our friend.” Yuto insisted as they walked across the school grounds.  “Next time we’ll treat her to some ice cream.”

“We’re bribing her now?” Chinen laughed.

“It’ll work eventually!” Yuto continued. “Don’t you notice that the time that Ayaka stays when we talk to her has gotten longer and longer?”

“Now that you mention it…” Chinen trailed off. Ayaka usually left after Yuto spoke his first sentence. Recently she stayed until Yuto’s third or fourth sentence, which was usually a repeating of “Can we be friends?”

=====

“Yabu-kun, I’ve gathered all the data I have on the ‘Four Aces’.  There are no differences between all the reports.” Hikaru looked over the documents again and again. “Even though we don’t have much data on the kids, all the information still confirm with each other.”

Yabu tapped his fingers gently on the desk. “I still believe that there’s something missing.”

“They haven’t made a single move in a week.” Hikaru checked the calendar.

“Oh, they’ll make a move.” Yabu nodded. “And while they are doing so, we better recruit some new members onto the student council. I’m not sure if both of us can handle them again. Let’s walk around today to check the students.”

“Roger that.” Hikaru wrote something down on his notepad, placed it in his pocket and resumed to move the documents away.

Yabu, who was still at his desk, looked back at his computer. “Those two are always together…what if…?”

=====

“Dai-chan…” Inoo tugged Daiki’s arm.

“Don’t move!” Daiki replied.

The two of them were hiding in the ditch near the border of the two sides of the school. Daiki believed that it was a good time to strike the non-gifted student. He would much rather kill the non-gifted than grab the elemental student that he was supposed to get.

“Dai-chan….” Inoo tugged again.

Daiki turned his head to Inoo. “What is it?”

Inoo pointed at the border and saw that the non-gifted student was walking by.

“Good job.” Daiki applauded silently. “We’ll just wait here and see what he’s up to. Then we’ll make our move.”

“Dai-chan…” Inoo continued, “We can’t hit him if we’re across the border.”

Daiki frowned. “Of course I know that. We’re going to cross the boundary.”

Inoo was shocked. “We…can’t…we’ll get into trouble!”

Shuffling along the grass, Daiki moved a little forward. “No one will see us. Now come on.”

=====

Ayaka could be seen sitting under a tree, writing into a notebook which looked very much like a diary of some sort. Yuto noticed her and began to rush over.

“Not again!” Chinen groaned as he followed Yuto.

As Yuto approached her, Ayaka quickly placed her notebook into her bag and looked in another direction, away from Yuto.

“Hi Ayaka!” Yuto began. “We were wondering why you are sitting under the tree over here.”

Ayaka did not move. She held her pencil with a tight grasp.

Chinen finally caught up to Yuto. “Hi Ayaka.”

Ayaka turned to face Chinen and rose up her hand with the pencil in it. In an instant, she threw it straight at Chinen, much like the time with the metal rod. Chinen, once he realized that the pencil was coming right towards him, ducked and covered his head with his hands. The pencil continued to fly and it landed in a bush nearby.

Yuto yelled. “Hey, I know that you don’t want to be our friends, but at least respect…”

Ayaka placed her index finger on her lips, signalling Yuto to be quiet.

“Dai-chan!!” Someone’s whisper was coming from the bush. “That was too close!”

Yuto and Chinen walked a little closer to the bush, but they were cautious as they approached it. Without a notice, out popped the two guys that Chinen was previously attacked by. Chinen quickly rushed back to where Ayaka was.

Yuto examined the two guys. “Hey, why aren’t you guys wearing the uniform?”

Chinen gawked at Yuto’s question. “This is not the time to be asking these things!!”

Yuto turned back. “It isn’t? Oh, then I should ask about why they’re on our side of the border.”

Daiki smirked. “For your information, we elemental users don’t need to wear a uniform. After all, if you’re the elemental user of…say…fire, you wouldn’t want to burn your own clothing if you can’t master your own power.”

Ayaka was still sitting down and looking in the other direction, but she was clearly listening into the conversation.

“Then, who’s the Kusamine?” Yuto continued to stall the time with questions.

Daiki blinked in shock. “You can’t be serious, you non-gifted students don’t know anything about the Kusamine?!”

“Well, if you guys don’t tell us, we’ll never know!” Yuto pouted.

“We’re not gonna tell you!” Daiki poked his tongue out. “All that you need to know is that my name is Arioka Daiki and what I’m here for is that kid.” He pointed at Chinen.

“What do you need me for?” Chinen’s voice was quivering.

“Because of you, we were punished by Takaki.” Daiki moved closer, while Chinen backed away. “We couldn’t get the student that we want because you interrupted me. Oh, why are we talking? Let’s get to the action!”

Daiki sliced his hands across the front of his body and sent two ice shards towards Chinen. Chinen flung himself to the ground and managed to dodge the attack.

Daiki grinned. “That’s just the warm up. We’ll get serious in a moment.”

Yuto was both amazed at Daiki’s skills and worried for Chinen’s life. Even Ayaka seemed to be attentive to the fight now.

“Chinen, get up!” Yuto shouted.

Chinen pulled himself together and jumped up before Daiki could strike again.

“Stop moving!” Daiki yelled, but Chinen was too fast for him – until Chinen tripped over.  Daiki took this opportunity to move right in to Chinen. He jumped right above Chinen with a confident smile.

As Chinen waved his arms around, the chain on Daiki’s pants were pulled to one side, making Daiki fall in front of Daiki. With a confused look, Daiki swept off the dirt on his clothes and stood back up.

“I don’t know what happened there, but you’re not going to be lucky this time.” Daiki raised up one of his hands.

This is it… Chinen thought. Daiki must be planning on a final blow. All that Chinen could do now is to cover his eyes and hope that it would be over soon.

Before Daiki could attack, a huge flash of blinding light covered the field. When everyone’s eyes adjusted to the light, two new figures appeared.