Wow, to those that were paying attention the anime just finished airing and I got to say the ending was pretty bad (crap)… I am now utilizing both the manga and the anime as base, so readers rejoice! I will not go that crappy route as the anime did near the end with all that hugs make the world go around and forgive the people who killed those near and dear to you or attempted to at least. I am sorry that is just stupid and I will not punish myself on writing something like that. As such the story will diverge drastically at points from cannon, both anime and manga. It hasn't too much yet just because there has not been any parts that it was largely necessary to do so.

What does this mean for you? More plot development, more fight scenes, more romance & fluff, and a more intricate/interesting plot line.

I might pick up the light novel in the future too if I find the time.

Anyways am currently in the process of thinking up three other stories for Absolute Duo, I am updating and working on several stories at a time including for other fandoms. This while developing new stories all the time, keeping up with college work. So once again I apologize.

In this chapter I do something I have never seen anyone do before, give almost every character some meaningful screen-time. I know what you are thinking "How is that possible Cuddly Cat-Sama!? This is a harem, part of the plot includes blowing off half the cast like in canon! I answer to that dialogue, and Mikuni-sensei is in the story, the most underused character in the entire anime.

Could someone P.M. his Blaze please, the chapters I have for the manga don't detail him a lot and the Absolute Duo Wiki page for him just says that he is one of the strongest Blaze users and Sakuya's bodyguard.

Note: This chapter has been edited for quality assurance purposes. 11/20/2015 – Cuddly Cat

Chapter III

Walk With Me

~x~

Currently both Imari and Tooru were walking down the hall to class, both doing so in amicable silence as they simply enjoyed each other's company while losing themselves in thought.

"Hey Tooru…" Imari said making Tooru turn to her as he noticed her looking at the ground as they walked, she gripping the sides of her skirt rather tightly as she walked alongside him.

"How did it feel when you were administered the Lukifer?" she asked softly, this making him stop in his tracks temporarily at that before he continued walking alongside her.

"I felt... alive" he said to her with deep-seated emotion, the way he said it making her look up at him wondering what he meant.

"The moment the flames enveloped me it felt like I was burning to death at first, however in reality I felt like I was being reborn. The moment I realized that, that the flames weren't trying to kill me, that they were a part of me and wanted to help me, the pain faded away." He said surprising her as he described an experience many times different from her own.

"…and then everything went black."

"You lost consciousness?" she asked surprised at that

"Partially, I just have no recollection of the events that followed. However when I came to, half the lab had been destroyed and a lock-down had been put in place. Apparently I had lost control and entered a berserker like state while immersed in the flames. I almost ended up killing three researchers and a medical assistant in the process." He said shocking her

"After I regained my senses I was taken into a different room and reanalyzed. According to the one in charge of the diagnosis it seemed that the way I personally processed and activated the Lukifer was unorthodox and for all intents and purposes should be impossible. They theorize that this might be the reason why I'm an irregular - though that has not been confirmed" he explained to her, she looking at him in awe after all that

"Wow, so do you think that's the reason for it?" she asked curiously

"Me? No, I think I would have still had a Shield Blaze anyways" he said dismissively

"Huh, how come?" she asked him

He took a big breath in at that and looked thoughtfully at Imari for a few seconds before he continued walking with Imari by his side.

"Well you see it's because of my past, one of the things I want to do most of all is protect what I believe is important to me. Now originally when I thought of protecting something and using an item I thought of a weapon, like a sword, but now that I have my own Blaze I think a shield is much more fitting. A weapon is used to harm, a shield however, a shield's sole purpose is to protect. A sword, all a sword can do is attack, even in the name of defending something, in the end what you are doing is attacking another in the name of protecting something else."

"A shield defines the one that wields it as a guardian, as that is all they can do, a sword defines one as a warrior. If I were to choose between being a shield or a sword to protect what I care about and hold precious, I would choose a shield every time. As that way I could keep what I hold dear close and guard it with my life." He said passionately just as he turned to Imari…

…only to find her looking at him with large sad watery eyes, she looking to be on the verge of tears as she gazed up at him. He involuntarily took a step back at the near hero worship in her eyes as she looked at him.

"W-why are you crying?" he asked in disbelief

"That was so cool and sad at the same time, I just don't how to emotionally process it" she said as she placed her hands on her currently flushed cheeks, a blush having formed across her face as he spoke.

Tooru could not help but sweatdrop at that, what he said wasn't that cool, he was just being honest with his thoughts and feelings on the matter. Plus she was the one that asked in the first place.

After a few seconds Imari managed to regain control of herself and looked at him once more, her eyes this time looking at him intensely while at the same time looking slightly worried as she did so. Immediately Tooru knew she was probably going to ask something big and mentally prepared himself.

"Tooru?" she asked him seriously

"Y-yeah?" he asked a bit nervously not knowing what to expect at this point, he hated to say it, but Imari was one of the most eccentric people he knew – half the time he could not even get a read on her. He truthfully had no clue what was going on through her little head.

