…
Meanwhile, in a bungalow near St. Xavier Private High School,
Mika Nakamura was doing her homework at her desk when her twin brother, who was sitting on her bed as he played with his iPad, suddenly burst out laughing.
She quickly turned around, and she saw him laughing while looking at the iPad, she asked curiously, "What are you laughing at?"
Taka Nakamura grinned and put aside the iPad. "It's not proper to share it with a girl."
"Why not?" she asked, pouting.
"There's nudity involved…" Taka Nakamura winked at his sister before getting up. He then walked over to check on her homework before correcting some of it. "You need to pay attention to this, or you will lose the points. You won't want to lose to that kid again, do you?"
Mika Nakamura growled as she quickly amended her mistakes. "Don't mention him. I passed by him this morning, and it was as if he didn't recognize me at all!"
She was so mad that when she wrote down the new lines of equations, she accidentally tore the paper slightly. Seeing that, she got even madder and threw the pen at the wall, leaving a blue line on the otherwise clean white wall. "Gosh! His face is pissing me off!"
"Just calm down…" Taka Nakamura said as he reached over to get the roll of cellophane tape that was on her desk. As he calmly fixed her torn paper, he said, "Just keep practicing. You'll be able to win him sooner or later…"
Hearing that, Mika Nakamura's expression suddenly changed. Her usually confident gaze changed to one of sadness. "I have less than two years left…"
She had been training hard the last few years, as this would be the last time she would be able to join the Battle, and she prayed to the gods every day that she could get strong enough to destroy the boy who humiliated her.
Taka Nakamura looked at his sister and went over to hug her. As he gently consoled her by patting her on the back, he murmured, "I won't let you be sacrificed for things that you didn't do."
"You can't stop it…"
"I'll think of a way," Taka Nakamura said with a gentle smile as he looked down at his younger sister. He had always been extremely fond of his twin sister, so he did not like to see her getting upset, not if he could help it.
Even when their father had given up on her, he would not do so.
Mika Nakamura sighed softly as she ducked out of her brother's embrace and went to lie down on her bed. "What did you talk with the old man anyway? I heard you talking to him over the phone when I came out of the shower earlier."
Taka Nakamura sat down on the bed and shrugged. "We talked a little about the battle. Apparently, there would be some changes this year. They found another stable dimension that we can fight in… and apparently, there are a lot of treasures to be found in this dimension. Maybe there's something there that we can use to trade with the Xeel'guth."
"Oh?" Mika Nakamura looked at her brother. She did not have any hope that they could find anything worthy of Xeel'guth's attention, so she changed the topic. "But I heard you asking for a few men."
Taka Nakamura chuckled. "That's just for a bit of a prank. Although… I got found out. Then again, those are the disposable members of our clan, so I didn't really expect much."
The Nakamura Group had its own ranking system, and for those of the Ryotaro Nakamura's lineage, some people were just easily disposable.
He then lay down next to his sister and said, "But that Juin kid is quite interesting… He's so wimpy looking at school. You should have seen him when I approached him earlier; so jumpy, like a little puppy! I thought that he would just lay low and feign ignorance since he was so quiet and reserved at school…"
Taka Nakamura chuckled as he continued, "But he actually dared to prank the men I sent out…"
He thought back about the scene he saw through one of Juin's neighbors' surveillance cameras. "That guy actually burned off all their clothes…"
Mika Nakamura frowned as she imagined naked men running down the street. She then shook her head to get the image out of her mind. "What the… That's funny?"
"It's funny for me," Taka Nakamura shrugged.
"I think that's a little perverted…"
"Meh," Taka Nakamura murmured as he waved his hand nonchalantly. "Have you talked to him yet?"
When his younger sister shook her head, he asked again, "Why not? You guys are in the same class, so it shouldn't be hard for you to talk to him. Even I managed to talk to him. He's a loner, right? I asked some of the kids from his school, and they said that he only has one friend, Maxine Thompson."
"Maxine Thompson?" Mika Nakamura thought back to rollcall time, and she recalled seeing a little redhead with her arm raised when Mad Dog called out the name "Maxine Thompson". "I've seen her. She's always talking with that kid, and she's seated behind him in class.���
Taka Nakamura nodded, and his usual carefree demeanor was soon replaced by a serious one. "They grew up together, so if you want to get him alone, either get rid of the girl or get close to her and get all the information on him. If there's someone who would know something, that would be her."
Mika Nakamura nodded. "I know what to do."
"Oh, and be careful of the girl's father," Taka Nakamura said as he narrowed his eyes. "He used to be a member of the Order of the Supernatural Code."
"Used to?" Mika Nakamura raised a brow. "I didn't know that it's possible to leave without joining another faction for protection."
Taka Nakamura shrugged. "The reason and how are kept secret, but just be careful if you're thinking of doing something to the girl. Make sure that no one knows about it."