[Third person POV]
After gym class ended, Clark was among the last students to leave the locker room. He changed back into his school uniform at a leisurely pace, not in any particular rush. As he exited the locker room, adjusting the collar of his shirt, he spotted Lala standing just outside, casually leaning against the wall with her hands tucked behind her back. Her expression lit up as soon as she saw him.
Clark blinked at her, giving her a tired look before turning his head forward and walking past her without a word, heading toward their next class.
Lala pouted, puffing her cheeks. "Hey, wait up!" she said as she jogged up to his side and grabbed hold of his arm with both hands, locking it against her chest.
"What do you want, Lala?" Clark asked, his tone laced with exasperation. He was too lazy to fight her off and too uninterested to really care.
"I just wanted to walk to class with you. Can't I?" she replied with a sweet smile, fluttering her eyelashes at him in a way that clearly showed she was trying to be cute.
Clark sighed. "Why not go with Momo or Komi? Weren't you all together after gym? Hell, aren't you friends with Haruna now too?" he asked, raising a brow and glancing sideways at her.
"Momo and Komi finished changing faster than me, so I told them to go ahead. Haruna stayed behind to help Sasuga-sensei put the gym equipment away. And besides," she added with a sly grin, "do I really need a reason to walk to class with my fiancé?"
Clark abruptly stopped walking once he heard about Sasuga-sensei, getting a weird feeling about the situation he turned his head, his gaze shifting in the direction of the gym field—more precisely, toward the equipment storage room located nearby. His pupils narrowed slightly.
Activating his enhanced vision, Clark focused his sight across the courtyard, through the gym walls and lockers, zooming in until he could see what was happening inside the storage room.
His expression darkened instantly.
Haruna was unconscious, her limp body restrained by thick, serpentine cords coiled tightly around her limbs and torso. She was suspended slightly in the air, held in place like a marionette. And before her stood Sasuga-sensei—or rather, the person wearing his face—with a twisted, malevolent grin.
Clark tuned out the background noise: the buzz of conversations, the sound of footsteps, the sound of heart beats and blood flow. He honed in on the voice of the man before Haruna, picking up every vile word that passed from his lips.
"—I contact Lala. Once she realizes I have her precious friend as my hostage, she'll come crawling to me. Convincing her to be mine will be child's play," the imposter sneered. He grabbed Haruna's chin with sick delight, lifting her face. "Although, I must say, you're not too bad-looking for an Earthling. Maybe I'll treat myself to a little two-for-one special—"
Clark clenched his jaw.
"Clark!" Lala called out, snapping him back to reality. She looked at him with concern, noticing the way he had suddenly stiffened and gone quiet. "What's wrong?"
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, glancing briefly at the students walking nearby. Then he leaned in close to her ear and whispered in a low tone, "It's Haruna. She's in danger."
Lala's cheeks flushed red from the sudden intimacy of his breath against her ear, but her expression quickly shifted as she registered the gravity of his words.
"What?" she gasped, eyes widening.
Without waiting for another word, Clark turned and started running down the hallway at a controlled, human pace to avoid drawing attention. Lala followed him immediately, her earlier flirtatiousness gone, replaced by grim determination.
They reached the gym storage area in seconds. Lala threw the door open without hesitation.
Inside, Sasuga's twisted expression lit up with perverse excitement as he watched the cords writhing around Haruna's body, making her let out a weak, involuntary moan. The moment the door opened, he turned with a surprised "Eh?"—only to see Lala standing in the doorway, Clark looming protectively just behind her.
Clark's face was cast in shadow, except for the piercing glow of his blue eyes.
"Ahhh~ Just the person I was hoping to see! What a surprise—coming straight to me!" the imposter said with a grin, clearly unfazed.
Lala stepped forward, her voice sharp and demanding. "Who are you, and what do you think you're doing to Haruna?!"
The figure laughed. "Oh, Lala. Don't tell me you've forgotten me already, just because I'm wearing this pathetic disguise. While I may look like Sasuga, I assure you, that identity is nothing but a shell. Perhaps you'll recognize me more clearly... like this."
As he spoke, the illusion shimmered and peeled away, revealing his true form—green-skinned, his body a grotesque fusion of reptilian and aquatic features. His face was long, with sharp teeth and piercing red eyes. He bore an uncanny resemblance to a monstrous fusion between Frieza and a deep-sea creature.
Lala's eyes widened in fury and disbelief. "Gi Bree!" she hissed. "Of course it's you… I should've known!"
