I don't know whether that was her number or not, I'm actually only acquired a phone yesterday, I still don't have any contact on it other than Urushibara .
So he didn't know whether that was her number or not, the voice was quite similar, but the call was too short to tell whether that was her on the phone or not, but he said something that might be confirming my suspicions a bit more, he said :
I told her to apologize for her previous behavior and thank you for what you did back in the Training Arena, I too want to thank you for helping her out .
I nodded at him and said nothing more, the door of the office was already open, so I just went out of the office, thinking about trying again to call the number and just confirm what was going on, I called the phone number, but like every time I tried to dial it before, the call wasn't picked up .
So I ended up the call and began walking around the corridors, there was still a bit of time before the class starting, so I went around the school, but I kept waking and especially when I appeard on the upperclassmen floor, I kept on getting weird glances from the male and female senpais .
I wasn't able to tell what was going on first, but then I heard a few girl whispering and gossiping about me just as passed by them and finally understood what was going on here, the weird glances, the gossiping, they were all related to the rumors that were circling in school about me, the ones that the principal mentioned to me yesterday, from the girls from before words, I heard they were talking about me being a notorious playboy and a hooligan .
I was beginning to lose my temper at the fact that some of them beginning to call me names and describing me as shameless and the likes, I was shocked by the fact that they seemed to be some talks about some pictures, i saw someone showing it on his phone to his friends, I couldn't help but use Fixed Point and go see what exactly was going on here .
I first expected to see the picture of me and Momochi-senpai talking at most, but the picture in front of me was a different one, it was a picture of me and Tokiko talking yesterday, but the picture wasn't of us talking, but it was us hugging .
So that what was going on, I negated the effect of the spell and the guys who suddenly saw me appearing among them suddenly like a ghost, all fell down on the ground in fright, seeing that there was no point in even trying to convince them that they misunderstood, I paid them no mind anymore and went on my way, heading to the roof, I got a message from Tokiko suddenly, she was asking where I was .
Not wanting to make matters worse, I tried to tell her any excuse not to make her want us to meet up at least for now, but I was suddenly taken aback when she sent me a picture, the same picture that was circling around the school currently, I was surprised due to the fact that she sent a few lovingly emojis right after and she sent me a message saying that she made that picture her phone new wallpaper .
I thought that's so like her in my mind, but I didn't say anything more, I told her that we could meet up in the Training Arena, even though she was a bit frustrated and kept sending me a few sad emojis, I didn't reply back, I really didn't care much about what those guys think of me, I had survived worse things than that, so it wasn't that big of a deal, but Tokiko was different, I didn't like them talking about her, so for her sake, i decided that we shouldn't meet up currently, this happening after the conversation we had today is just too surprising to me .
I guess opening up to each other will still need to be postponed for a while, a moment after that, my phone rang two times, two messages appeared almost simultaneously on the screen, one was from Momochi-senpai asking if I had any plans for today, asking to meet up, she wanted to know the idea she can use for training, if before I would have agreed to meet, but currently there was no chance that I would let these rumors get any worse than they already are .
So I told her that I will talk to her about it later in the Training Arena, she wasn't persistent about it and just sent me a thumb up emoji as signifying her agreement .
It was the other message that almost had me break the phone in hand, it was a message from the nonchalant Sophia, she sent an attached file to her message, she was saying on that message of her things like :
This is unfair, Ryuushi, I too wanted to do the same .
I had no clue about what she was talking about at first, but then I opened that attached file she sent and that was the reason to why I almost broke the phone in hand to pieces, the file was nothing but the same picture of me and Tokiko which the rumors were about .
I finally understood what she was talking about and I almost broke my phone as I realized what she was asking, but what made me speechless was the fact that she sent a message after her last message, reminding me of the date we will be going on, I decided on the best course of action I could take dealing with this situation and that was to just ignore her .
But that was a wrong course of action to take, for whole 15 minutes, she kept sending me all different kinds of emojis, she began to even send pictures of local restaurants around the area, movies that will be displayed and even pictures she took on her previous missions with the Strikers .
The last pictures showed her while she was stomping on a dead Metaphysical head, she probably asked someone to take that picture for her, even though I didn't care much about knowing what was that experience like for her, it made me wonder about what my first mission would be like, Shattering allowed me to obliterate the Metaphysical on the mall before, but will it be effective against Metaphysicals of same size or even bigger than the one displayed in the class before, I wonder .
The phone continued to ring for a few times more, before she seem to have finally given up on me replaying, so she called me instead, but I just turned the phone mode to silent and rested my head against the wall and stared at the sky above while delving deep inside my memory, trying to absorb more and more information from the last vision like dream that I had, as I was doing this, I seem to have accidentally fallen asleep instead .
The school started, I was able to tell thanking to the school bell going off, it was that ringing that woke me up, I in a hurry tried to go to my class, but ended up hitting the door leading downstairs, I was still a bit drowsy, but thanks to that door, I was now completely awake, enough to know that I'm going to be late, I was tempted to use Paradox or even better Fixed Point, but a bad premonition suddenly assaulted me, conveying a silent message, that message was telling me that it was better not to do so .
