Akane Hirano, the 12-year-old tomboy that had just punched a man out of existence, was now sitting quietly in her perfectly normal classroom attending a perfectly normal Science class. It was convenient that she sat in the back corner of the room where no one could see her as the girl’s current disposition was in shambles. With her head in her hands, she sighed.

When the unlikely pair had reached the gymnasium, it was right when the class was prepared to leave. The two were then confronted by their teacher and while Akane struggled to come up with an excuse for their tardiness, the transfer student spoke up instead.

"I'm sorry, it was my fault. I asked Hirano-san to tour me around the school so I could learn more about this environment. Please forgive us."

The little girl spoke softly and eloquently while using her cute appeal to persuade the teacher. Although Akane knew that the girl was lying through her teeth, the tomboy felt the act was excessive and that it sounded more like a lie than it should have been. She stayed silent, of course.

"My, aren't you precious. No need to apologize, dear. In fact, that was a good use of your time, good job," smiled the teacher as if enchanted by a pure-hearted infant.

...How easy.

But their troubles were not over yet. As the class headed back to their homeroom, Akane dreaded the scene she would have to revisit. It was a feeling of anxiety and regret that the tomboy was no stranger to. She imagined a scenario where the class would open the door of the classroom to find everything in disarray with broken chairs and students' belongings spilled all over the floor. Being the known troublemaker, the only one who hadn't attended the field activity and the only one with the keys to the classroom, it was obvious Akane would be blamed. Trailing behind the class, Akane continued to imagine scenarios and "what ifs", until she heard the -click- of the door unlock. She waited for the reaction of shock on the teacher's face, the natural response of backing away from the scene of the crime, but nothing happened. As the class continued to gather inside, Akane finally saw the room she had been so worried about and to her surprise, there was nothing. There seemed to be no trace of the destruction that occurred previously; The room looked exactly the same as how the class had left it. The confused tomboy looked to the little girl for answers but she simply smiled and headed to her new desk. Akane sighed.

...That damn brat isn't just messing with me, right? Am I being played again? I guess when you think about it, all that stuff that happened seemed ridiculous. What was it again...fragments and chaos or something? Yeah, that sure does describe my mind right now.

"Can someone tell me the formula for this compound?" asked the teacher. 

The hand of the top student was raised, but another hand flew up faster.

Umi Aoki. 

"Aoki-san. Would you like to write it on the board?"

Akane knew that all her questions would be answered by the strange little girl that happened to sit next to her. Though, she realised it was not that strange as the only empty desk in the room was the one next to Akane so it was only natural it would be filled by a new student. But in any case, Akane still didn't know how to feel about the girl.

"That's correct! Well done."

Akane could hear the whispers of her classmates praising the girl as she sauntered back to her desk.

"Wow, she's already memorized the formula." 

"Dude, she's cute and smart." 

"Tch."

"I'd love to be friends with her!"

No...it's different this time. Unlike these fake losers, I haven't sensed a single bit of animosity from her. Even if she was lying, even if she was using me, her feelings seemed genuine...and that's all I really deserve.

**

Akane knew that there were two kinds of people at this school: instigators and worshippers. Similar to those who are idols and those that idolize, instigators would be the ones to incite a certain opinion or trend, while the worshippers lose their own identity to fit in with everyone else. Both are selfish and believe they are above everyone else; it is the idea that everything must revolve around them and their opinions are the only right choice. Anything different is blasphemy. They rely on popularity and physical appearance; the greater the influence, the ‘better’ you are. However, all of it was superficial. They act nice to pull you in and then use you for their own personal gain before cleanly cutting you off. Anyone who did not play the game were simply abandoned as outliers. And so Akane believed that the world was built on liars and cheats. After all, the reality was that villains always win.

The lunch bell rang and the class immediately flocked towards the new transfer student. They were intrigued, enamored, and they craved for a new idol to play with. Meanwhile, Akane was rudely cast aside, so she left the class to eat lunch. If staying meant having to deal with childish name-calling and vague threats, she would rather leave anyway. Umi, on the other hand, tried to happily answer her classmate's fervent questions, but noticed the person she had meant to talk to was getting further away from her.

Akane took her backpack and headed down the hallway, passing by students lingering about.

