Already, a month has passed for the students at Songen high school and many have already begun to fit into the normal rhythm of daily life as they walk into the school this morning.

Little did anyone know that across the street atop one of the many building that surround the school sat a boy by the name of Romeo Valvatorez looking down at them, observing each one by one as they walked into the school.

“Let's see … my primary objective just entered the school so that's good. Now I just needa figure out which class he's in.” He says as he jotted down something into his notepad just as two figures who are also walking into the school catch his eye. One was a blonde with a tennis bag while the other a ravenette girl who seemed to be trying to avoid all the other students.

“Huh, a Sun and Storm. Didn't expect to see any here with that strong a flame. How amusing.” He said taking out a camera and snapping pictures of the two.

“New objectives found.” He said with a grin.

As the school bell began to ring he open a laptop and began researching the two girls he had seen. “Hmmmm, the ravenette seems pretty normal. Though her name shows up on a couple martial arts school rosters outside of Japan.”

He then pulls up another page and looks at the other. “Now THIS could be a problem. Ties to both the Zaveri AND the Cocomo families.” He then looks back at the school to see all three of them in their respective classrooms. “Meh. Fuck it. She's not put down as an official member to either so she's free game.” He says closing his laptop.

As he begins to clean up he chuckles to himself before leaving.

---

(Horizontal rule/line)

The next day

Bright and early before any other student got to school, Romeo stands in front of the lockers looking them over. “Ramirez Ramirez Ramirez where the hell is your locker.” He says to himself before finally finding it, opening it and putting an envelope into them. Then he looks over the other lockers and does the same for both Asha’s and Maria’s lockers.

In each letter was a ring along with a letter, all three saying.

“Please come to the back of the gym after school. I have something important to tell you.” - Love V.

“Hehe, It feels like I'm giving out love letters.”

---

(Horizontal rule/line)

The chattering in Class 2-A dominates the room with the absence of the teacher. Maria sits in the second to last seat in the far back next to the window as Damien Ramirez sits in the dead center. The classes chattering only grows by the minute as students wonder were their teacher is before said teacher, Ms. Saibara, enters the classroom, “Alright class listen up. We got a new student so show some respect!” She says as the class grows silent. She then motion to the door, “Get in here and introduce yourself kid.”

As she says that Romeo enters the classroom and stands in front of the class. “Salve! My name is Romeo Valvatorez, nice to meet some of you.” He said with a bright smile.”

“Romeo, go sit in the seat behind Maria, the one is the back by the window.”

“Yes mam.” He said complying as he walked over and took his seat.

As he sits down he leans forward and whispers in a mischievous tone. “Let's get along Maria-san.” He says as he pokes her in the back with his finger. Casting a quick look over to Damien before sitting down.

"brrring, brrring!!" Maria’s alarm clock started ringing like crazy for a brief moment, before being quickly turned off by Maria. She groaned as she stood up from her bed, today, as usual, she had gotten little sleep and just as she felt the sweet embrace of the god Hypnos the alarm clock shattered any hopes of that. On her way to school, she felt as if someone was looking at her. Thinking about it the horoscope had said that her life would begin to change drastically, though someone looking at her from afar didn't exactly paint a positive change in her life. Quickly checking her surroundings she did not see the supposed stalker "I must still be sleeping..." Maria said as she rubbed her eyes. The fact that her day continued as normal reassured her a little, but she still remained vigilant for the supposed "drastic change".

Next day
Maria stood confused in front of her locker, holding a card in one of her hands and the ring in the other while trying to puzzle out the meaning of it "Am I being pranked?" was the first thing to come out of her mind and the most probable reason for her, the card read as most of the cards her classmates sent to their seniors before being cruelly rejected, but the strange part was the ring. Looking more closely at the ring it didn't look like some of the cheap ones scammers like to sell tourists, so it seemed like too much effort for a simple prank at a relatively unknown person at school. Thinking about the results of yesterday horoscope she started to think about the other possibility, was there someone naive or stupid enough to send a love letter to someone who probably didn't know or remember them? probably and she doubted a prank would change her life in any meaningful way. "I am looking to far into things I don't know, If this is a prank I will probably beat the crap out of them and if it is someone trying to confess their feelings, I will simply reject them and tell them to not buy rings for their high school sweetheart" she reassured herself as she made her way into her classroom.