Clark grabbed Lala by the shoulders and gently moved her to the side, stepping past her and entering the storage room with steady, deliberate steps.
"Stop! I don't know who you really are, but if you take one more step—" Gi Bree shouted, his voice laced with panic. He immediately pressed a button on the small remote control in his hand. The thick cords binding Haruna suddenly flared to life, writhing and tightening as they tore through her gym shirt with a loud rip.
Clark's steps halted. His expression, already serious, darkened considerably. His jaw clenched so tightly the muscle twitched, and veins bulged across his neck and temple. His piercing blue eyes radiated fury—not rage without control, but the cold, heavy kind that only surfaced when someone had crossed a line too far.
Gi Bree chuckled darkly, watching for a reaction. "Hahaha, so you better think twice before—wait, huh?"
The alien glanced down in confusion. The hand that had held the remote was now… gone. All he saw was a stump—cleanly severed, with blood spurting in thin jets from the raw wound.
His eyes widened in horror. He looked up to see Clark holding the remote in one hand… and Gi Bree's severed limb in the other.
"Whoops," Clark said flatly, almost indifferent, looking down at the hand in his grip with a slightly surprised expression. "Didn't mean to rip it off. It came off too easy."
Gi Bree let out a soul-piercing shriek. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!" He collapsed onto his knees, cradling his bleeding stump, rolling back and forth as he sobbed uncontrollably. His body began to emit smoke as he reverted to his original form—a tiny green alien no larger than Clark's knee.
"I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die!! This is it—this is the death of me! I'm gonna die!!!" he wailed. Tears and snot streamed down his face, forming bubbles at his nose as he rolled around in a full-blown, messy, ugly cry.
Clark exhaled through his nose—just a short burst of air. But it hit Gi Bree like a hurricane blast, launching the shrieking alien into the nearby wall with a loud thud, knocking him out instantly.
With the crisis momentarily neutralized, Clark turned to Lala with a dry expression. "Why's he so weak?"
Lala let out a tired sigh. "It's his species. They have this weird ability to temporarily appear massive and threatening, but their actual bodies are pretty fragile and pathetic. Their bark's way worse than their bite."
"I see…" Clark muttered, clearly unimpressed. He walked over to the unconscious Gi Bree, lifted his glasses slightly, and emitted a narrow beam of heat vision to cauterize the bleeding stump.
Once finished, he turned his attention to Haruna. Moving quickly and carefully, he used his heat vision again to cut through the remaining cords that restrained her. She slumped forward, but Clark caught her gently in his arms before she could fall. His jacket came off in one fluid motion, and he wrapped it around her torn shirt to preserve her modesty.
With Haruna safely in his arms, he glanced over at Lala. "Can I leave the clean-up to you?"
"Of course!" Lala said brightly, already reaching into her pocket. "I'll deal with him using my special disposal tool—"
She pulled out what looked like a pink flip phone and pressed a button.
A puff of smoke erupted, revealing a bizarre machine in the shape of a giant frog-faced toilet. It blinked cartoonishly before opening its wide lid. "—Flushy-Flush Warp-kun!"
Clark just stared. His eyebrows twitched.
There was a long pause.
Then he looked away and let out a low snicker. "That is so stupid," he said, laughing softly.
Lala scratched the back of her head sheepishly, a faint blush on her cheeks. "Ehehe… I thought it was cute…"
Before either of them could say more, a quiet groan came from Clark's arms. He looked down to see Haruna's eyes fluttering open. She looked up at him weakly, clearly still disoriented.
"Clark…?" she whispered softly, her hand reaching up to clutch his shoulder as if she was dreaming before falling unconscious again.
Clark sighed softly. "She doesn't seem injured, but I'll take her to the nurse's office just in case," he said, adjusting his grip to support her more comfortably.
As he walked ahead, Lala stood still for a moment, watching him carry Haruna away. Something about Haruna's voice, the way she said Clark's name, made her chest tighten.
Lala's brows furrowed slightly, curiosity and unease mixing in her expression. "Clark… apart from being classmates… Do you two know each other?"
Clark paused near the doorway. Without turning around, he replied simply, "I suppose you could say that. We went to the same middle school."
And with that, he continued walking down, disappearing around the corner with Haruna nestled in his arms.
Lala stood frozen in place, her mind reeling as the pieces slowly came together.
"Lala, you don't think…?" Peke asked softly from her hair clip.
Lala was blinking slowly with realization. Her voice was barely above a whisper as she muttered, "That Clark is the boy Haruna was talking about earlier…? It's a possibility—and from her reaction just now, a very likely one."
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