"Do you think you can find it in your heart to think of me as precious to you one day?" she asked him hopefully with big puppy-dog eyes

"Of course Imari, you already are, I did say you're my friend after all. Why wouldn't you be?" he said sincerely to her as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, he making to walk away right after…

…only to be tackled down onto the ground by a crying Imari.

"What the hell!?" he said in surprise as the girl engulfed him in a big hug

"I-I have never had someone think of me so highly" she said in between sobs making him sweatdrop at her extreme reaction.

"Do you really mean it, would you really guard me with your life like that even though you just met me today?" she asked him hopefully as she held on to his shirt while looking up at him, still on top of him at this point.

"Yes I would! Now please get off of me, you are making a scene! People are looking at us, they are going to get the wrong idea!" he begged the girl, who blushed slightly at that as she looked around and noticed several people currently looking at the both of them with blushes on their faces as they whispered to one another. Their position not helping as she was currently on top of the boy and had seemingly stopped in the middle of the hall and pinned him to the ground.

"O-oh I apologize" she said shyly to him

"…"

"Um, then could you get off of me please, we are going to be late for class" he said after a few seconds of her not moving from on top of him, the statement making her blush for a bit before she slowly got up off him.

He then made to get up but as he made to push himself up a jolt of pain coursed through his arms, making him fall back onto the ground.

"Tooru are you okay?" Imari asked worriedly as she looked at him

"Hmm, apparently my arms are worse off than I thought, mind helping me up?" he asked her, she smiling at him.

"Of course" she said before offering him an arm which he grabbed onto as he pulled himself up

"Thanks" he said as he dusted off his uniform

"Long time no see Tooru" a male voice said from down the hall, making Tooru look down the hall only to spot a teen of below average height with sandy blond hair and lime green eyes. The teen wore glasses and was currently looking at Tooru with a sharp look whilst having his arms crossed and adjusting his glasses. This was Tooru's childhood friend Aoi Torasaki, or as Tooru called him…

"Oh, hey Tora" he said dismissively as he lifted a hand in greeting before he went back to regarding Imari

"So yeah thanks for the help, my arms are still recovering after the opening ceremony, I really overdid it a bit." He said to her making her smile

"It's no problem, I'm glad to help, plus I was the one that knocked you over in the first place" she said to him with an apologetic look

'Ignored' Tora thought depressingly as he hung his head in defeat, all that time thinking of how to make the perfect entrance ruined. Tooru hadn't seen him in over two years and all he got was a simple hey!? He wouldn't stand for it!

He looked up only to notice Tooru walking away with the brown haired girl as they talked happily to one another. Not to be ignored further he decided to act and take matters into his own hands…

"Notice me Senpai!" he shouted as he attempted to spear tackle Tooru who swiftly moved out of the way, Tora barreling by him in the process.

"The hell is wrong with you Tora!? Do you want to kill me!? I still have injuries from the opening ceremony, I don't need new ones!" he said seriously as Tora quickly span around on the floor and looked at Tooru with large sad eyes.

"B-but you're ignoring me, you ruined my moment. Do you know how long I spent practicing on that pose?" Toru said looking to be on the very verge of tears at this point

Tooru sighed at that, guess he was right, he shouldn't have blown him off as he did. Old habits die hard and if the option for company was a cute girl or Tora, he would chose a cute girl very time.

However he at least owed it to him to listen to whatever he had to say.

"Imari, I'm so sorry but could you go on ahead to the classroom without me, apparently some people can't properly restrain themselves." he said tiredly as he pinched the bridge of his nose, before casting as half-hearted glare at Tora at the end.

"Its fine, I understand, plus we have time after school to catch up anyways. You can buy me cake to make up for it." She said with a smirk as she walked off towards their homeroom.

'That so counts as a date' he thought with his own smirk at that, he noticing what she did there

He sighed once more before turning to Tora "So, what do you want?" he asked drily

"Two years!" Tora exclaimed accusingly as he held two fingers in front of him "Two years you have not contacted me. You didn't call, you didn't text, you didn't even send me a goddam letter!" he said he pointed at Tooru accusingly

"So? I'm not your girlfriend and you're not my mom, way I see it I don't have to give you status updates on what I'm doing" Tooru said dismissively as they started walking

"That's not the point!" Tora said with a blush "You just dropped off the grid after you moved, I thought you were dead!" Tora said seriously

"Right, so me saying that I was moving and that I didn't have a phone at the time was just my imagination" he said as he smirked at Tora who sputtered at that

"B-but"

"Plus you're not a cute girl Tora, why would I put you in my contacts list?" he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world

"So what did you do with the phone number I gave you?" Tora asked wide-eyed at this point at his friend's audacity

"Burned it" he answered making Tora falter mid-step before looking at Tooru disbelievingly

