Chapter 17: The Suits

On the mat, Taichi and Asumi lay sprawled out, chests rising and falling heavily, too exhausted to even sit up.

Kodaka watched the footage of the final exchange on loop, the decisive moment frozen and replayed from every possible angle on the massive digital display above the arena.

No matter how many times the footage replayed, no matter the angle, no matter the frame, the conclusion never changed. The blows came at the same exact time. It was a perfect tie.

“You two are really going to make me pull out the employee handbook, huh?” Kodaka muttered, rubbing his temples as he scrolled through his phone. “Let’s see… ties, ties… ah. Here we go.”

He cleared his throat.

“In the event of a tie, the higher ranked fighter retains their rank, while the lower rank fighter is elevated to the rank directly below them. So that would make Hayato Taichi Rank #3.”

“Rank #3, huh…?” Taichi said weakly.

“Not bad, transfer student,” Asumi said with a tired chuckle. “You climbed fast.”

“I really just can’t seem to beat you, huh, Snow Princess?” Taichi smirked.

For once, rather than lashing out at her nickname, Asumi smiled, straining to get back up to her feet again.

Meguri vaulted down from the Top Ten booth, cheering loudly as she barreled into Asumi and knocked her flat onto the mat again.

“You both were crazy! What was that last attack, Asumi?! You made it snow fire? How much mana did that take? You’re insane! And Taichi, you were really thinking on your feet this time around, huh? Good on you! Welcome to the Top Ten!” Meguri ranted.

“Meguri…” Asumi wheezed, clenching her ribs.

“Oh, sorry,” Meguri chuckled as she got off. “Anyway, it’s time to cele-”

“It’s time for me and Taichi to go back to our dorm,” Asumi cut in flatly.

“Ah yes, bedroom time for the two of you. Got it. Leave a sock on the door!” Meguri grinned.

“Sock on the…” Asumi froze, then immediately combusted into a blush. “We’re taking a nap! Separately! We’re tired!”

“Hey, you can call it what you want, I’m sure you need the privacy to do what you’re doing though!” Meguri remarked.

“I mean, I do like privacy when I sleep,” Taichi added helpfully.

“Stop feeding into her delusions, Taichi!” Asumi snapped.

“You’re the one she teases the most!” Taichi argued.

Their complaining continued while the entire student body sat in the crowd, hearing every word of their dynamic, confused by the comedy routine suddenly taking place. Realizing how crowded the area was, Asumi and Taichi suddenly stopped talking.

Meguri, meanwhile, was completely unbothered.

After a short walk back, Taichi and Asumi collapsed into their respective beds. Two hours passed in blissful silence and sleep.

Then Asumi’s phone rang.

She let it go to voicemail.

It rang again.

“Ugh…” Asumi groaned, answering. “Hello?”

“Asumi, wake up Taichi and come up to my dorm floor. We have a problem,” Meguri said over the phone, her tone more serious than ever.

“What is this about?” Asumi asked, already getting out of bed.

“Just come now, I can’t explain it over the phone.”

She hung up immediately.

Asumi sighed and tapped the divider between her and Taichi.

“Taichi, wake up. Meguri needs us to go to her floor.”

Taichi groaned loudly and turned in his bed.

“10 more minutes,” he responded.

“She needs us now, Taichi!” Asumi replied, opening the divider.

Taichi was sprawled diagonally across his bed, one arm dangling off the side, hair crushed into a direction that defied gravity.

“I don’t wanna…” he said, his eyelids half open.

The sight was adorable through the eyes of Asumi, but she needed him to wake up. She built up all her courage, grabbing Taichi’s blanket and yanking it off of him.

“Wakey wakey, Taichi!”

Taichi groaned.

“Fine, fine…”

He got out of bed, his short black hair messier than usual.

“Wow, how is your bedhead this bad with such short hair?” she muttered, grabbing a brush from her side of the room, handing it to Taichi. “Fix it.”

