A/N: This is just a filler chapter that needed to be written. Most of what is written in this chapter are slices of life, in a way. I would’ve added more of the fillers that were in the manga/anime but I didn’t feel enough emotion to add that in as well. Maybe next chapter I will put it in but it will be rushed. It might take me 3 or 4 years to finally complete this fic so I need to give it a rush to complete it faster. I just don’t like working on an idea with more than 2 years, that’s all. Besides, I want to write the continuity on where the anime left off.

NOTICE:

"Normal speech dialogue." Inside double quotation marks.

Normal thought dialogue. Italicized.

Term explanations and trick info. Bold.

Spiritual or esper speech. Bold and Italicized.

Disclaimer: I do not own Air Gear anime or manga. Oh!great does. Nor do I own the songs listed in this chapter. They belong to Nexcade and Andamiro.

-- TRICK 9 --

AFTER THE STORM

After the battle at Higachuu, Ikki, Ringo, Mikan and Arnold (being carried by Ikki) went home. From what the Noyamano sisters have witnessed, they began to suspect something is… different about Arnold. Not only did he lose but he also displayed an unknown power. It was that reddish glow that got both of them curious. But all questions might have to wait until the raven-haired teen is fit and ready to answer them.

Once they arrived home, Ume greeted them at the door.

“Ah, you’re back-deshii.” She said. “It seems your battles already became an Internet hit.”

“Internet hit?” Ikki repeated. “What are you talking about?”

“I think it’s better if you see rather than hear it from me.”

Ikki carried Arnold back to his room and laid him in bed. He took one last glance at his sleeping form before letting Mikan treat his head wound. Besides…

They should have some quality time together…, he thought sinisterly as he barricaded the door. She’s gonna be so pissed when she gets out but I’m dying to see some progress. Heeheeheehee. Godspeed, Arnold.

“What are you doing, Ikki?” Ringo startled the crowhead as he made the finishing touches in the barricade.

“Arnold. Mikan. Inside room. Together.” Ikki answered with cryptic words that are not so cryptic, even a dunce can figure those words out, and went to the living room. Ringo just followed, torn between helping her sister and helping her sister’s relationship issues but in the end decided with the latter.

Mikan gazed at Arnold eyeing the amount of damage on his head wound. That Trick can really pack a punch, she thought as she began to apply first-aid to his head. There were a couple of winces made by the teen but just after a few minutes, Mikan finished wrapping up the bandages.

“It’s a good thing I know first-aid since my friend’s a nurse,” Mikan said to the raven-haired teen even if she knew that he’s sound asleep. “Consider yourself lucky.” She smiled.

Arnold, for the most part, didn’t move. His chest moving up and down in rhythm to his breathing didn’t really count so the pink-haired girl can already tell that it’ll take a hundred alarm clocks to wake the boy up.

“You really are a…” she paused and sighed. Mikan didn’t say another word and just packed up her medical kit. She headed for the door and turned the knob but the door won’t budge. “Wha…” she pushed with more force but still wouldn’t budge. She banged on the door hoping someone will hear her. “Hey! Anyone out there?! Ringo?! Ume?! Ikki?!”

“Errmm…” Arnold almost stirred from his sleep but quickly went back to sleep.

Mikan tried the door one more time and finally concluded that the door must be sealed from the outside. “That bastard Ikki…” she hissed. “When I get my hands on him I’ll let him experience pain and death that’s much worse than the Devil’s. I’ll make sure of that.”

She looked back at Arnold to see he’s wrapped up in his blankets sound asleep. Nothing odd about…

… wait!

“I don’t remember putting him in a blanket!” Mikan thought out loudly and stomped to Arnold’s bed. She grabbed the blanket and yanked it out of Arnold’s body. What she saw made her blood boil to the temperature of the sun.

Ikki was really tired and confused after getting home. The prank on “Mikan in Arnold’s room” only did little to his state of mind. It was something much deeper than what anyone can say. He even doubted that Arnold can set his head straight if he was awake to see him like this. He was just so confused.

“AT, huh.” The crowhead muttered at the broken piles of what used to be his and his friends’ ATs.