"I'm kidding, I lost it or probably threw it away while cleaning my room at some point. You can't honestly believe that I would hold onto a sticky note that held a guy's phone number and keep it under my pillow would you?" he said disbelievingly

'That's what I would have done' Tora thought embarrassedly

"Yeah by the time I got a phone that note was long gone" he said honestly, this making Tora go quiet at that

"Well anyways I didn't expect to find you here of all places." He said quietly before he looked at Tooru with a stern look

"I saw what you did at the fight in the opening ceremony, that kind of thing won't earn you a lot of friends you know?" he said seriously

"Really? I made four friends from that, three of which butts I kicked, and one of them, a girl, even gave me a kiss on the cheek." He said making Tora's jaw drop at that

"If that weren't enough, the cute girl that was here earlier is apparently interested in me and already asked me out on a mini-date after school." He said with a smirk at Tora's disbelieving look

"T-that's beyond the point, the point is that the stunt you pulled earned you many enemies, there is such a thing as showing your hand too soon. Hiding your true abilities and all that, that could have been an option you know. Have these years really worn down your strategic thinking that much? Damn shame too, you used to be so good at shogi." Tora said sadly as he shook his head whilst looking at Tooru with pity.

"Hey! I will have you know I can kick your butt in shogi even on my worst day, or any other strategy game for that matter!" Tooru said defensively, the comment from Tora having actually gotten a rise out of him at that. Tora not looking like he bought it at all.

"Think about it this way, this school prizes power above most other institutions, it's not all simply strategy and careful thinking anymore Tora. We're now immersed in a world where power is everything, in a society consisting of veritable super powered individuals where even the weakest of them are capable of super human feats." He said analytically

"You understand the position we're in right Tora?" he asked making the boy nod at him

"We're guinea pigs" Tora said

"Exactly, we're in an isolated experimental research facility dedicated to the development and weaponization of human bio-weapons. At least that's what they want you to think." he said with a smirk confusing Tora at that

"What do you mean?" Tora asked confusedly

"If it was a matter of DNA that is compatible, why would they chose people of our age group? We are theoretically at one of the most unstable points in our life, we are veritable loose cannons. There are so many other more intelligent routes to take rather than simply choosing a bunch of teenagers at random to be soldiers."

"Genetic engineering would allow them to integrate the required DNA into a child that is still in development, technology has advanced to such a point that they could literally engineer hundreds of people compatible with their Lukifers. Moreover even if this was not possible the option remains of giving these Lukifers to adults, people with actual combat experience."

At this point Tora was looking at Tooru in awe, to think he had thought this in-depth into the matter, he had no idea…

"However they specifically targeted people that had two conditions, they were inside a certain age-group and they possess traumatic often tragic pasts, whilst having a certain mentality in play. This is where Blaze come in, Blaze are said to be the manifestation of people's souls, this would theoretically explain the need for tragic pasts, as it would make it easier for the person to be accepting of the aspect of combat for the promise of power. However this does not explain the age group requirement only the necessity of a tragic past."

"You know what I think, I think Blaze are not really the manifestation of people's souls, but rather are created from a person's state of mind, memories, and experiences. Not only that, but the person they are looking for needs to have a certain DNA sequence and background."

"What I believe is that they are looking for something," he said as he turned a corner with Tora trailing after him

"What would they be looking for?" Tora asked with bated breath

"They are looking for people with different souls – those who possess a certain DNA sequence, Blaze, past and mentality." He said with a grin as they approached the classroom, Tora's eyes widening in realization as he looked at Tooru.

"I see you understand, they were looking for people that fall under all those previous requirements, people that literally have the odds of one in a million – they were looking for Irregulars." he said with a dark grin

"H-how?" Tora asked astonished at to how he had come to such a conclusion and determined such a possibility with the limited information they were knowledgeable of, it was insane.

"I told you I was great at strategy, I knew this from the moment they gave me the application papers and they gave their simplistic explanation of their goals and the purpose of the school I was signing up for. This is only speculation on my part however, a hypothesis that is still in need of confirmation and needs more data to verify its validity, however this is the most logical conclusion I have arrived to at this time with my limited information." He explained to the now openly gaping Tora

Tooru had figured out all this before he had even signed the papers, he had only figured out a small portion of that and only when they had the opening ceremony. Plus Tooru's theory was way more solid than his own, his own just basically stated that Sakuya was the mastermind behind all this, but in light of recent information this seemed way too complex for just her to have thought of. There had to be more to it than he thought, did this go beyond corporate funding, could this go all the way up to the Japanese government? He shivered at the thought, on second thought maybe they were over-thinking this too much.

"Anyways if I do know anything, I know three things" Tooru said as he held out three fingers to Tora, Tora listening carefully to whatever intelligent analysis Tooru was going to provide next.

"Number one Director Sakuya is cute, so she must not be the perpetrator and/or mastermind behind any of this!" he said passionately causing Tora to facefault at that

"What kind of logic is that!?" he shouted at Tooru with a glare

"Shush, no need to shout, you're causing a scene" Tooru said as he gestured at the multiple people in the hall currently whispering about the two of them, most actually looking at Tooru as they did so rather than Tora.