“It’s fine, I don’t need to.”

“Yes you do,” Asumi argued, reaching up to brush his hair herself. “Geez… you’re something else…”

“And you wonder why people tease us about being a couple…” Taichi said, surrendering to the hairbrush.

“Nobody else is here right now, so it’s fine!” Asumi retorted, finishing his hair. “Alright, let’s go.”

They rode the elevator up – and stepped out just as several black-suited figures entered, hauling suitcases filled with belongings that should be in a dorm.

They passed with no acknowledgement.

The elevator doors slid shut as it slowly started moving to the ground floor.

Once they reached Meguri’s dorm, they didn’t even have to knock before she opened the door and pulled them in.

“My roommate’s not here, so we can talk freely,” Meguri said, clearly frazzled.

“What happened?” Asumi asked.

“The suits… they were here,” Meguri said.

“Yeah, we saw them go into the elevator. They had some suitcases. Is it that crazy?” Taichi asked.

“Well, I’ve never seen those people enter a dorm building before, and the person’s room they took that stuff from… was Tadokoro Shoko,” Meguri stated.

“So she probably got expelled,” Taichi concluded, shrugging his shoulders.

Asumi shook her head.

“No, in this school, if you get expelled, it’s announced, and the student clears their own belongings. I didn’t get any announcement, and I’m assuming neither of you did?”

Both Taichi and Meguri nodded.

“So there is something fishy going on with them…” Asumi concluded, brushing her golden hair back.

“If we want to know what’s going on… shouldn’t we follow them? They just left on the elevator, so we could probably catch up with the stairs,” Taichi said.

Asumi and Meguri stared at each other blankly.

“Uh…” Meguri trailed off before grabbing her jacket and running out the door and to the staircase, Asumi following in pursuit.

“Guess we’re doing that.”

Taichi followed the two of them out, running down the stairs of the building shakily, leaping multiple steps at a time. Meguri activated her aspect to speed up down the stairs, and Asumi did the same – leaving a crisp trail of mana lingering through the stairwell. They breezed pass other students walking normally, who’s eyes followed them in complete confusion. Taichi started jumping across the railings of the stairs to keep up with their speed running.

Once they hit the bottom of the staircase, they opened the door to see the suited figures moving down the hall of the skyscraper. Taichi began running after them, but Asumi held him back.

“Slow down, idiot!” Asumi whispered. “If we’re following them, we can’t let them see us doing it!”

“Does it really matter if they see us?” Taichi retorted. “We could just… ask them who they are.”

“If we do that, how can we guarantee that we won’t be in the same position as Tadokoro? There’s clearly a secret being kept here – the teacher’s wouldn’t be refusing to contact us about this situation otherwise,” Asumi said.

“Fine, fine…” Taichi said, staying back with Asumi as they watched the suits move across the skyscraper, opening a restricted access door with a keycard.

Asumi managed to get to the door before it closed, keeping it open.

“Should we really… oh, screw it–” Taichi surrendered.

Taichi went in after Asumi, followed by Meguri once confirming the suits weren’t looking in their direction. They stayed a safe distance away from them – staying unnoticed as they walked down a completely empty hall; the walls completely bare. At the end, there was another elevator, requiring another keycard.

They were forced to watch the elevator close before their eyes, clenching their fists as the trail to Shoko went cold.

“Where does this elevator even lead?” Taichi asked, stepping closer to the control panel. “Rank #1 Security Clearance…? That isn’t what I think it means, right?”

Asumi gasped softly.

“Rank #1 Security Clearance is only given to one student at any given moment. It’s the clearance that allows people to meet the headmaster…” Asumi said, shivering slightly.

“You mean this elevator… it leads to him?” Taichi asked.

Asumi nodded.

“I’d bet on it – which means if we want to find out what happened to Tadokoro…” Asumi started.

“One of us needs to become Rank #1 before the trail goes cold.”