Daiki looked closer and froze. “Oh no…it’s the school council president…”

Yuto followed suit with, “It really is the president!”

Chinen looked at the unfamiliar faces. Was he saved?

“Arioka Daiki,” Yabu began, “you have broken the school rules by crossing the border between the non-gifted and elemental users. What’s more is that you have attempted to attack a non-user. Your punishment will be issued.”

Hikaru was writing down everything that Yabu has said. Yabu turned to face the other guy. “Inoo Kei, you have also broken the school rules by crossing the border. However, you have not injured anyone, so you will be given a warning. If we see you the next time across the border, you will face the same consequences as Arioka-san.”
 
Inoo nodded quickly.

“Good. Inoo-san, you may leave.” Yabu turned around. “Then Arioka-san, please come with us.”

“Humph.” Daiki grunted and followed Yabu as he left. As he walked past Chinen, he glared at him in disgust.

Content, Yuto rushed back to Chinen and smiled. “See? Everything is over now! You don’t have to worry about anything.” He then turned to where Ayaka was sitting, but she was already gone. “Hey! When did she leave?”

Chinen peeked over Yuto’s shoulder. “I don’t know. I wasn’t aware of her during the fight.”

Yuto shrugged. “Oh well, let’s have a small glass of ice tea or something. My heart is still beating so fast from the scene I just saw.”

Back at Yabu’s office, Daiki was shifting around in his seat.

“Why were you across the border of the school grounds of the elemental users?” Yabu questioned, but Daiki would not answer.

Yabu sighed. “Well, as your punishment, you will have to attend classes with the non-gifted users for as long as you are required to, meaning that we will restrict your powers.”

Daiki slapped both of his hands on the arms of the chair. “You are kidding me, right? You can’t do that!”

“Finally speaking, aren’t you?” Yabu walked around Daiki’s chair.

“What do you want?” Daiki spoke in a quiet, but tense voice.

“What’s your elemental power?” Yabu questioned directly.

Daiki paused for a few seconds before muttering, “It’s ice.”

“Let me see it then.” Yabu placed a cup of water in front of Daiki.

Daiki’s fist clenched as he ignored Yabu and Yabu gave a little laugh.

“It’s not ice, is it?” Yabu walked towards his own chair to sit down.

Daiki looked down, but did not respond.

“You don’t need to say anymore, I’ll find out sooner or later.” Yabu opened his bottom drawer and took out a pair of fingerless gloves. At the bottom of each glove, the cuff had a look on it. Yabu fetched a bunch of keys chained together, searched around and plucked out a key to open the cuffs. “Please put these on.”

Daiki stared at the gloves. “They look tacky with my clothes.”

“You’ll be wearing the school uniform. All the non-gifted students wear uniforms.” Yabu commented.

“You are NOT serious…” Daiki trailed off as Yabu glanced at him and pointed to the gloves.

Daiki was sighing heavily while he wore the gloves. Yabu checked to make sure that they were locked tight on both hands.

“These will prevent you from using your element…whatever your element is.” Yabu looked relieved.  He was typing on his computer. “I’ll arrange to you be placed in the appropriate class over at the other side.”

“You don’t have to go through all that trouble…” Daiki mumbled.

“I wouldn’t have to if you obeyed the rules.” Yabu responded. “You’re free to go. Today will be last day to stay over on this side of the school grounds before your punishment begins.”

Daiki stood up and left without a word.

Inoo was waiting patiently outside at the corridor for Daiki. “What happened in there?” he asked.

“I’m being transferred over to the non-gifted side.” Daiki moaned as he showed Inoo his “spiffy” gloves.
“What’ll I do without you then?” Inoo was worried.

“Try to keep this a secret from Takaki.” Daiki patted Inoo on the shoulder. “Until I come back, don’t get yourself into trouble as well.”

Inoo nodded as they headed out the main doors of the building.

=====

The next day, Daiki was reluctant to head to the non-gifted classes. According to himself, they were boring – both the people and the classes.

He would not wear the uniform and continued to dress up in his own clothes. Being a rebel, he walked into the classroom from the back door ten minutes after the first bell had rung. The teacher immediately noticed him.

“Oh, you must be the transfer student from the gifted side.” The teacher announced as everyone looked at Daiki in awe and wonder.

“He’s so cute!” Someone whispered.

“I wonder if he has a girlfriend!” Another giggled.

Yuto frowned. “What’s wrong with the girls?” He told Chinen who shrugged. It was then that Daiki noticed that they were in the same class as the two guys.

“Ah!” Daiki pointed. “Why do I have to be in this class? Is that Yabu up to something?”

The teacher looked around to find an empty seat. The only two left were beside Ayaka and the seat in front of her.  The other girls, however, were willing to share a seat with Daiki.

“Uh…take which ever seat you want back there.” The teacher suggested.

Daiki smirked. “I’ll sit in the back row then.” All the girls moaned.

“Why does Ayaka get to sit with Daiki?”

“That girl doesn’t deserve to!”

As usual, Ayaka gave her death glare towards those who approached to close to where she was sitting. Daiki caught her glance, but ignored it as he sat down at the seat beside her.

“I think Ayaka is fuming by now.” Yuto whispered under his breath to Chinen, who quickly nodded in approval.

“Arioka-san,” the teacher spoke suddenly, “you will need to wear the school uniform, or else you’ll get a detention. I won’t report you today, since you may not have known that.”

Daiki swung his school bag around and placed it on his the back of his chair. Ayaka continued to glare at him, as if to say “go away, don’t sit there.” Of course, Daiki avoids all eye contact with Ayaka.

Yuto whispered to Chinen again. “I think the back corner of our classroom as become a tense place. I can almost see a dark aura from both of them. We should exit from at the front of the classroom from now on.”

Chinen giggled at Yuto’s comment. “They’re both so silent and cold towards each other. It’s like if you tried to go in between them, you’d be squished by the invisible pressure.”

What was even funnier than what happened in the morning was during the elements class. Ayaka sat at her usual bleachers spot and opened up her notebook while Daiki sat on the opposite end of the bleachers. Because of this, all the girls approached Daiki.

“Are you not going to participate?”

“Let’s learn together!” They tugged Daiki.

Ahahaha, I guess I’m popular even in the non-gifted side! Daiki thought to himself. “Alright, I’ll come join you guys.” He couldn’t resist his popularity and stepped down from the bleachers. The group of girls moved along screaming “kya!” all the ways.

Yuto sighed. “Man, why does he get all the girls? Don’t they know that he’s a bad guy?”

Chinen poked Yuto and pointed at Ayaka. “Not all the girls; all but one.”

A girl asked Daiki, “What’s your element? Can you show us?”

Daiki scratched his head, “Well, I’m not allowed to…”

“But what’s your element?” They insisted.

Daiki smiled proudly. “It’s ice!”

All the girls screamed some more from his reply.

Meanwhile, Ayaka wrote in her notebook in big characters:

“Liar.”