"Anyways, number two, there are a lot of cute girls here" he said with a perverse smirk as he listed off another of his definite truths.

"If I didn't know I would lose in a heartbeat against you, I would kick your ass" Tora said with a glare, not at all amused at his friend's antics.

"And number three" said Tooru with a smirk "Power in this school is everything, so why do you think I showed my hand early. I merely took the initiative, if they have a ranking system I have already established myself as the king of our class. That means less opposition, this way people will know that any and all cute girls are mine and that I will ruthlessly crush anyone that tries to take one from me!" he shouted before he started laughing manically in the end, his last statement being heard by everyone in the classroom as Tora having gotten bored of his antics walked into the classroom.

~x~

"Ah, Tora how could you!? We were in the middle of a debriefing!" Tooru said accusingly as he walked in after Tora only to find almost all the guys looking at him fearfully and quite a few girls gazing at him nervously.

Tooru realizing that he had been caught once more in an awkward situation and that likely everyone had heard his earlier comment quickly tried to make himself scarce and sat in the chair in the far upper right corner, right next to Tora.

"Jerk" he muttered quietly getting a small smirk from the teen in return, he briefly noticing that Imari was also in the class and sitting next to another girl.

Making eye contact with her she sent him a wink and waved at him for a moment before going back to making polite small-talk with the girl next to her.

"Tora?" Tooru said after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence

"What?"

"Do you ever get the feeling that we're being watched?" Tooru asked as he looked around nervously

"No, what makes you say that?" Tora said sarcastically, as almost everyone in the room were currently looking at Tooru and whispering amongst themselves.

"Nothing, just a feeling" Tooru said as he rested his head against the desk

"I was being-! You know what, forget it." Tora said exasperatedly before looking away and crossing his arms. The action making Tooru smirk, Tora was just too much fun to pick on, he was the closest thing he had to a little brother after all.

It was around this time that a girl walked into the room, Tooru quickly identifying her as the silver haired girl from earlier. Immediately Tooru noticing that the only open chair was right across from Tora quickly decided to alter fate a bit.

He doing this by lashing out with his foot and punting Tora out of the seat sending him nearly crashing into the one across from him, he quickly taking the opportunity and moving over one chair so he took Tora's. Tooru having done this while most of the class was busy gawking at the regal bearing and cuteness of the girl, it ultimately going unnoticed by the majority of the class.

Little brother figure he may be, but he would be damned if he would let him get in the way of cuteness!

"The hell is wrong with you, are you trying to kill me!?" Tora shouted angrily

"Sorry my foot slipped" he said innocently before turning away from Tora and opting to look at the silver haired cutie as well.

"Slipped my ass, if he would have kicked me any harder I would have crashed into the wall, or you now that I think about it." Tora said as he regarded the tall muscular teen next to him

"What's your name?" Tora asked the guy only to get a flex in response making him sweatdrop.

"I'm happy that she managed to pass the entry portion" Tooru voiced out loud getting Tora's attention since the guy next to him just flexed at anything he said.

"You know her?" Tora asked curiously

"Well I don't exactly know her, but…" Tooru said as he looked at her thoughtfully just as she herself stopped walking and looked straight at him.

"Tooru" the silver haired girl said before she started walking towards him, the action making him incredibly nervous.

Sure he liked cute girls and stuff but how did she know his name? Did he really know her? Had they met before? Who was she?

She then walked up to him and bowed at the waist, he attempting to do the same from his seated position, before she took a seat on the chair next to him.

And started staring at him…

'She is totally looking at me' he thought, each time he tried to make eye-contact however she would simply look away with a small blush, and when he looked away she would simply go back to staring at him. It was maddening.

"Do I know her?" Tooru asked Tora bluntly while the girl simply stared at him.

"You're asking me!?" Tora shouted in disbelief, not wanting to get involved in… whatever his friend was involved in.

Tooru simply looked back at the girl, which in turn made her look away before looking back at him from the corner of her eye a few seconds later.

"She's obviously looking at you"

"She's obviously looking at me" Tooru said

"Why don't you talk to her?"

"I should probably talk to her… wait a minute" he said as he suddenly caught himself and turned to his right only to see Tora leaning out of his seat whispering ideas into his ear. Tooru quickly leveling a glare at the boy at that.

"Ah, hehehehe, I'll go sit down now." he said sheepishly with an awkward laugh at being caught, he quickly slinking back into seat.

"You go do that" Tooru said with narrowed eyes at him

Turning back to the girl he attempted to initiate a conversation "Hey, uh…" the moment he turned around she turning away from him just as quickly.

'Is this how Tora felt like earlier when I blew him off?' Tooru thought sadly, it was one thing for someone to ignore him, but a cute girl? It almost broke his heart.

