Yamikuro's return to school life wasn't as simple as he thought it would be, as Elara Wintervale, his childhood friend, showed up in The Hideout.
Transferring from the other world to The Hideout meant she had powers.
"So what kind of powers do you have?" Yamikuro asked with excitement in his voice.
"I'm not too sure, as I just recently awakened to them... What about you?"
"You've probably heard someone mention it even on your way here, but I have a thing called the Darkness inside of me."
Elara nodded lightly.
"So that's what it is..."
Kaminari appeared behind Yamikuro.
"What's taking you so long...? Jeez, I was scared you were kidnapped or something."
He then eyed Elara before him.
"Huh? Who's this?"
"I'm Elara. I assume you're also a close friend of Yamikuro's." She said with a smile.
Kaminari raised an eyebrow.
"Also?"
Yamikuro interrupted them before things could possibly get awkward.
"She's my childhood friend from the other world. And Elara, this is Kaminari Indy, my close friend in The Hideout."
Kaminari's eyes lit up all of a sudden.
"That's right...! You were telling me about a girl that you grew up with."
"Oh? So you've heard of me before."
Kaminari nodded for a few seconds, but then he snapped his fingers.
"Oh yeah, almost forgot. Let me be your guide in this maze of a building, m'lady!"
Yamikuro looked at Kaminari with a strange look. He wasn't the best guide, considering how he guided Yamikuro.
But he didn't say anything and allowed him to be the guide, because in the end, he knew this place better than Yamikuro did.
Elara chuckled slightly.
"Alright then."
Kaminari turned around, his back against Elara and Yamikuro, and took a big step forward.
"After me, you two!"
Elara couldn't help but be amused by Kaminari's presence, despite everyone talking negatively about him; he still kept up his energy, along with his kind smile.
She couldn't figure him out; was Kaminari oblivious to the current events, or was he hiding his real self behind a childish mask?
Nonetheless, Yamikuro followed him with a smile.
Neither of them was bothered by the people around them. Yamikuro had changed a lot in just this short amount of time.
"So on the second floor where we're at are, uh... Mathema... No, wait." Kaminari stumbled on his words and started thinking about how to pronounce the word.
"It's maths, but what was the full length of this word...?"
"Mathematics?" Elara tried to help him out.
Kaminari clapped his hands together.
"Yeah, the mathetamis classes are on the left of us. Though for our class, it's in our homeroom. Kazuhiko is smart like that."
'Mathetamis?' Elara pointed it out in her head. Kaminari really was silly and slightly dumb.
"Uhh... On the third and fourth floor, there are chemistry and physics classrooms, along with the third years' classes, and a few classrooms for computers."
"Below us there are first years, gym, lockers, and the cafeteria."
Kaminari then sighed after explaining what he thought was a huge amount of information.
"I sure hope you got all of that, because my stomach is giving up on me... If I don't eat soon, I might die."
"Got it," Elara responded, with the pen clicking.
Kaminari didn't expect such an answer, so he turned around, raising an eyebrow.
Elara held a notebook in her hand, where she had scribbled the school plan, along with where the classes were.
Yamikuro almost choked on his saliva.
"She took notes?!"
Kaminari crossed his arms and nodded slowly in approval. He had forgotten about the hunger for a brief moment.
"That's what I like to see."
Shortly after that, Kaminari brought Yamikuro and Elara to the cafeteria.
But before they could get food, Kaminari hurriedly asked something he had forgotten earlier.
"You do have your student card, right?"
"You mean this one?" She took out a card from her right pocket.
Kaminari looked at it for a few seconds.
Elara Wintervale
Class XI A
Student code: 001155
There was also an empty spot where the picture of her face was supposed to be. Which was understandable, considering she had just joined.
Yamikuro had his taken on the second day after joining the school.
"Seems to be the right one," Kaminari said, handing it back to Elara.
They grabbed the food, which happened to be yet again something Yamikuro didn't really want to eat.
He wasn't sure what they were feeding him.
Elara, for a brief moment, felt the same way, but hid her true feelings.
Kaminari had no issue eating whatever it was. But it was Kaminari, a person who'd eat anything in desperation.
After that, Kaminari pointed to a table.
Isabella, Deia, Cedar, and Rye all sat together.
Isabella noticed the new girl with Kaminari and Yamikuro.
"So that's her..."
Seeing those two get along with her made Isabella hopeful. Was she finally going to have another female friend to talk with?
Deia was a close friend to Isabella, but she couldn't help her in social situations, considering her shyness.
The new girl, on the other hand, seemed confident, with her dark hair and bold stances. However, she also seemed to be slowly brainwashed by Kaminari.
When the three of them sat down, with Elara sitting next to her, and Yamikuro and Kaminari on the opposite side of the table, Isabella acted quickly.
"Hey, I'm Isabella!"
The girl seemed shaken for a moment, but the calmness she always had returned quickly.
"I'm Elara Wintervale."
"Hope these two haven't rubbed off on you yet."
"No, not yet, at least. They've been great, especially with guiding me here. I can tell we'll get along well."
Rye quietly eyed her with his eyes slightly squinted.
Elara noticed him, but quickly looked away.
She saw Deia sitting next to Isabella quietly. She thought it'd be best to help her speak up a little bit.
"What's your name?"
Deia looked up from the desk with her rather huge eyes, and her grey hair slightly flowed in the air.
"I-I'm Deia."
Elara could immediately tell that there were too many people around for her to be comfortable, especially when a new face had just sat down.
"We'll be in the same dormitories, correct?"
Isabella nodded while slightly picking the food with the fork.
"I'll show you around. There is a vacant room you can use. Kaminari with his idiotic statements can't guide you in there."
"Douchebag..." Kaminari muttered.
Isabella dropped her fork and frowned.
"What was that?!"
Elara looked at Yamikuro, and they both had the same awkward reaction to the situation.
Cedar slightly adjusted his glasses, ignoring everything around him as if he was used to it.
"Elara, was it? What are your thoughts so far on The Hideout?"
She shrugged.
"It's interesting, noticeably different from the world I'm from."
Her eyes widened a little.
"Are you possibly from the Kaien family?"
Cedar raised an eyebrow.
"How'd you know?"
"I just noticed a store with that name when I passed by it."
Her eyes briefly scanned for the red-haired boy with a tilted hairline, Rye Ginfay... only to find him already gone. How did she miss that? A flicker of unease tickled the back of her mind.
"...He's over there." Yamikuro pointed at the food disposal area, almost as if he could understand what Elara was thinking in that moment.
Rye had disappeared without her noticing.
"This group sure is lively..." Elara whispered aloud.
After they all finished eating, they returned to class.
Elara was assigned the empty seat behind Yamikuro.
Her hair slightly flowed in the air, looking at the group before her. For the first time, she felt like she belonged somewhere.
During the week they were all together, living the school life, others came to understand Yamikuro's past and his relation to Elara. Yamikuro also got more comfortable with everyone, even making jokes that only Kaminari would make.
Kaminari decided to open up about his past related to his parents and The Watcher, something he struggled with even thinking about.
Meanwhile, during that week...
A man dressed in all black, wearing a black bandana over his fluffy hair that reached his shoulders. His sunglasses hid his tired eyes. He also had a dark short beard.
He entered the capital of The Hideout with a passcode that only those who were related to elites knew, bypassing every security method.
That man was said to be bad news, and upon contact, under no circumstances should someone try to challenge him.
Those who valued their lives would flee as soon as his presence was felt.
His name was...