What are they really?

Troubled thoughts plagued his mind.

What are they to me?

It was annoying. It was confusing. It was like nothing he had ever seen before.

A weapon or a tool?

He was having doubts about his earlier beliefs on the purpose of ATs. After Arnold’s fight, his doubts were put to the test.

They scored higher than he predicted.

“I’m tired…” he murmured to himself, dragging his slump form to the soft cushions of his bed. He would’ve slept peacefully without troubles in under a few seconds after his head touched the pillow but one of his senses caught whiff of something. His nose breathed in the peculiar scent. Lavender?

He turned from his bed and stared at the sight. Slender body. Perfect hips. Busty chest. Long pink wavy hair. Captivating jade green eyes. Smooth ivory skin. A sexy smile. Simca in her birthday suit.

If Ikki believed in spirits, then he would’ve believed his soul has left from his nose and bellowed in excitement as it transcended to heaven… or was it hell?

And just like his soul, Ikki reacted the same way. His inhuman shout had reached the heavens. If people were passing by the Noyamano house, they could’ve sworn they heard someone shout “THANK YOU GOD!!”

In the other room, Mikan was completely torn between beating the hell out of Arnold because of the smug in his face, and prying the slutty girl who’s resting Arnold’s face between busty bare breasts.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” Mikan yelled that rivaled Ikki’s bellow.

Angelus just wryly smiled at the tomboy’s beet red face. “Sleeping with Arnold-sama! Is that wrong?” she asked innocently with puppy dog eyes.

Unfortunately, Mikan wasn’t buying it. She extended her forefinger at her and said, “YES THERE IS A FUCKING PROBLEM!! Get the hell out of his bed, you slut!”

Due to Mikan’s consistent screaming of ‘get out’, ‘bitch’, ‘slut’ and other profanities, Arnold was stirring from his sleep… looking at what he concluded as smooth skin.

Smooth skin? But wh—his thoughts were in chaos right now and they needed time to readjust. Bad move. Because he finally realized where his face was at the moment.

He bellowed a similar scream like Ikki when he saw Simca in his bed. Who would not scream after seeing a beautiful girl in your bed? A girl you’re acquainted with, to be more specific.

People passing by the Noyamano household would hear another ear-piercing scream coming from inside. Others thought one of the boys living there was being punished again but after understanding what the boy screamed, they thought otherwise.

Arnold screamed “VALLEY OF THE HEAVENS!!” to the heavens.

By morning, everyone settled down after a night full of anger, annoyance, killing intent… and arousing pleasure sights!

Simca and Mikan decided to play a few retro games while Ringo and Angelus sat behind them, watching. The latter pair was silent with each other since they didn’t have anything to talk about. Ringo didn’t want to bring up the ‘Incident’ last night. She may not have enough self-control to prevent strangling the busty pink-haired swallow if that particular topic were to ever come into a conversation.

Angelus, who decided to be silent in the duration of her stay, can practically sense the enmity resonating from the girl. She can sympathize with her somewhat, since she’s also having competition with a pink-haired teen. Namely, Mikan. Of course, the girl wouldn’t really know that they were having a competition in seeking a particular boy’s affection but Angelus didn’t really care. As long as she can get what she wanted, then the end might as well justify the means.

Then a thought hit her straight in the cerebellum. “Where’s Arnold-sama, anyway? I haven’t seen him since last night.”

Ringo was burning in fury. She was holding herself back all this time, but being reminded of the ‘Incident’ (Though it’s not really considered a reminder) there was blood needed to be shed. And only one girl must bleed…

“I heard he went to the arcade-shii,” Ume said, her head sticking out from the other room.

“Which one?” Angelus questioned impatiently dashing right towards the little girl scaring her a little.

“T-the one near the, uh, North Shopping Mall,” she slowly replied.

When the words came out, Angelus was already at the door. She said a faint “I’m going out!” before dashing out with her ATs on.

Mikan had been listening to the conversation, her attention on the game forgotten. When her player got killed from falling off a cliff, she stood up and trotted out of the room.