Resting her head on her desk Maria tried to regain her lost sleep in the midst of all the chatter "Is it too much of a problem for them to shut up?" She wondered to herself while listening to some snippets of their conversations. It did seem strange that the teacher wasn't already in the room, perhaps class was cancelled and she would have more time to sleep. That wishful thinking was soon disproven when she came with an unknown student, he looked too happy for someone who had transferred from another school only a month after classes started "Probably a troublemaker" she muttered to herself as she tried to guess where he was going to sit. "There doesn't seem to be any seat left, maybe they will bring an ex-"

“Romeo, go sit in the seat behind Maria, the one is the back by the window.”

Ah, shit, her days of being unbothered by someone on her back had ended, and the mischievous tone of Romeo's greeting only twisted the metaphorical wound. "Yeah, Yeah let's get along and all that stuff Romeo-san, just a quick warning though, if you value those fingers you have don't touch me again, or for that matter try to talk to me when I am trying to sleep" she also whispered to Romeo in a neutral tone. Was Romeo one of the big changes that her life would have? She hoped that was not the case.

“Please come to the back of the gym after school. I have something important to tell you.” - Love V.

"The gym after school...?" Asha said re-reading the curious parchment. She had never, in her entire life, had such a situation where someone was luring her to a place after class. Of course she would go! After all, this nice person had asked her too and it would be extremely rude not to go, but it still felt odd. She had just gotten here so who would want to meet her so badly?

Asha looked around, to her left and right, to see if anyone else had a note. No. She was the only one at the lockers 3 minutes before the first period started. So strange! She hooked a strand of her long, silky blond hair behind her left ear as she pocketed the note. "I should probably hurry and get to class..." Thinking outloud she placed her tennis gear into her locker and hurried in her school attire in the direction she thought the classroom was.

Turned out she was turned around, going backwards, and even had the numbers mixed up. Having to sprint for a spell, Asha bearly made it in just before the new student, Romeo, was introduced. Asha let out a breath of air as she realized she had bearly made it on time. Asha began her usual morning conversation with her peers directly to her right. She was so bad at names though she couldn't remember how to pronounce them and, to avoid seemingly like she never listened, she always tried to avoid calling for their names directly. There was some gossip about a school fight, some politics, something about a park being infested with something and rumors about a teacher being an undercover gangster or something, Asha only half listened today. She was distracted.

Asha could help but gawk at Romeo as he came in. He seemed...Strange. He, like a rare handful of other students, didn't seem oriential. He was definitely foreign, but she couldn't place where. Who was he and where was he from? He seemed a little chipper too, as if maybe excited about something in the room or his mind. He was sat by Maria, to which Asha followed with her eyes silently.

"Are you listening, Asha-chan?"
Her friend to the left, possibly Saiyaka, (her name was Sakura) called. She was in the middle of her story and here Asha was rudely staring at boys, "Oh. I am so sorry. I just thought he looked familiar," She said, pretty loud. "He reminds me of a friend of my grandpa," Asha added, returning her eyes to her peer and nodding, "It was Mr. Kahtezo, right? The one that might be an undercover gangster?" Asha chimmed, showing that she was at least half listening.
"Keitenzo-sensei, Asha-chan. No one knows what "Mr" is, sounds weird. Don't do that," Her friend reprimanded.
"Sorry, sorry. Old habits," Asha said with a short laugh.

And with that she was no longer focused on Romeo, the mysterious new student, and was instead now listening to her friend go on and on about some probably made up story of this dangerous teacher.

Damien woke up irritated. A loud, obnoxious sound came from his alarm. The teenager pulled his arm out from under the covers and blindly searched the desk adjacent to his bed. He knocked a few pencils and papers before finding the alarm clock; he pressed the off button in frustration. Sighing, he sat up on his bed and smacked his lips. The taste of morning breath left a sour taste.

He turned his head and picked up the alarm clock for a better view of the time. "Oh, man." He muttered. Damien found himself late to school. No doubt, the noise that just played must have been his sixth alarm notice. The teenager grudgingly got out of bed and headed to the shower.

Damien rushed through most of his morning routine. He merely rinsed his body of water. The teen did apply a coat of body spray to tackle any odors. Brushing his teeth was needed given his morning breath. After everything, he did grab a granola bar and headed to school. The entire process was rushed, but every action did give him a slight hint of pain. Moving boxes for his part-time job stressed out his body in the morning.

---

Damien held his head up in class with his arm. The subject of the course only bored him. Every day seemed like a regular routine. ALthough, something unexpected did happen to the teenager. Glancing at the note on the desk, he began to wonder the reasons for the sly invitation. Damien only guessed a few natural scenarios in his head.