"Hey, it's that girl."

"That's a girl?"

"Did you hear about what happened a few days ago?

"...What a creep. Should've been suspended."

They knew Akane could hear them as they laughed quietly in their cliques. She turned the corner and saw a boy up ahead holding textbooks. Akane placed her hands in her sweater pockets and looked away as the boy recognized her and froze in fear. But something about the boy's over-dramatic reaction pissed her off and the girl stopped abruptly beside the shorter boy.

Suddenly turning to face the boy, Akane stepped aggressively on the ground with an intimidating look on her face. 

"Boo."

The boy yelped in fear and dropped all his textbooks.  As they clattered to the ground, Akane calmly continued on her way.

Well, that was relieving.

Arriving at the door to the school roof, Akane wondered if it would actually be open. 

“Sometimes the door is open ‘cause the custodians suck at their jobs...”

Since the door was in the far corner of the school and up a narrow staircase, it had almost never been occupied by students so it was perfect to stay here unnoticed. She turned the knob, but it didn’t budge.

“...but it seems like they’re doing things properly. Dammit, guess I’ll just eat lunch on the stairs and go…”

In the end, life wasn’t like an anime. Or maybe she was just having a bad day with doors, Akane thought.

**

Meanwhile on the edge of town, a couple of mysterious figures stood on the rooftop of an abandoned factory surveying the land surrounding them; the shadow of a nearby tower conveniently hid them from sight. A larger figure was looking out as if watching a screen of some kind while the other was crouched down with a hand placed on the ground.

“We lost one,” a deep feminine voice from the larger figure reported.

A masculine monotone voice replied. “What location?”

“In the neighbouring town. Think it was a residential area.”

“That’s not too far, should we check it out? Could be a new CHAOS user.”

“Then again, those Fragments are absolute morons. Might’ve been hit by a car or something…” grunted the larger figure as they stopped looking out and turned to face the other in annoyance. “That’s why I said we should do this at night, what’s the point of doing this in broad daylight?”

“And we tried that. It’s harder to find people out on the streets. As long as we’re thorough, we run very little risks. Furthermore, may I remind you only CHAOS users have the capability to destroy a Fragment. An automobile would at best immobilize them.”

The other made a frustrated noise, but could not come up with a rebuttal.

The crouched figure continued, “In any case, with this method we can attain more potential victims faster. Think of what our Leader will think when we bring back more than required.”

“That guy doesn’t give a shit, we just do the job and live to do the next.”

“Well,” said a woman who had suddenly appeared behind the two. “I for one love the job. I was getting bored letting the Fragments bumble around anyway. So, I’ll do the honours of hunting down our fresh new prey.”

With a wicked smile, the woman vanished.

**

The school bell rang indicating the end of the day as students began to head home. Some were heading to clubs while others were chatting with friends as they walked through the front and back entrances. As classrooms emptied out, there was still one lone student in the classroom. With their pale blue sweater sleeves rolled up, they were wearing disposable white rubber gloves and had a cloth in one hand, a spray bottle in the other. Using the spray bottle to disinfect the desks and wiping with the cloth in an organized fashion, the student was thorough and efficient. They then moved onto the next classroom. And shortly after, the one next to it, and this continued on for about 40 minutes. After wiping the desk of all the necessary classrooms on the 2nd floor, the student entered the custodian closet to return the items and tidy themselves.

“All done,” said Akane with a satisfied look on her face as she closed the door behind her.

“Well, well. If it ain’t Hirano,” a voice mocked from the other side of the hallway. "You're not still doing community service are you? Did you make sure those desks were clean like a good girl?”

Akane scowled as a trio of older boys one grade above stood in her way. The boy who spoke was wearing a T-shirt and shorts and had short-cut brown hair. His two lackeys were rather insignificant and only followed around the boy because he was rich. The three of them were all taller and bigger than Akane but in the end, they were just a bunch of useless punks.

“You guys have nothing better to do than wait for me to finish? How sweet. Do you babies need some attention?” Akane fired back, sizing them up.

“Yeah, you wanna go, bitch?” one of the lackeys chimed in. “It won’t go like last time.”

“Wanna bet, shitbag?”

Akane grinned.