“Where are you going?” Ringo asked.

“Out,” was her simple reply before making her way out of the house. Grabbing her ATs from her room along the way, she put them on and rode out.

“By the way, Ume-chan,” Simca said to the little girl. “Where’s Crow-kun?”

While Mikan and Angelus were racing each other to the arcade, they swiftly turned back startled at something they heard. Other civilians nearby also heard the ruckus from afar and some teenage girls shivered for some reason. Somewhere in the city, where the Noyamano house resides, a male scream was heard but it was not of pain or agony. The people clearly heard the male screamer say “THE LIPS OF A GODDESS!! AAAAAHHHHHH!!”

Mikan saw a little girl tug on her mother’s skirt and innocently asked, “Mommy, what does that person meant by ‘lips of a goddess’?”

The mother choked first, stuttered her answer second, and thirdly recomposed herself and clearly said “I’ll tell you when you’re older,” while trying to glare at whoever screamed those words.

“What just happened?” Angelus asked.

“I don’t know,” Mikan answered, believing it was a question directed to her. “But I think Ikki and Simca had something to do with it.”

“Lips of a goddess… do you think Swallow-san kissed Crow-san?”

Mikan shrugged her shoulders, turned the other direction, and hightailed it while Angelus was still pondering. Shortly after that, Angelus followed forgetting about the perverted scream of a hormonal teenager. But she had one final thought about it, though. Was he referring to a woman’s lower lips?

Arnold sweated and panted. It was hard and crazy but it was something he had to do. Everybody was watching staring at his back while he waited for the countdown to end. He needed as much as rest as he can since this will be the hardest thing he’ll come across in a while. Hands tightly gripped on the support bars, knees bent, mind concentrated to the task at hand, and steeled confidence that he can do this.

And as the timer reached zero, the screen of the arcade game turned to the one he selected.

Chimera – 210 BPM - Yahpp

(It’s a song from the Korean dancing game Pump It Up! NX. While Dance Dance Revolution has a pad in a plus (+) shape, Pump It Up! has it in an X shape (With five buttons to press instead of DDR’s four), center included. If those of you who played MAX 300 or MAXX UNLIMITED on Heavy in Dance Dance Revolution, then you haven’t seen how Chimera will fair. Trust me, it’s freakin’ hard. I’m the only one in my group that can ‘A’ it, at the moment.)

The song started off easy with double freeze arrows to introduce it nicely. And as the tempo slowly rose, the amount of arrows quickened. The steps become harder and harder, he had to twist his whole body to the side to easily step on the zigzag pattern of the incoming arrows while trying to keep his internal beat into the rhythm of the song. His feet went to a momentary stop on the two red arrow pads as the arrows onscreen halted to the sudden halt of the music. And as the song revisited its rhythm, so did the arrows, rising straight forward waiting for the player to hit the right buttons.

His combo rose to around 200 before he lost it by narrowly missing on one of the freeze arrows. The combo meter rose again after a few more holds but quickly disappeared when the crazy steps came into play.

Arnold was ventilating less than enough oxygen in his lungs while his legs worked on overdrive to keep the combo running. 250 and still rising. The zigzag pattern soon returned but he was ready for it. Giving his senses a bit of his time-delay powers (He knows it’s like cheating, but he can’t help it), he swiftly stepped onto each arrow perfecting the quick zigzag steps. The song was almost over. People were cheering him on. One final stretch. Just three more arrows and it’s over.

The three final notes of the song echoed from the loudspeakers of the machine as the raven-haired teen placed his wobbling feet on the last two arrows on the pad. The song ended. He did it. He finally did it.

He finished Chimera on Hard.

While the results of his run was rolling in, the sound of applause reached his hears. He turned around to see his audience gaping at him like he was a dancing god. A few of the other PIU (Pump It Up!) players were congratulating him on being the first to finish his run with a very spectacular end. It seems no one has ‘A’-ed Chimera on Hard before.

Tons of Perfects, 3 Greats, No Goods, No Bads, and only 11 Misses.

Arnold smiled to himself. Hehehe. I still have it, he thought happily as he gazed at the screen.