He kept trying though only for her to turn away the moment he turned towards her, no matter how fast he did so.

Eventually he decided to give up as the girl was just too great an adversary and simply rested his head against the desk while crying anime tears. The girl looking at him curiously all the while.

My teacher can't be this cute

~x~

After a couple of minutes Tooru managed to recover emotionally from his little "episode" just in time for a blur to come shooting in through the open window – it using the frame as a springboard to launch itself forward so they landed on top of the desk.

"Hello, Hello! I'm your homeroom teacher Tsukumi Rito, but you can call me usa-sensei okay!?" a teacher said happily as she stood on top of her desk and struck a pose. (Usa-sensei can be referred to as rabbit-sensei, bunny-sensei, or bun-bun sensei, in this story all are acceptable meanings.)

Immediately all the students were looking at her in clear disbelief for quite a few reasons. First of all she came in through the window… on the second floor. Secondly was the way she wanted to be addressed. Thirdly and most importantly was her attire…

She was wearing a maid dress with bunny ears on top of her head. She having long, straight violet hair that reached her hips and blue-violet eyes. She also looked to not be much older than them, she probably being anywhere from 18-21 if one had to guess and she appeared to have an upbeat eccentric personality to say the least.

Now most students were looking at her disbelievingly at this point, not knowing how to react to such a thing. Tooru however…

'What is this trickery I see before my eyes, there is no way my teacher is this cute. Such a perfect balance of maturity and cuteness cannot exist, it must be against some law of nature. It's too perfect, there has to be something wrong with this picture.' He thought to himself as he narrowed his eyes at his super cute and eccentric sensei.

'Is she insane or something, no how dare I imagine such a thing, someone with such grand fashion sense must be in possession of a keen mind.' he thought seriously as he looked at his home-room teacher in wonder, she was an authority figure he could respect, just like Sakuya-chan.

"Oh gosh you're all making me embarrassed, staring at me like that. I know I'm cute, but it's rude to stare like that you know." she said half-heartedly as she looked away with a small blush.

Immediately Tooru's heart felt like it stopped in his chest, such open cuteness of that level was just too much for his mind to process, he was still recovering from the cute silver-haired girl next to him. He just couldn't take it.

Thump

"Ara, ara, that's new, no one has ever fainted when they saw me before. I must have underestimated how gosh darned cute I am! ❤" she said proudly as she held out a victory sign.

'Probably scared him to death or gave him a heart attack more like it' thought most of the class

Meanwhile Tooru currently had his head resting against the desk while vomiting rainbows at all the cuteness he had bared witness to on this day. It just never ended.

All of a sudden he felt a soft slender finger press against his cheek as the silver haired girl that was currently sitting next to him poked him curiously, her curiosity having gotten the best of her.

Tooru managed to open his eyes slightly just in time to see her tilt her head cutely at his dilemma.

'Such moe' he thought just as his brain overloaded at the sight once more.

"Tsukume-sensei, please don't mess around so much" a rough baritone voice said immediately snapping Tooru out of his reverie as he looked up to see a man with short black hair and sharp eyes that was currently wearing glasses. He was wearing a formal suit and while some females could regard him as attractive, he was the farthest thing from cute in Tooru's mind. That guy better stay away from sensei if he knew what was good for him.

"Oh, Mikuni-sensei what's up? What brings you here on this fine day?" said a slightly nervous Rito, she knowing that this guy was in fact supervising the curriculum.

"My job, I'm the supervisor for the new teachers, I was scheduled to your class today. Besides, the students would be uneasy with you being the only one here." He said simply as he pulled out a clipboard and several documents. Several students sighing in relief that they would not be alone in a room with the woman.

"What!? Which part of me!?" an offended Rito asked angry at the audacity of the man to think that her little bunnies would be uncomfortable around her.

"Every part" he said drily as he made his way to the back of the room and pulled out a chair in the corner before sitting down with his legs crossed. He then placed the clipboard on top of his files and pulled out a pen before gesturing uncaringly to the fuming Rito to continue.

'Whew, thank goodness, the guy's a douchebag. Guy's like him don't believe in love or cuteness… the monster' Tooru thought as he glared at the man

Rito pouted for a few seconds longer before regaining her upbeat attitude once more "Okay then homeroom starts now!"

"Okay first of all…" she said seriously as she grinned darkly at all of them making them nervous.

"Self-introductions!" she said happily as she clapped her hands together, making many of them sweatdrop at her sudden personality shifts.

"Okay you first!" she said while pointing at the student on the upper right near the door, making it so that if it went in order Tooru and the silver haired girl would be the last ones to have to introduce themselves. Tooru seeing that the first person was a guy quickly tuned them all out as he had more pressing thoughts to attend to.

'As I thought…for a while now…this girl's been intently staring at me!' he thought confused as he noticed the girl still looking at him curiously with her head tilted as she looked at him in wonder, her mouth slightly hanging open in awe.