Most likely, the note could be a chain letter of sorts, though that sort of game was restricted to emails. This could be a first in an actual tangible letter. Damien hoped the note did not come from a band of jealous high-schoolers. Some individuals at school were petty and might harm other students. Damien thought more about that and couldn't think of a reason why students would be jealous of him. His academic standing was not in the lead and neither was his athletic ability.

Damien did think of another scenario. The most probable reason could be a secret admirer. Girls cannot stop liking Damien, or so he thought. Drool climbed out from the corner of his mouth as his daydreamed.

Romeo sighed as he sat on the roof of school during lunch. “Jesus, was school always this rough? It’s like those lessons were told in a different language.” He said as he began to stand up but stopped half way. “Oh wait, they were … I’m italian … … Meh whatever.”

Romeo then walked up to the fence on the roof and looked down. From here, a person could get a clear view of behind the gym. Since the gym was placed right next to the school wall at the back of the school, there was only one way to enter and exit the area behind it. “Well, time to get to work.” He sighs as he took out an array of tools out of seemingly nowhere. “Guess I'm skipping evening classes.” He said before he began to work on his plan for after school.

---

Meanwhile across town at the Songenka airport, a teenager in a suit who looked younger than Romeo descended the steps of his private jet, 2 bodyguards following him down. The teen has slick black hair gelled backwards with aggressive eyes and a cigar hanging from his mouth. G

“Ok boys you know the drill, the second you see someone who even makes the faintest blip on the radar you kill them.” He said with a dark smile as he looked down at his ringed hand, a dark red flame bursting into existence. “Let's go hunting Hound Squad!!"

Seeing as how Romeo followed her advice and stopped bothering her, Maria slumped her head in her desk and decided to take a nap to compensate for the little sleep she had gotten last night, she didn't really care for the subject at class since if she studied all night before the exam she would get average grades, though she would have wished she hadn't taken that nap. Nightmares weren't a new thing to Maria, with the, being a common occurrence on her childhood, and while they had decreased as she grew up, that didn't mean they had completely gone away. Dreaming that her exam was on Italian, Maria struggled for what it seemed hours trying to guess what did the questions meant as every one of her classmates, the transfer student included, finished and laughed at her.

Slamming her desk in frustration on the dream seemed to also occur in the real world. Finally waking up from that sound, she noticed a couple of her classmate, looking at her in confusion, with most having gone to eat their lunch. "Did you have a nightmare Maria-chan?" one of her classmates playfully asked, suppressing a laugh. Maria simply ignored her, as she exited the classroom, apart from that it was embarrassing that she had woken up like that, she didn't want to miss one of her favorite moments in school; lunch. Eating at the roof without any annoying chattering was a truly relaxing experience. Opening the room to the roof, she saw a familiar face in standing up near the fence; it was that damned transfer student! He seemed to be working on something, though Maria couldn't really tell from her position. She couldn't care less about what was he working on, she only cared about him doing his stuff in other place and having the only person in the roof be her. "HEY!, What the hell are you doing on the roof!" she shouted at him hoping to catch his attention from whatever he was doing.

‘Just a few more hits here and there and this one will be good to go.’ Romeo thought, hammer in hand as he looked down at what looked to be some weirdly shaped mechanical device that stood around 3 feet tall, green electricity sparking from place to place. He holds a nail in place and begins to ham-

"HEY!, What the hell are you doing on the roof!"

“GAH!!” Romeo yelled as he accidentally hammers his thumb. Damn that's gonna hurt for a while. He instinctively reaches down to his belt and hovers his hand over a box on his belt before he quickly looks behind him to see Maria staring at him. ‘ When did she get here?!’ He relaxes as he grabbed a white sheet and throws it over the device he was working on. “Uh, Ciao Maria! How long have you been here? I thought you were still asleep downstairs.” He said with a grin alittle more nervous than his usual grin as he looked up from the floor at her, trying to avoid eye contact.

Misako sat at the back of the classroom, resting her chin against the elbow lazily as she looked briefly at the newly transferred student. Yesterday was a longer shift at work, and she was still feeling drowsy after she had overslept in the morning. A foreigner, not something you would see very often.