“Pretty impressive,” a familiar voice commented. Arnold turned around to see Shou Kenta clapping along with the rest of the audience. “I could never see you as the dancing type, Arnie,” Shou added staring at the dancing game station with the words GAME OVER onscreen.

“I’m a guy who’s full of surprises, Shou-kun,” Arnold replied. He called the limp man that because he knew it’d piss him off. Shou already pissed him off for calling him by his nickname. Only one person was allowed to use that name. And she’s still missing, he thought solemnly.

Arnold then inserted another token into the machine, stepped on the center button on the dance pad and chose Arcade Station. This was his last token before taking a breather and rest. He had his duffel bag filled with an extra shirt and towel leaning on the side of the machine at the ready. He was soaked all over but he liked it. A good workout won’t be considered good without a good amount of sweat to accompany it. The raven-haired only had 20 more seconds to pick a song before the machine will use a default stage. He could see Shou raise an eyebrow at his choice of song.

My brother is street singer – 129 BPM – Hyang Lim Pack VS Yahpp

It was a relatively easy stage even though it was in Crazy mode. Crazy mode is the equivalent of Heavy/Oni mode in DDR terms. When the stage was cleared and the result was an ‘S’, Arnold said to Shou, “The steps are good for a bit of warm-up.”

Shou nodded in understanding. Though he still couldn’t understand the tune of the music. It was in Korean, he knew, but the overall theme didn’t really suit his taste of music. Maybe that’s why.

“Now time for some Freestyle action!”

The next song he selected was an all-time favorite Freestyle song for the old and new players of PIU. Freestyle mode is like Double mode in DDR. You use 2 pads to play instead of just one. That makes 10 different buttons for Arnold to step on.

Don’t Bother Me – 110 BPM – Tashannie

Setting himself for the double padded stage, he began. The steps started off on the left side of the pad. Arnold went to the beat of the hip-hop rhythm, following the steps making him turn a full 360 on the left pad. By the time he had to shift to the right pad, he already had a choreographed dance move in mind. He landed his right palm on the first arrow on the right pad, rose his legs so that only his arm supported his whole body, then stepped on the next arrow after a second with his left leg.

The rest of the song dealt more of his acrobatic skills. He took up a bit of break-dancing when he turned 14 but after six months of rigorous practice, he quit. But didn’t stop him from using whatever moves he knew, innovate them, and showed them off in a very entertaining dance in one of his favorite machines in the arcade. To tell the truth, he hadn’t played PIU for the past month, what with the dimensional travel and schoolwork keeping him busy.

Ah, how it feels good to break a sweat, he mused. Whether he felt good because of the hormones being released when the body exercises, or the feeling of expressing himself to the world on something he loves, it didn’t really matter. What mattered was the effect this little recreation had on Arnold.

The song then ended. The audience that gathered started applauding.

Arnold had blushed cheeks when he turned back to Shou who was just leaning on the wall next to the dance machine. “So what brings you here?”

Shou grimaced. “Got dragged into shopping.”

Arnold followed Shou’s example with a slight shiver. “I know how you feel, man. I even banned myself to never shop with a woman for the rest of my life.”

“Oh really?” Shou raised a brow. “Then who was the girl that was with you when we first met in that AT shop?”

“That was different. I’m pretty new here in this town and she was like… my guide or something.” Arnold finally selected another song. Another classic PIU song.

Beethoven Virus – 160 BPM – BanYa

Keep saying that, Arnold, Shou thought. I know it is more than that.

“Is it?” Arnold asked as the song finished. He tried doing the song on Freestyle but he wasn’t prepared for the rapid jumps so he only got a ‘B’. No bonus stage now.

“Huh?”

“You said you know it is more than that, but I don’t get what you mean.”

“You heard that?”

“Yeah. Why?”

Shou laughed. Of course, how could I forget? When he’s tired, he has that involuntary urge to read people’s minds, even though he’s not aware of it. Okay, let’s see… uhm… HEY! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!