'Seriously after all that just happened, she's still looking at me! She has been staring at me for a while now too, maybe she's mistaking me for someone else or something. I know I would remember talking to a girl as cute as her, plus I don't know any foreigners…' He thought to himself as he grew increasingly more self-conscious under her gaze, this to the point he had started fidgeting uncomfortably as she stared at him.

In order to calm himself a bit he looked up and observed a few of the introductions. Though what most got his interest where two of the girls which if he recalled correctly the first one had been glaring at him during the opening ceremony and the second one he had saved during the battle.

"Tomoe Tachibana" said the first girl as she bowed politely

Tomoe has navy blue/black hair with a yellow headband with a cute bow attached to the side of her hair. She has orange eyes and a fair skin complexion and had a sense of formal bearing with the appearance of a traditional female Nadeshiko. All in all she was quite cute in his opinion and had a confident and dignified air about her.

Right after her came another girl, however unlike her predecessor the girl was incredibly shy and looked like she wanted to be anywhere but at the center of attention. So it was while nervously fidgeting that she managed to introduce herself.

"U-um my… my name is Miyabi Hotoka" she said softly as she bowed at the waist, before quickly sitting down. The girl from before looking at her with a small smile and patting her on the shoulder in a comforting fashion getting the girl to relax a bit and smile back slightly at that.

That was when he noticed it however, that girl was staring at him too! She was casually glancing at him over her shoulder every once and a while. She momentarily made eye contact with him causing her to blush at that and making her turn away quickly.

'Oh my god there are two of them' Tooru thought in disbelief

'Well at least they're cute' he thought before he was once again brought out of his thoughts as he heard Imari's name be called out and watched her introduce herself with a smile on his face. She sending him a small smile afterwards as she sat back down on her chair.

After her came a girl with shoulder-length purplish/black hair and amethyst colored eyes, she had a cute face with a presently emotionless expression on her features.

"Miwa" she said with a polite bow before sitting down again making quite a few people sweatdrop at that.

'I like her' Tooru thought with a grin

Tooru continued to blow off most of the other people until they got to Tora's table since he was right after him. First stood up a tall muscular teen with black hair and squinted eyes.

Tooru simply looked at the teen with a raised eyebrow, the guy looked to be around as strong as Tsuko physically, and taller too. He was without a doubt the physically strongest looking out of all of the students in the room. However Tooru immediately knew that if they came down to blows that he would crush him, for the simple fact that in a fight he simply would not stop until his foe or himself was one of two things, unconscious or dead.

A dark grin spread across his face at that, he using his hand to cover it from the silver haired girl that was next to him still staring at him unashamedly. He was so far the only one in his class that had fully embraced the fact that he was no longer human and had evolved into what he now was. Even before being injected with the Lukifer's he was already quite skilled in sword play and hand-to-hand combat, brute strength was nothing to him and now he himself had strength in spades. If the teen tried to confront him he would crush him on the spot.

However all these thoughts and his sinister grin disappeared in an instant at what the teen did next. The moment immediately destroying any hope that he had of the guy being a threat and/or a good fight.

The teen simply stood up… and flexed. This being done instead of an introduction making Tooru and several other people sweatdrop at that.

'Scratch that, the guy's a meat-head that's in love with himself' he thought as the guy struck a few more poses before sitting down.

"Oh, so your name is Ryuutarou Tatsuno. Okay, next you with the glasses introduce yourself!" Rito said as she pointed at Tora

'How the heck did she understand that!? Wait think about this logically she probably saw his name on her student roster. Yeah that's it.' Tooru thought as he rationalized the situation, he would not believe that there was an actual way to communicate with flexing ones muscles, he just couldn't.

Right after Tora finished, Tooru took the initiative and decided to introduce himself.

"I'm Tooru Kokonoe, please take care of me sensei" he said with a shark-like grin as he grinned at her psychotically, his killing intent palpable, this momentarily making Rito's demeanor change for a split second before she caught herself.

'I knew it' he thought to himself as he threw her off her game for a fraction of a second with the way he introduced himself in a near-threatening fashion.

The way her eyes suddenly sharpened, how her smile seemingly slipped from her face for a second, the way her back had straightened. She had temporarily regarded him as a threat before catching herself, and her body had reacted accordingly.

No doubt about it, the woman was a fighter, a damn good one at that if she was teaching a bunch of people that were basically super-human. He shivered at the thought of how powerful she would have to be to manage a group of people that could punch a hole through a brick wall with just their fist at only level one.

The woman was most likely a monster, and the way her eyes had changed… those were a killer's eyes, eyes that saw you as a simple statistic. For that one second he was simply 1/32, a student that she was responsible for. Is that the way she truly viewed the world? Was she like him in that she could be two totally different people when she wanted to be? He would say at this point that yes, yes she was.

Fascinating...

Just as quickly as her bubbly personality left it came back full force as if nothing happened, no one being none the wiser of the change. No one but Tooru that is.

