12:08 p.m., Taimadou Academy, Cafeteria
Rin currently was not in a good mood due to his talk with Ayako, but that was a story for another time.
As he had just finished talking to Ayako, he proceeded to the cafeteria as promised. Upon entering, he looked around, trying to find Akane. However, he suddenly felt strangely unpleasant. There were a lot of stares fixated on him.
'Fame doesn't come with fortune.'
Soon enough, he found Akane sitting with three other people: Hijiri, Fuka, and Hana. He approached the table immediately.
The four sitting down noticed him walking towards them and waved towards him. He noticed that there was a tray of food on Rin's right.
Upon reaching the table, Rin took a seat beside Akane.
"Hey, Rin, nice stunt you pulled off earlier."
The voice belonged to his childhood friend, Hijiri. Although Hijiri was part of the wind clan, they were close friends thus far.
Hijiri could be summed up as a simplistic man. He was a person who tended to tackle things head-on. A lot of people were inclined to think he did not have a brain due to this but were fatally mistaken. It was more so that Hijiri did not show it, but could use his mind when needed. Instead of merely 'simple', he could be called a 'man of action'. He was quite chill to hang out with.
"Brother, I don't think Rin meant it to be intentional…"
In response to Hijiri's 'compliment', his little sister, Fuka, who sat beside him, softly spoke. Fuka was a timid girl. When it comes to Hijiri, Rin, or Akane, however, she would always do her best. She saw Rin as her own brother, as Rin had always taken care of her ever since they were young. Meanwhile, she and Akane were best friends. It was supposedly rare for clan members of different elements to be close to each other. However, the Hitotsu and the Nika clan had a good relationship with each other.
"…"
Hana, who sat beside Fuka and diagonally to Rin's right, just remained silent; it seemed that she was slightly uncomfortable with the atmosphere. Akane, upon noticing this, changed the subject.
"Rin, how did your meeting go?"
Perhaps noticing Rin's slightly annoyed face, Akane had asked this question. But this was not something Rin felt like he wanted to say, so he was finding a lifeline. It seemed that it was too late, as the center of attention had turned towards him. Rin himself did understand that Akane was trying to allow Hana to partake in their discussion, but in turn, it made things inconvenient for him.
"Well… It certainly could've gone better."
Rin replied while thinking back to what had happened between him and Ayako.
"Was it bad, Rin?"
The gentle Fuka questioned her 'brother' Rin hesitantly. She had a feeling Rin did not want to confide in about what had happened, but she was interested.
"…"
Rin did not answer the question and chose to maintain his silence.
With that, they were back to square one.
Fortunately, a lifeline got thrown into this awkward mess.
"Excuse me, may I sit here?"
A slightly high-pitched voice cut through the silence. It belonged to a female student who had approached their table. The fact that she dared approach this group of five was absurd on its own. Among the five sitting there, only Rin seemed to recognize this person.
"Have a seat."
Strangely enough, Rin was the one who offered her the seat. This was met with a skeptical look from the other four excluding Hana.
The unknown student seemed shocked when Rin was the one who replied to her, out of fear perhaps of her own status. Yet if that was the case, why did she approach this table then?
"Thanks."
She sat on Rin's right, placing her tray on the table. On her tray was a chicken cutlet rice bowl.
"Pleased to meet you five. We are all classmates, right?"
This student seemed to already remember the faces of her classmates. Quite impressive.
"Yes, my* name is Mittsu Mihiro. My magic specialization is water."
(*: My, in this case, is "Boku", which Japanese males use to refer to themselves.)
It was somewhat repetitive to state one's magic specialization in their introduction as you could tell what it was just from their family name, but some people still felt the need to say it.
The other four at the table also introduced themselves to her. The person at the table who was the least aware had an interesting question.
"Mihiro, this may be impolite, but are you-"
"I am a girl."
She(?) seemed used to being asked this question that Hijiri did not even finish his sentence before she answered. Hijiri wanted to ask why she addressed herself using the male version of 'I' but decided that even he would not be that inconsiderate.
"…You guys are not going to ask me why?"