Arnold held his ears tightly together. “God, Shou! You didn’t have to shout!” At this point, anyone who heard him gave him perplexed looks. They didn’t hear anyone shouting after all.

“I didn’t. That was my mind’s voice you heard.”

Arnold just stared at him. Eight seconds later… “O—kay…”

“Never mind. Anyway, do you have to go somewhere?”

“No, not really. I only came here to relieve some stress. Plus, I want to make sure that my legs are still as hard as steel the last time I checked them.”

“Maybe even diamond, Arnie. The stunts you pulled last night might’ve bedridden an ordinary person for at least a week, yet here you are… a living, breathing example of a medical miracle… or mystery. I don’t really know which, anyway.”

Arnold just shrugged from this, not really contemplating about the medical stuff… or the nickname now, for that matter. At least he can still walk, run, and ride AT. That was what’s really important. AT can be very addicting once you put them on.

“So,” Arnold started. “Where do you plan on going in this fine afternoon?”

“Shopping with Miu,” Shou replied, grimacing yet again. “I still have two more hours before she gets here.”

“Uh-huh.” Arnold decided that it was best not to ask why he would wait for another two hours for this Miu person. Then a question popped into his head. “Who’s Miu?”

“My fiancé,” he answered automatically as if he was expecting the raven-haired teen to ask that particular question. “During the two hours, we can have some fun. You know what they say: ‘Experience everything with a friend by your side’ or something like that.”

“Does this ‘experience’ refer to ‘everything’?”

Shou rolled his eyes. “As if. Do you really want to experience that with me?”

Arnold turned green and shook his head furiously. “Damn it, Shou! Now you haunted me with horrible mental images! You’re gonna pay for that, ya know.”

“Whatever. Come on, let’s go.”

“Where to?”

“The park,” he said simply and said nothing else.

“Could you at least wait until I change into something dry?” Arnold asked, shrugging his duffle bag over his shoulder. The sweat in his bright red T-shirt was starting to show.

CLUNK!

The can of Pepsi rolled down into the dispenser. A hand grabbed it, pulled it open with a low hiss, and then the person chugged about a quarter of the content into his mouth. He drank it all up without faltering from the acidic effects it had on the throat. That meant he was quite used to drinking sugar-and-fizz-induced beverages such as this.

Shou sighed after taking another swig from his can of coke. “Oh, how I love drinking this thing.”

“You’re gonna get stomach ulcer if you don’t stop always drinking that stuff,” Arnold said, adjusting his black T-shirt with gray tribal markings.

“I can’t help it. It’s very addictive.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Let me try…” Arnold took out the needed amount of coins and inserted it into the soda dispenser. He selected a Pepsi just like Shou. CLUNK! Grabbing the canned soda, he opened the lid and took a small swig. “Woah—” he shivered a bit, “—now that’s some mega-fizz right there, man! Totally hits the spot!”

“See? I told you.”

“Okay, now do you mind explaining to me what you meant about ‘mind’s voice’?”

“Like what I said, it’s my inner voice. The voice of my mind, in other words. In case you didn’t know, you had this tendency to read people’s minds telepathically when you’re out of breath and really tired.”

“And how’d you know that?” Arnold was slowly getting suspicious.

“The same way I figured out your wind manipulation powers: Someone told me.”

“Who?!” He was scared and nervous at the same time. Shou was taking this stuff casually and even talked casually to him. It could only mean that he knew this a long time ago and came to accept it like it’s an everyday normal thing.

Shou looked at Arnold straight in the eye and said, “Secret.”

“Secret?” he looked at the limp man incredulously. “Look, Shou, this is serious. I need to know who told you about me and my powers. That person might even know where my friends are?”

“He disappeared.”

Arnold looked glum after that.

Shou took another sip from his can. “But I’m pretty sure he’ll come back, eventually.”

“Do you know when?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. The guy can be enigmatic if he wants to be.”

“Then, at least tell me his name. How will I know if it’s him when I don’t have a name to start with?”

“Oh trust me. You’ll know it’s him when you find him.” Inwardly, Shou was laughing his ass off. Yeah, wait ‘til you figure out, man. Your face will definitely be priceless!

