As they ran, they could see their surroundings were slowly being covered by mist. 

[WHAT IS THAT THING!] 

“SERIOUSLY YOU THREE! WHAT DID YOU DO!”

“WE DID NOTHING!”

“WE JUST WANTED TO FIND YOU, BRO!”

“WE SWEAR BRO!”

Luca then noticed the Core room’s doors were opened. 

“Let’s hide”, Luca said as he entered the core room with the others and closed its doors. 

They were all trying to catch their breath.

[Seriously, these guys must have done something] 

“Hey, You five, don’t get too close okay? you’ll get shocked otherwise”, A familiar voice warned. 

[Wait…I know that-]

“REI?!”

Luca then looked and noticed Rei was tinkering with the School’s core again.

“Yeah? What is it?”, He said whilst tapping several screens. 

“Why are you here?”

“Hmm? I am just trying to figure out the odd magic here, every time I try to tinker with it, the core just wouldn’t allow me” 

“I…see”

“Why are you five here actually? School is done for the day right?” 

“Umm you see-”

“THERE IS A MONSTER!”, Butterouse shouted. 

“Hmm? The school sure has rumors, but monsters?”, Rei stopped tinkering and looked at them. 

“IT'S TRUE SENIOR! WE SAW IT!”

Suddenly the three of them could feel a sharp pain on their head.

“Calm down you three, sheesh, you’re distracting him” 

“Sorry…”

Luca sighed and noticed Marie was looking at the core.

She was holding her wrist.

Her hands were shaking. 

He then approached her. 

“Hey, Sorry I grabbed your hand like that, I-”

“It’s okay…I was just…surprised that’s all”, she said, yet her eyes didn’t meet his. 

“But seriously, can’t believe that rumor was true”

Silence then filled the room.

Marie bit her lip.

“Luca…I think that’s not a monster”

“Hmm? you know something about it?”

She held her hand tighter.

[Why does she look…sad? Did I grab her wrist too hard?]

He held her shoulder.

‘Well, Whatever it is, we should be fine”

She looked at him and for a moment…a small smile appeared.

“Luca..that monster…Its-”

Suddenly the door opened violently. 

[You’ve got to be kidding me] 

The monster was inside. 

“Oh, So that was it”, Rei said. 

It created the mist again and looked towards the delinquents.

Marie then casted wind magic, dispelling the mist. 

The monster didn’t stop and opened its palm. Two sets of magic circles appeared. 

“AGHHHHH”.

It clapped and shot a fire tornado towards them. 

“AGHHH YOU CAN’T HURT MY BRO!” 

Butterouse, even when shaking in his shoes, stood up and tried to cause a small explosion, causing the attack to fizzle. 

The monster then ran towards them and prepared a strengthening punch.

Bon then stepped up and prepared his own. When the two connected, Bon’s eyes widened.

Light then jumps from Bon’s back and uses his Light magic to blind it, but it stepped back, gaining distance.

It combined against a set of magic circles, causing a blinding light to engulf the room.

All of them cover their eyes. 

It then noticed Rei and started approaching, however…

“Don’t you even dare”, another familiar voice appeared.

It was lifted up and slammed to the ground. 

As everyone’s vision came back, they saw the monster was…on the ground.

Luca’s eyes widened and his jaw slightly dropped.

[...Yup…of course she beat it in one hit…of course]

“Ryuko, why are you-”

“Here”, she said as she extended him a sandwich.

“Thank you”

“Let’s eat here, then you can continue”  

They then sat together in front of the core. 

“By the way, I figured out that the summoning system was glitched, but-”

“Eat first, talk later”, She said as she leaned on him. 

[Huh…that was…something, but all’s well-]

Suddenly Luca was lunged at by the three delinquents.

“BROOO!”

“WE WERE SO SCARED!!!”

“THANK GOD WE’RE ALIVE”

“GUYS! STOP! YOU’RE CRUSHING ME!!!”

As they were ruffling, Marie was still looking at the fallen monster.

“Luca…”

Slowly the monster burned away, disappearing from the room.

Rei then noticed. 

“Hmmm…I see”

“Eat”

“Yes ma’am” 

Several moments later…

“Well, thank you Rei and Ryuko, we’ll be heading out first”

“Okay, bye you all, I’ll keep this one busy until tomorrow”, Ryuko said as she waved. 

As the five of them left for the hideout.

“Seriously, how did that thing even appear?”

“We honestly don’t know bro, when we went to find you, we just stumbled upon it in front of the core room”, Light said. 

“Yeah, and that thing chased us till no end”, Butterouse said.

“It even punches as hard as you Bro”, Bon said. 

“Huh, really? That’s…weird, you know anything about it Mari-”

Suddenly his hand was grabbed.

Her grip was firm.

“Umm-”

“Don’t…be too far”

[I guess she’s still scared of that thing] 

“Okay”, he said as he held her hand equally tight.