Mihiro sounded slightly frightened asking this. There was a chance this was due to PTSD or a traumatic experience.
"We all here have our own secrets anyways, so don't worry about it."
For some reason, it was Rin who comforted the slightly scared Mihiro. This made Mihiro smile deeply to herself. Perhaps Rin related emotionally to her.
The table's atmosphere was very warm, other than the fact that Hijiri felt guilty.
"Sorry for asking."
Hijiri bowed his head and said with an apologetic tone. He sounded very sincere.
"It's okay."
Hijiri raised his head and took a glance at Mihiro. She didn't seem uncomfortable, making Hijiri feel at ease. Hijiri may be called "simple", but he genuinely cared about other people's feelings. Meanwhile, ever since a while ago, Hana had been feeling anxious. She had something she wanted to ask.
"Mihiro, why did you approach this table out of all of them? Oh, I'm not telling you to leave or anything; it's just curiosity."
Hana had asked the question everyone else at the table had given thought to. It was very strange that Mihiro would want to sit at this table out of all the given choices.
Mihiro seemed initially puzzled by her question, but soon realized what Hana was asking. She gave it some thought, before showing a slight grin.
"Everyone else here was staring at you five, so I wanted to know what's up. Besides… I might be interested in Rin here."
"Huh?"
Rin dropped his fork onto the table. It made a loud clank as it hit the ground. He picked it up and placed it on the side of his plate. As he was eating a beef bowl, he did not feel the need to replace his fork.
Akane, meanwhile, had a small grin, interested but also cautious, whereas the other three were surprised. However, one of them was slightly enraged.
"Do you know Rin by any chance?"
What was more surprising was that the shy, calm Fuka was the one to ask this, with a slightly ticked-off voice no less.
Mihiro was confused as to why Fuka was angry as she was just playing around. So, she asked:
"Is Rin your boyfriend?"
"…"
The table stopped speaking; this was quite the predicament. At this point, Rin looked mentally exhausted; Akane was laughing to herself; Hijiri was laughing out loud, Hana was confused; and Fuka's face flushed a crimson red, extremely embarrassed. Complementary to them, Mihiro was thinking hard to herself.
Soon enough, Fuka had regained enough composure.
"No, he is my 'brother', but…"
Fuka softly muttered, while fidgeting her fingers under the desk. Her sentence had left quite a suggestion. However, Mihiro did not look too much into it.
"So… you both aren't in a relationship then," Mihiro pondered. She faced Rin, then continued, "I am interested in you, Rin. Can we go out?"
A landmine had been detonated. The lifeline was a trap.
The whole table was in disarray. While everyone was losing it, Rin was taking advantage of this time to think properly.
'What is Mihiro's reasoning? We literally just met today, there's no reason for her to have feelings for me. Was it love at first sight? I doubt it, she must have an agenda. I mean, I only briefly looked at her when we were filling out the forms. Is this because of my upbringing then? But other than that, I don't think I can trust Mihiro yet. I should reject her.'
While Rin was thinking to himself, Fuka felt a slight regret for not being able to voice her true intentions. Noticing this, Hijiri sighed.
'Just another unlucky day.'
At this point, Rin had already decided on an answer, but before he could voice it out-
"I see… it's okay."
For some reason, Mihiro had already accepted his rejection before he even said it. Rin, however, felt that it was not right for him not to verbally express it.
"Wait, let me say something—"
"Oh, so I'm not being rejected? Yay!"
Mihiro cheered loudly. Whether it was genuine or fake, it was hard to tell.
Rin really wanted to reject her on the spot immediately, but he had fallen into Mihiro's scheme. He was interested as to why she was willing to go for this approach while getting slightly annoyed.
He decided to counteract.
"Mihiro, can you come to our place after class?"
"Huh?"
This was by far the most bizarre statement uttered in this conversation. An invitation to his place immediately; how ready was Rin? Everyone was silent, the girls were lightly blushing at his implication; Hijiri had a 'This makes things harder' look; while Fuka looked so red she could faint any second.