“Tell me again…” Arnold trailed off as he adjusted his newly bought uniform. “Why am I doing this?”

“You’re still underage, Arnold,” Rika said in her motherly voice. “As such you need to go to school. Consider yourself lucky that I pulled a few strings so the school won’t have to ask for any more personal information than your name, age, date of birth, and school level. And do you know what’s even more exciting?”

God! This collar’s freakin’ tight! Ugh, it’s hot and it’s suffocating me like a vise, he thought while trying to loosen the fabric in his collar. “What?” he said dryly.

Rika didn’t look like she heard his negativity of all the excitement, and said, “You’re going to the same school as Mikan.”

Time stopped.

Arnold’s breathing stopped.

He was growing pale.

He felt like dying right now.

“W-w-wh-what?”

“You’re going to the same school as Mikan.”

“Rika-san,” Arnold addressed her.

“Yes?”

“Are you enjoying this?”

Rika nodded her head up and down furiously. “It’s fun to see you two together. Very entertaining.”

His eyebrow twitched, but kept his complaints and sailor-curses to himself. He knows how much the eldest Noyamano disapproves cursing inside the house. Too bad Ikki does not follow the rule. Arnold still cringes when he looks at the Ikki imprint on the adjacent wall of the foyer.

It’s not like he didn’t want to attend school, far from it. He was bored as hell doing nothing at his new home without anything to occupy his free time. Usually, he’d have his schoolwork to thank for keeping him busy but since he was not enrolled to any high school in this world, he has more time to himself than he imagined. That didn’t bid well for him at all. The problem he had that made him fear school was the presence of a young pink-haired tomboy who still looks like she will never forgive him for ‘sleeping’ with another woman.

“Don’t put the blame on me, goddamit,” he would’ve said to her when she brought that subject up again but thankfully, he didn’t.

At least there was something he can look forward to in his new high school. Girls, studies (Well, not really…), meeting new people, making new friends, and to top it off, the school is located just a few blocks away from Ikki and co’s middle school.

He smiled quite happily as he went out of the Noyamano house and rode his ATs straight to his new high school, East Side High School.

“My name is, uh, Wyndham Arnold,” said the nervous raven-haired teen in front of a classroom full of students. He gave a bow and ended his speech with, “I look forward to working with you all.”

He waited for a reaction from his new classmates and he wasn’t disappointed.

“Wow! He’s so cute!”

“Woah, man. Is he a foreigner? He speaks such fluent Japanese!”

“Welcome aboard, Wyndham-san!”

“Yosh! We got ourselves a new lunch buddy!!”

“Yoshikawa-san! Please, stop standing on the desk and sit down!”

“But senseeeeiiiii… I want to greet Windogam with a blast!”

“Uh, it’s Wyndham.” Arnold tried to correct the energetic guy but it fell on deaf ears. At least this was a better acceptance from the students from what he originally thought. He thought he would be alienated in some way due to his abrupt enrollment into the school, add that he’s not really from around here even though he speaks fluent Japanese (An ability he still has no idea how he got), this class seemed more accepting of him than what he deemed as normal.

“Now, Wyndham-san,” the teacher said to him. “Please take a seat next to Souma-san over there.” She pointed to a vacant seat to the right of a stunning beauty.

The one named Souma was a real eye-catcher for the boys of the class. Her ebony hair flowed down her face in subdued curls which brought attention to their silky texture even when you just look at it from afar. Her hazel eyes were staring at the window, lost in thought and disinterested to Arnold’s first day. She wasn’t smiling but she wasn’t frowning either. Her presence was very different than all the other girls Arnold had met where she had this very serene aura about her that no man would ever resist than to be attracted to. It was only the beginning of class and already Arnold saw a lot of boys looking over their lectures to feast their eyes on her. The raven-haired teen can’t blame them, though. He also had that urge to stare at her, but he kept his eyes in check and listened to the teacher’s discussion. No matter how boring Calculus can be.

When the bell rang signaling lunchtime, one of the male students walked up to Arnold’s seat and proudly proclaimed, “My wonderful and handsome new classmate, Windogam Alnord!”