---

Misako was eating her lunch beside the locker, frowning slightly as she looks at her bamboo sword. Not a crack again, there goes another 2000 yen... Chucking that broken sword back into her locker, she slammed her locker shut while wolfing down her food in frustration. Her bonus from her overtime at the convenience stall rendered nothing just like that. At times she had wondered whether Kendo is an appropriate sport for her, seeing on how her bamboo swords had choked on her finances by breaking over and over.

Sipping on her lemonade, she stormed back to class, having no mood for any more sightseeing on her lunch break.

Damien stopped by the convenient vending machine located in the cafeteria. Tardiness brought many consequences. One of them caused Damien to forget a packed lunch. Sure, he could get in line and eat what the cafeteria ladies served, but most of the food remained mediocre. The teenager felt like eating something tasty or packaged. His body hurt like hell and he did not need to start feeling nauseous.

Looking at the various choices, he started to drool. Making a decision proved difficult. Damien could benefit from a bag of chips or a roll of cookies, but the snack never lasts long nor does it give a satisfying resolution to his hunger. Holding onto his growling stomach, Damien scoffed and chose the most reasonable option. His hands dug into his pocket for coins.

Inserting them one by one, he pressed the correct buttons which provided the food item to drop down in the tray box. Fishing it out, he pulled out a refrigerated sandwich. No unique qualities were on the sandwich. It was a casual bologna and cheddar hoagie. Damien figured he wouldn't have any diarrhea and he would get slightly full.

Walking outside, he began to scarf down his sandwich. When he stepped outside, he then overheard people shouting from the roof. "Pfft, freshman." He complained as he looked up.

That wasn't a reaction that Maria expected, for the few hours that she had known Romeo he seemed to be more confident in himself, he was clearly trying to hide something from her and trying to divert her attention. Giving him a quick glance he noticed him having a strange box in his belt, which seemed to be some sort of keychain? Maria couldn't guess why would he have it in his belt. Looking behind him he noticed a something being covered by a sheet, which she guessed was the thing he was working on. While she didn't really care about what was he doing, she got the feeling that Romeo wouldn't let her be there while he was working on those things, so she would try to see what was the device on her own way. "I haven't been here for much, really, just long enough to see you working on something, and seeing you getting really nervous when you saw me here" She paused, a grin forming on her lips. "Your change in demeanor after thinking I watched whatever you were working on tells me that you don't want other people to know about it.... so I'll have to see it for myself!" Maria said, rushing to grab the device.

Wait … what happened to all my sensors? Romeo absentmindedly wondered.

"I haven't been here for much, really, just long enough to see you working on something, and seeing you getting really nervous when you saw me here" She paused, a mischievous grin forming on her lips. "Your change in demeanor after thinking I watched whatever you were working on tells me that you don't want other people to know about it.... so I'll have to see it for myself!" Maria said, rushing to grab the device.

Romeos brow twitched for a split second. ’I … lost my cool?’ He thought wide eyed as the girl slowly approached him. ’Heh, I guess I’m getting rusty.’ He thought amused as he immediately grabbed the light blue box on his belt. "Say Maria, you look tired. Bags under your eyes and all. The ring on his right middle finger began to produce a blue water-like aura. He then pressed his ring to the box, it opening it up and engulfing Maria in a bright like. ”Maybe you should get some more sleep. Colpo di Pioggia Fredda!!! (Cold Rain Blow!!!)” His voice echoes as a torrent of whitish blue aura shoots out of the box, covering all of Maria’s body. ”Fall asleep to the flames of Tranquility.” He says before the light dims revealing Maria collapsed onto the floor. Wether she was unconciense or not he didn’t know, but he knew that after getting hit directly by such a dense rain flame she wouldn’t be able to move till an hour before school ended. Unless of course she used flames.

Romeo, not missing a beat, picks up the covered device and began casually walking off the roof as if nothing happened. ”Maaan, now I gotta set this up somewhere else.” He said allowed, wondering were to put the device.

Misako was back at her table, flipping open her notebook to a torn page. With one snap of her fingers, the torn page restored to a complete one with the test of her power of illusions.

This page isn't real... Misako touched the page and as expected, her powers only 'cheat' on perceptions, it doesn't change any of the physical realm, so it is fake in a sense. In short, she will have to fix her wooden sword with her money, not with her illusions. Her, being as rational as she is, had made her illusion small, to prevent her classmate from noticing anything strange.

Unknowingly to Misako, she wasn't aware of those rival gangs that might have equipments good enough to sense her usage of the Mist Flames. As long as I lay low with this, I wouldn't get into any unnecessary trouble...