Most of the other students were looking at him fearfully at his introduction making him sweatdrop inwardly at that. He was only trying to figure out their cute sensei a little more.

"Oh, I know your name Kokonoe, after all I was there for your little show this morning. I have to say I'm a big fan. You're the talk of the staff-room you know, that there is an "Irregular" amongst the first year students." She said making many people start whispering at that, as they looked at him curiously.

"What's an irregular?" one of the students asked to the person sitting next to him

"Maybe it's someone powerful?" a girl suggested

"Of course he's powerful! Did you see what he did to the others!? The guy's a monster!" a dark haired teen with a tan said

Hearing that last comment Rito could not withhold the dark smirk that found itself on her lips

"A monster, where have I heard that before?" she whispered softly to herself

"Anyways I will be keeping a close eye on you Mr. Irregular! I have a feeling we have more in common than you realize," She said to him in a bubbly tone that did not fit the dark smile she was gracing him with.

'Likewise' he thought to himself as he himself had his own small smile playing across his features as he settled himself back into his chair.

"Next up is the conspicuous silver girl next to you! Stand up!" she said happily

"Ja" the silver haired girl said quietly as she stood up

"I'm Julie Sigtuna. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Julie said politely as she introduced herself

'So her names Julie huh? For a foreigner her Japanese is really good' he thought as he watched her sit down before glancing at him and turning away quickly making him sigh at that.

Maybe she's just shy, or not too confident with her Japanese, he would have to get her to open up a bit if they were going to be sitting next to one another in class. Vaguely he wondered how good her writing skills were, kanji were hard to learn after all, even for native born speakers at times. He looked at her softly, maybe Julie and Imari would be up for forming a study group, they did already know where the study hall was after all.

He suddenly sweatdropped at the thought as he vaguely remembered the state it was left in after the fight this morning. Well scratch that, maybe they can go there when it's fixed. He still did not know why they didn't just hold the fight in the arena, what was the point of even having one if they weren't going to use it.

"Okay next up, your student ID can also be used as a credit card. You have 100,000 yen (Roughly about $840 in U.S currency) every month to use however you like!" she said dramatically, the news receiving cheers from most of the students.

"Feel free to give some of that to me, your favorite professor of course!" she said unashamedly while shooting off a peace sign, getting disbelieving looks from most of the students.

'Damn there goes a portion of my monthly earnings, and I was so excited too' he thought with anime tears trailing from his eyes as he did not even entertain the possibility of not giving her some money. Well maybe not money, but he might buy her lunch or something if she wanted, he needed to plan this out carefully so he didn't get the short end of the stick.

"We also have a special Duo system here in which two students pair up together. Basically we have a partner system. Before you enrolled you were informed of that you will belong to Dawn's security operation team once you graduate from here, which is Dorn Agency's peacekeeping corps." She explained to them as the students listened to her intently knowing that this was important information that was being relayed to them.

"The missions over there are traditionally conducted in a two-man cell" Rito explained

At this point Mikuni-sensei took over as he decided it would be prudent to explain things a bit more clearly "Basically you're all going to get used to this set-up starting from your time as students, this way you can create bonds and establish a trusting relationship with your partner, all while getting your teamwork up to an acceptable degree by the time you are initiated as a member of Dawn Security Corporation (DSC)."

"You shall be a part of a two-man cell in most cases as support is rare for this division and trust is key, by the time you leave this institution we expect you to be ready to drop headfirst into the middle of a hostile situation with your partner as cleaners. Remember for all purposes this is a military academy and we are training you to be heavy hitters, we gave you these abilities for a reason. You're going to be the people we send in when a situation goes FUBAR and are expected to fix it." Mikuni-sensei explained, this suddenly making a lot of the students increasingly nervous as they got a reality-check and were again reminded of exactly why they were here in the first place.

'T-that's interesting' Tooru thought of all the information that afforded him.

Suddenly a lot of this made a bit more sense, all this money they were putting into them – it was an investment. They were spending enough money on the long run on each of them to pay for several combat trained troops, but if the cost for five or even twenty normal soldiers was spent on them they would still be making a good investment. For if one of them was able to take out dozens of trained soldiers by themselves and they were put in pairs as well on top of that… They could literally take out an entire military compound after the proper training and augmentations.

'That's another thing to think about as well then, better start filling up a notebook with all the info I'm getting and theories. I am still not convinced though that's the only reason they're doing this, there has to be an ulterior motive or else they would simply be selecting people that are already combat oriented and preferably trained. There has to be a variable I'm missing, for now I'm going to stick to my idea that they were looking for irregulars for some reason, that theory still has enough backing to stick at this point.' He thought to himself as he drifted off in thought, Julie still looking at him as she observed his expression curiously.

Rito was currently glaring at Mikuni for having interrupted her and giving in her opinion a bit too much information, before she went back to addressing the class regaining her cheerful personality.