“It’s Wyndham Arnold, uh…” He had no idea what this weird guy’s name was.

The weird guy ignored his correction and said, “I would like to personally invite you to my group’s lunch buddy system! It is a glorious system where you learn to communicate with people and see more of their true selves than what they show in class. It creates bonds. It creates friendship. It creates… LOVE! So how about it Windo—eh?”

Arnold was already at the door. “Sorry, but I have somewhere else to go.” And he took off without looking back. If he did look back, he would’ve seen the crestfallen face of the weird guy.

“I think he doesn’t like you, Yoshi-kun,” a girl with square-rimmed glasses and ponytailed red natural hair said to the weird guy. She then smiled mischievously and said “Maybe your hairdo freaked him out.”

“Whatever do you mean, Jun-chan?!” Yoshikawa replied with shaking fists and fire burning in his eyes. He pointed at his black, bowl cut hair with green streaks coloring the ends. “This is the most HIP hairdo today! Surely, there must be another reason for Windogam’s departure than the handsomeness of my completely unique hair!”

“I’d rather call it queer than unique, if you ask me,” Jun murmured. “Well, why don’t you ask him when he comes back?”

“Yosh! I WILL! Now, my dear childhood friend of ten years, let us have LUNCH!” Yoshikawa made a pose that would definitely make your eyes twitch, but the rest of the class paid no real heed. They were already accustomed to Yoshikawa’s usual dramatic poses when it comes to lunch and certain topics.

Jun nodded and took out her bento. “Aren’t you going to eat, too, Onee-chan?” she said to the ebony-haired beauty staring out the window. If Jun had traced her line of sight, she would’ve known that Souma was looking at Arnold’s form exiting the gates.

Souma looked away, took out her own bento and said “Un” very quietly.

Hiding out in an alleyway, Arnold gently lowered the shoulder bag on the ground and unzipped it. Contained inside was a pair of Air Treck with black shining wheels. Last night, Arnold decided to give his ATs a bit of an upgrade. His ATs now don new engine cores twice as strong as his old ones, so for him to handle that kind of power, he made a special request from Valerie (Who still works at the AT shop) to sell him a newer version of the soft wheels which he now dubbed Grip Core B. The letter would be a double-meaning, he said. B would either stand for second, or black which is the wheels’ overall color scheme. Valerie countered that it looked more like ebony with its metallic shine than a mossy paint of normal black, but Arnold didn’t really paid attention. He had been working on these things all night configuring a few screws and power settings to accommodate his riding style and now it was time for a test run. His destination: Higachuu Middle School.

Just when he slipped them on and about to take off…

“Hold it right there!” a tomboyish voice exclaimed while that said person grabbed the back of his collar.

Arnold almost had his throat crushed when the person pulled his collar causing the front to squeeze his neck quite uncomfortably. He even thought his Adam’s apple was about to be crushed. When the pull dissolved and his ass landed unceremoniously on the hard ground, he swerved his head around and shouted “WHAT THE HELL?!”

Mikan only looked at the raven-haired teen with slight annoyance before nearing her face to his. “You know it’s only your first day and you’re already becoming a delinquent,” she said. “What would dear Rika-nee would say when I tell her this, hmm?” She had that cocky smirk on her face that really ticked Arnold off.

“Buzz off,” he scoffed. “I’m going whether you like it or not.”

“Well then do pray tell where exactly you will be going?”

“I’m going to see Ikki and the others. I’m having one of those foreboding feelings again.” In truth, that was actually true. This would be the day Ikki would confront Buccha, and Buccha, in turn, will give Ikki the parts he won in the Parts War. But Arnold knew that Buccha giving Ikki the real parts will not happen until after the damage had been done; the damage being Ikki and Ume getting drugged by the infamous mushrooms.

“Well, we can take care of that ‘foreboding feeling’ after school.”

“Who are you supposed to be? My mother?”

“No, I’m supposed to be your disciplinarian,” she answered with arms crossed. “And when I say you are not leaving. You. Are. Not. Leaving.”

