The next day, the school was a mess. Students roam the campus, a mix of shock and surprise. The news of Charlie’s death hit people harder than they thought. They barely knew him, and he was gone. 

An air of melancholy cloaked the building, like a veil of heavy sadness. The overcast sky, grey clouds from horizon to horizon, matched the atmosphere in the school.

Gen Shishioh was leaning against a tree in the main courtyard. He was usually not very personable, but his current vibe broadcast that anybody who dared approach him might be eating food through a straw for the foreseeable future.

Sophia wasn’t like most people.

“Gen, how long are you going to be brooding here?” She inquired, as she approached.

The young brawler's amber eyes glared at her, almost as if he was attempting to blow her up with his mind.

“Gen, it wasn’t your fault or mine; we both know we shouldn’t even be doing this.” She said, clearly not intimidated by his ire.

“If you want to blame somebody, you should blame your grandfa-” Sophia tried to shift the blame towards Gen’s grandfather, who was currently missing. Still, she was interrupted by the resounding impact of his fist against the trunk, leaving the imprint ot his fist and making a rain of leaves to fall from the branches above.

“DON’T YA FUCKIN’ TELL ME THAT!” He shouted, pointing his finger at her, his knuckles bloodied from the punch.

Several students looked their way. Mostly because of the sudden noise, as most of them knew better than to get involved with Gen or Sophia, much less get in between one of their commonplace arguments.

“Gen, we talked about this. Use your indoor voice or don’t talk at all.” She rolled her eyes. “I get it, you’re angry, but angry doesn’t get results, trust me, I know.”

Gen attempted to say something, but stopped midway, his eyes narrowing as a dangerous gleam came out of them.

“I don’t know what the old man is doin’, but whatever it is, I bet it's important.” Gen said, between gritted teeth, as if he were pushing each word through them, shredding the volume so it turned into a loud whisper.

Sophia let out a long, exasperated sigh.

“Look, I know you respect him, but if he didn’t want you to get involved, he wouldn’t have told you about the Gainen and everything else.

“You’re doing what you can to fill in his shoes, so you can’t go blaming yourself each time we don’t save everyone. We got the Gainen, if we didn’t get him, it would’ve taken god knows how many people.” She reasoned, but Gen was still pissed.

“It’s just… I fuckin’ hate… I fuckin’ hate… Seein’ people die.” Gen admitted, lowering his head. “I don’t want to have another death ‘til the old man comes back.”

“I know I’m somewhat responsible for both helping you with patrolling and with our side gig, but you’re fighting monsters who nobody else knows about and you’re doing it from the, shockingly, goodness of your heart.” Sophia assured him, but Gen's mood didn’t change.

“I ain’t endin’ our partnership, I still need the money from the sports teams, so don’t start flakin’ on me ‘bout that,” Gen said. “Unless ya want to ask yer dad for an actual allowance, he has deep pockets, ya should take advantage of that.” He mockingly urged, knowing she didn’t want that.

“You know I won’t do that, but I’ll do my best not to schedule 'gigs' when a surprise attack by an interdimensional entity comes.” She replied, her eyes cold and her tone as sarcastic as she could make it, her fingers actually doing the quotation marks for gigs.

“No need to get pissed with me Gen, save it for the Gainen.” She said, quickly adding. “You really need to let me check your grandfather’s study. I might get something more out of the files than you, no offense, but I’ve seen you read.”

“He said not to enter, and ain’t disobeyin’ the old man.” Gen quickly refuted her request, as he had been warned by his grandfather never to enter that room.

“You keep saying that, but you got the Medal.” She retorts, pointing at his pocket.

“For the last time, I didn’t enter the room; I found it right outside the door.” He snapped back, pulling it out from his pocket.

The golden disk was around 10 centimeters in diameter and had a strange character engraved into it, not from any known language. The “medal”, as they called it, seemed almost to vibrate with inner power, with a low rumbling noise.

“The old man didn’t tell me everything, but he pretty much made it clear these things have a mind of their own.” Gen explained. “He constantly cussed the one he used.”

“I insult my laptop when it doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean it’s alive and can move.” She sneered. “Your grandfather is an interesting man, and he has been fighting interdimensional monsters, but for the sake of my sanity, I need to draw a line somewhere.”

“Suit yerself. But I ain’t openin’ that door, no matter what.” Gen crossed his arms, looking away, almost childishly.

“Not even if it means finding a way to get the full armor?” She asked with a smirk.

Since they began patrolling the town, handling the interdimensional invaders, Gen fighting them and Sophia supporting him, Gen hasn’t been able to unlock the powers of the medal fully. His grandfather, Reiji, was able to use one of these to create a full suit of armor. At the same time, Gen, who had never encountered them before, could only materialize an unstable partial one.

Gen’s head snapped back to look at her, a mixture of anger, disbelief, and just a hint of desire in his eyes. He opened his mouth, not knowing what he would say next, but thankfully, he didn’t need to think about that, as a scream coming from one of the upper floors got their attention.

Without even uttering a single word, the young brawler rushed towards the building, leaving Sophia behind, who snapped her fingers.

“I almost got him; sooner or later, he will need to open that study.” She affirmed, knowing that they would need every ounce of information they could get if they wanted to keep on fighting the Gainen.

And after saying that, mostly to herself, he rushed behind Gen as well.