Mihiro, on the other hand, was not even flustered by Rin's suggestive invitation and was clenching her fist as she was proud of her success. There was only the initial surprise, it seemed.
All the other students had eavesdropped on what was transpiring, deduced the events, and were now in an uproar.
"On the first day?!"
"As expected of the Yotsuba clan."
"She just wants him for his upbringing after all."
The last sentence did not pass Akane's ears, however. Almost instantly, she rose from her seat and approached the guy who uttered that sentence. He was shocked that he got approached but stood his ground. It was perhaps a foolish thing to do.
"Please don't badmouth her."
Akane spoke softly with a deadly tone. Her composed nature was replaced with bloodshot eyes. If she did not hear an apology, she would immediately fight this student.
Normally, any student would immediately fear being approached by someone from a first-tier magic clan. However, perhaps due to this student coming from a relatively high-tier clan himself, he had his ego.
"What do you mean? I am speaking the truth! Just because you are the first class doesn't mean you can decide everything!"
The fool dared to argue back. Akane was sighing in exasperation. She did not want to make this escalate.
"Hold it right there."
Before the fight could escalate, a charming voice cut the fight.
"Student council pres."
Perhaps this lunch was getting out of hand.
"That last bit certainly shouldn't have been said, but I'll let it pass this time. Instead of arguing in the cafeteria and attracting attention, how about a magic duel after school? I think it'll be a good demonstration for the first day."
Hasumi was adding more fuel to the fire. It was ironic that she was from the water clan. She was called to stop any potential conflict in the canteen, but because she wanted to gauge a member of the Hitotsu clan's abilities, she decided to go for a compromise.
"That's a good suggestion, president."
The fool voiced out. This was in tune with what Hasumi wanted, so she was delighted. However, Akane did not share this sentiment.
"I'll pass."
It may be unexpected for the whole cafeteria, but the table with the other five was not surprised.
"You don't have the skills to back up?"
Akane was provoked, but this much was child's play. She laughed out loud.
"Sorry, but you are not worth my time. Besides, I am busy after class. Rin and I must sort out our belongings in our dorm; we just moved in today."
Feeling that he was ridiculed, the student was fuming at this point.
"That's unfortunate. Maybe next time."
Hasumi noticed that his fuse was about to blow and intervened before he could respond. She realized that this might go out of hand regardless. Before that could happen, a fourth party entered the conversation.
"How about you fight me instead?"
Silence enveloped the cafeteria. This challenge came from the person no one wanted to deal with, Hitotsu Rin.
'Interesting… I would like to see this.'
Hasumi was smirking to herself. It may have been too early for this to happen though.
"…My problem is not with you."
However, Rin didn't want to budge.
"Akane's problems are my problems as well. If you do not want to have to deal with me, can we just put a stop to this? You should just apologize."
The student had considered that he had a winning chance against Akane, even though it was low. However, he also knew that Rin had attained the highest score in the mana reserve count; undetermined. For a lot of people, not knowing something caused fear to grow. Ultimately, he apologized to Mihiro; insincerely, but nevertheless, it was enough.
A lot of people were badmouthing his behavior, but some were impressed that he stood his ground although it had not been for the morally right purposes.
As this situation was resolved, Rin turned his back to the student and walked away. As if remembering something, he looked back once again.
"Thank you for de-escalating this issue, Senior Hasumi. If you need help with something, and it's within my ability, I will provide my assistance."
It could be said Rin was being overly courteous here, but he felt that he truly appreciated Hasumi's help.
Hasumi thought that she had not done much in preventing what had happened and it was mostly thanks to Rin's contribution. However, she couldn't care less about the minor details. (due to emotional loss).
"Sure then, I'll take you up on your offer when I need it, Rin."
With that, all the students returned to their respective seats and continued their lunch. However, among all the students, Fuka was dejected, which resulted in Hijiri's sour mood; Akane was happy and relieved; whereas Hana was confused and tired.
The two main individuals, Mihiro and Rin, also had their fair share of thoughts and emotions. Mihiro was awfully excited, while Rin, on the other hand, was thinking of how to play his cards right.