Arnold sighed. No way for me to play hooky now, he thought, amused. “Alright, alright; I’m going back, I’m going back.” After replacing his ATs in the shoulder bag, he added “If we get home to find a very weird sight, then don’t blame me for not stopping it.”

Mikan just raised a brow at his proclamation and followed him back to school. She went back to her own classroom after escorting the teen to his. Arnold had very little time left for lunch so he decided to eat it on the rooftop instead of the room where everyone’s staring at him like he’s some kind of monster. Apart from being escorted by a pink-haired tomboy, Arnold had no idea what exactly did he do for his classmates to gape at him like what they are doing now.

Not the one to resist teasing a mass of people, he said “Like what you see?” and winked at the girls who were looking at him. The boys immediately looked away while some of the girls had blushes forming on their cheeks.

At least it’s not a bad gape, he thought. They don’t think of me as a freak, that’s for sure.

“Ah! Window-san!” Yoshikawa shouted when he caught sight of Arnold.

“It’s Wyndham, for the last time.”

“It’s no use saying that,” Jun said, appearing right behind Arnold which gave him a shock. He did not feel her walk behind him at all. “When Yoshi-kun here gets a name in his head, there’s no way for him to correct it that quickly. Give it a day or two, and he’ll get it right.” She then added, “I think.”

“And you are…” Arnold said to her.

“Jun. Souma Jun. Nice to meet you.”

“Souma? Hey, are you somehow related to Souma who sits next to me? The one who’s always staring out the window.”

“Yes,” she answered happily. “She’s my twin.”

Arnold was about to repeat the last word as a question since Jun and Souma don’t look that much alike, but then the revelation hit him quickly. “Fraternal,” he stated it more than asked it. “You almost had me ask you to elaborate.”

“And I wish you had, too. I always like explaining to people the concept about fraternal twins and how they seem to be more alike than identical twins.”

“They are? I mean the part about more alike than identical twins.” And with that, the two moved on in a lighthearted conversation.

All in all, Arnold’s lunchtime in this school got really interesting. He just didn’t like how it ended where Yoshikawa proudly yelled at the whole school that he has a new lunch buddy and… some other things that made Arnold cringe. But it was funny seeing a red-faced Jun and Run (The ebony-haired Souma’s first name) beating Yoshikawa up for different reasons. The former didn’t like his shouts that would quickly lead to misunderstandings, while the latter didn’t like Yoshikawa for ‘insulting’ her sister.

When Arnold, Ringo and Mikan came home, they found Kazu and Onigiri looking suspicious in front of the entrance door.

“What are you guys doing?” Mikan asked. Kazu and Onigiri looked worried for some reason.

“It’s about Ikki, isn’t it?” Arnold asked which was answered by nods from the two. He turned to Mikan and said, “Still think my ‘foreboding feelings’ are figments of my imagination?”

“I never said that. I only said they are not important.”

“Right…” he said mockingly.

“Foreboding feelings?” Ringo repeated.

“He was about to ditch school during lunchtime and he gave me this excuse about this foreboding feelings bullshit,” Mikan said.

“It’s not bullshit!” Arnold retorted. “If you don’t believe me then take a look inside.”

And all five of them did. And what they saw made their faces fault except for Arnold who already saw this coming. Still, it was a little disconcerting for him to find a giant AT engineered by an elementary school kid with a bit of help from a middle school AT addict. He smelled the fumes coming out of the exhaust and his nose didn’t really agree with it.

Before he would disembark out of the room and letting the two euphoric children go around their business with the motorcycle-like AT, Arnold couldn’t help but make a jab with Mikan’s pride. “Still think it’s bullshit? Hehehe.”

BASH!

The next morning, Arnold’s nose was covered in bandages. And for the record, Mikan was not sorry.

TO BE CONTINUED…

A/N: The next chapter will indulge in the interval between Mikan and Angelus' race to the arcade, to their arrival there and why they didn't meet up with Arnold. That's just a part of it; there are still more fillers to do before we get Akito/Agito in the story. I already have quite an amusing scene for them. Hehehe.