"Late late late!" Reo sprinted through the school gates, Haruto reluctantly keeping pace beside him. They'd spent so long dealing with the morning's chaos that first period was about to start.
"This is stupid," Haruto muttered under his breath, careful not to speak too loudly after the trash can incident. "Why am I even running with you?"
"Because," Kuro chimed in, floating backwards in front of them, "you two need to stick together! Your powers are probably linked thanks to the reality crack."
"Nobody asked you—" Haruto's sharp reply made a nearby window rattle. He immediately clamped his mouth shut, face paling.
"Inside voice," Reo reminded him, then realized the irony of giving the school's most feared delinquent speaking tips.
They made it to class just as the bell rang. Reo slid into his seat, trying to look normal despite Kuro perching on his desk like some invisible gargoyle. Haruto slouched to his own desk in the back corner, where people usually avoided looking at him anyway.
"Perfect!" Kuro clapped. "Now we can start power training—"
"We are not doing anything," Reo whispered, pretending to organize his notebooks. "We're going to sit quietly and learn... whatever this class is."
"History," Haruto supplied from the back, his whisper somehow carrying perfectly to Reo's ears.
"Right, history—wait, how did I hear that?"
Kuro's grin widened. "Oh, interesting! The incident of Reality Hiccups must be enhancing your connection. You two can probably communicate better now."
"That's not a good thing!" Reo hissed.
"I heard that too," Haruto grumbled from the back.
Their teacher walked in, and Reo tried to focus on the lesson about the Meiji Restoration. But it was hard to concentrate when:
1. Kuro kept making historical figures in the textbook illustrations dance
2. He could somehow hear Haruto's irritated mumbling from across the room
3. His pencil kept floating every time he set it down
"Now," the teacher announced, "let's have someone read the next passage. Kisaragi?"
Reo stood, grabbing his book. "Yes, sensei!"
"Oh, this'll be good," Kuro snickered.
Reo shot him a glare and started reading. "In the year 1868—" He felt his feet leaving the ground. "—the political and social struct—NO!"
He grabbed his desk as he started floating, earning strange looks from his classmates.
"Kisaragi?" The teacher frowned. "Are you feeling well?"
"I'm fine!" Reo squeaked, now practically hugging his desk to stay down. "Just... stretching!"
From the back of the room came a sound like suppressed laughter. Then a crash as Haruto's accidental chuckle knocked over his own desk.
The entire class turned to stare at him.
"Sorry," Haruto managed, his usual intimidating aura somewhat diminished by his obvious embarrassment. "I, uh... saw a funny bird."
Kuro was practically crying with laughter. "You two are amazing at this! So natural! So smooth!"
"Shut up!" Reo and Haruto snapped simultaneously.
The classroom windows rattled. Reo's textbook flew up and hit him in the face. And their teacher looked like she was seriously reconsidering her career choices.
"Perhaps," she said carefully, "you both should visit the nurse's office."
Five minutes later, Reo and Haruto sat on opposite ends of the nurse's office waiting room, steadfastly ignoring each other while Kuro floated between them with an enormous grin.
"So," Kuro broke the silence, "about that training montage—"
"No," both boys growled.
"Look," Reo sighed, "we just need to get through one normal school day. That's all I'm asking for."
Haruto nodded. "Agreed. No powers, no floating, no... whatever this is."
"Boring!" Kuro pouted. "But fine. I guess you don't want to learn how to control it before—"
The nurse's office door slid open. But instead of the nurse, a tall figure in a white uniform stepped in. Their eyes gleamed with an unnatural light.
"Anomalies detected," they said in a voice that was definitely not human. "Beginning purification protocol."
Kuro's playful demeanor vanished. "Ah. That's what I was trying to warn you about."
End of Chapter 3