I felt weird at this sudden premonition, but I still decided to follow my intuition on this matter, I really sensed something terribly dangerous looming over me, I resorted to running through the hallways and corridors until I finally arrived at my classroom .
I felt increasingly uneasy due to the fact that normally at least I could have met two or three persons late as me, but no the corridors and hallways were completely empty, I ran into a few teachers on the way, which only made my uneasiness grow more and more, until I finally made it to my class .
I began to hear a few bustling from inside, so I was at least sure that unlike before and the day before, I was able to catch up, I was probably lucky and arrived before the teacher, or so I thought at least .
Just as I was about to open the door, the door was opened from the other side and the teacher that supposedly shouldn't have been here was standing right in front of me, teacher Tanaka seemed to be more surprised to see me than I was, he put a forced smile on his face and said :
It's good that you finally decided to join us, Ryuu-san, sadly we were just about to head to the Training Arena, you are free to join us if you want to .
His voice wasn't that loud as he said all that with a bit of ridicule in his tone, but almost all the people inside the classroom heard him, they all began to tilt their heads to a side, trying to take a look at me and it seemed that rumors do spread quickly around the school, I was able to hear a few whispers coming from the girls in class, they were talking about how bold I was to be dating an upperclassmen, the boys seemed to be as always envious .
I was unable to give an excuse for myself, if I were to say that I was on the rooftop then there will be more questions to ask, like why was i there in the first place and so like, I'm really was beginning to regret not using Fixed Point, especially after the Tanaka-sensei continued to say :
You should just asked to be given another pardon, the principal had given you two already, so another one would be no problem .
I know that the teacher in front of me was a good guy and might be saying this for my sake and with my future on his mind, but his words were really beginning to get on my nerves, just as I was about to give him a piece of my mind, I suddenly felt a hand being put on my shoulder, i turned to see who was there and saw that Isuragi-senpai suddenly appeared out of nowhere and was currently patting me on the shoulder while looking at Tanaka-sensei and saying :
He doesn't need the principal to give him a pardon, but I hope you give him yours Tanaka-sensei, you see, he was tasked with helping me out on something that will be needed for a quite big even to come, that was the reason to why he was late .
Tanaka-sensei was surprised at the words that were being said by Isuragi-senpai, even though they were untrue and were quite vague as well, the teacher seemed to have understood the meaning they entailed and he nodded his head and said with a natural smile :
If that was the case, then I apologize for my outburst earlier, if you had finished your business with Isuragi-san, you are free to rejoin the classroom if you want .
I sensed that the subject they were talking about closely tied to the mission that will be next week, but either way I got the chance to redeem my reputation, even if it was done by more lying, I thanked the Captain and the teacher then I entered and removed the absent from beside my name then rejoined the classroom outside, or it was accurate to say that I was suddenly pulled by a more than usual cold and expressionless person .
Shizuno caught my hand and pulled me forcefully into the group she was in with a pink haired girl that seemed to refuse to look at me and a purple haired guy that was shrugging his shoulder at me and was trying to act oblivious all of a sudden .
I wondered what was wrong with these guys, but I was more troubled by the fact that the hand holding me seemed to be like a cupe of ice, I looked at Shizuno wondering what was going on, but suddenly remembering what happened before and the weird reaction of Haimura refreshed my memory up almost instantly, that wretched guy seemed to have told her about what I said in the morning .
She kept holding my hand and more rumors and gossips began to be created by the girls in the class and that didn't decrease in the slightest as we passed the different classes, in fact it made things worse, I wanted to get my hand out of hers, but that was no longer possible, the moment I tried to do so, the person holding my hand tightened her grip on me, what's worse was the fact that the icy chilly feeling began to increase as she said :
I heard you have talked to Moroha about an interesting topic this morning, care to tell me more about .
She knows, I looked at the guy mentioned and he was still trying to avert his eyes, seeing him like this, any dream of shifting the blame I might had before disappeared, instead I decided to act clueless about what was going on, but even that ended in failure the moment she stared at me and whispered :
What kind of relationship do you have with the principal and why you said that it was similar to the one i had with Moroha, you meant that the principal is a close friend to you, right ? .
Yeah, like you kiss your close friends like that, I was able to tell that she was finding a way out for me and for herself as well with this question, it was also the first time I saw her so frustrated like that, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if I used Fixed Period on her now .
What is going on here, the mere thought of me using any of my spells seemed to trigger that bad premonition from before, seeing that she tightened her grip on my hand a bit more, I coughed awkwardly and kept nodding while saying :
" Right, Right, that's exactly what I meant to say this morning, what, did you misunderstood something Haimura-kun ? .
She nodded at my answer, a bit satisfied, but only for a bit, her glaring was still intense as before, but at least for a short period of time that glare was aimed at the guy in question, who seemed to have already suffered enough trauma at her hands, the moment she turned to him, I saw his whole body shudder before he kept shaking his head .
Seeing that they were both become absorbed in their own world, I turned my head back to look at the girl that was currently unusually silent following us, I couldn't help but ask :
" IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU ? .