"Anyways, duos always work together, they are together during classes and the dorms. Which is why our dormitory has shared dorms!" she said excitedly as the students started looking around at people they could possibly choose for a duo partner.

"Think of it as a trust building exercise! So you can understand each other better by spending time together!" she added

"Duos will be discussed and decided officially by the weekend, until then I want you to look for someone to form a "duo" with!" she told them energetically as people started talking to one another to see if they would be interested in partnering up with them.

'Hmm, so far I can only think of two, possibly three people I could be in a duo with. Tora, Imari and possibly Julie, she seems interested enough in me to say yes' he thought with a sweatdrop as he saw her still looking at him from the corner of his eye.

"Now since you haven't likely decided who you want to spend the next few years of school and likely future career with. You'll all be placed in temporary duos until this weekend in which you will decide the person that you will basically entrust your life to in a fight!" she said in a bubbly tone of voice, the way she worded it making a lot of people nervous at that as she painted it as something serious.

'Oh well there goes Tora' Tooru thought with a sigh 'Well if it's just temporary…'

"Hey Tora," Tooru whispered catching the teen's attention, he already having half expected Tooru to address him.

'He's definitely going to ask me to be his duo. I guess it was inevitable, after all who wouldn't want someone as intelligent and resourceful as me as their duo partner?' he thought to himself with a smile at that as he struck an intellectual pose and adjusted his glasses.

"Yeah?" he asked with a small blush on his cheeks at how amazing he was and a little bit flattered that Tooru would choose him.

"Could you ask Imari over there if she would do me the honor of being my temporary duo?" he asked as he discretely pointed at Imari who was actually looking at him from afar and could guess what he was asking Tora to do as he pointed at her making her blush at that. She truthfully flattered at the action.

Meanwhile Tora was currently crying anime tears at that, once again ignored! Did no one appreciate his intellect, his skill? All he wanted was a little recognition, was that too much to ask!?

"...Tora! Tora! Damn it, Tora crashed again," Tooru said softly, he knowing how his friend got at times.

"These temporary duos however come preassigned, so until this weekend, please live with the person you're sitting next to right now ❤" Rito-sensei said cutely, this catching quite a few people off-guard.

"Next to me…?" Tora said in a defeated tone of voice, before suddenly feeling a hand be placed on his shoulder and turning to see the muscular teen from before regarding him. Who went on to give him a cheesy grin and a thumb's up, this making Tora look horrified at the sight. It didn't help that immediately after that he started flexing right next to him. The weirdest part? He could swear he could understand what the guy was trying say, this being something that disturbed him on some deep emotional level.

"Name's Tatsu, pleasure to meet you, hope we can get along." it was horrifying, to think he could understand clearly what the guy was trying to convey as he flexed. Convinced he was going insane he quickly turned to Tooru.

'Help me' he mouthed to him, however Tooru himself was going to his own mini-panic as the reality of the situation sunk in for him.

He would be living alone, with a girl, and be s-sleeping in the same room as her. Sure he liked cute girls, but this was going too fast even for him, he hadn't even dated a girl yet! He couldn't handle such a huge leap in a relationship all of a sudden!

Tooru was blushing at the thought, after all while he might love cute girls it had always been from afar, like an idol was to most people. If that were not enough the girl next to him was cute enough to be an actual idol, he had never even held a girl's hand before! Heck he almost had a heart attack when Imari and later Kurumi kissed him on the cheek. His heart nearly pounded out of his chest as he was kissing Kurumi and the only reason he got as far as he did was pure instinct! And all of a sudden he was expected to just sleep in the same room as a girl just like that!? This was all Tora's fault somehow, he just knew it!

'Wait I need to calm down, it's not like we're going to be sleeping in the same bed or anything, we're just sleeping in the same room. It will even provide me the opportunity to get to know her better, I just need to be flexible.' He thought to himself as he calmed down slightly at that and cast a side glance towards Julie only to see her blushing slightly as her hands clenched her skirt tightly.

'She's nervous too, well of course she would be, she's going to have to live with a strange guy she barely knows anything about after all. We have to talk about this after we get out of class, the whole point of this is to build trust between one another after all.' He quickly made up his mind and pulled out his small pocket notebook and wrote down a small note. He flinching in pain as he did so as his arms were still quite injured.

Having finished writing the note, he inconspicuously slid it over to her, while looking at Rito-sensei as she explained the details of the duo system in a bit more detail.

Julie momentarily looked at the note in confusion and slight surprise before she picked it up.

It's nice to meet you Julie, I hope we can get along. You don't need to be so nervous…

-Continued on back

Looking at him she saw him staring at her from the corner of his eye with a small smile, seeing her questioning look he simply nodded to her prompting her to turn the note around and look at the back.

Let's meet up after class, that way we can get to know each other a bit before we head to the dorms. What do you say?

A small smile formed on her face at that before she wrote something down and passed it to him.

He quickly looked at the note and sweatdropped, her penmanship was horrible. However he could not deny the smile that formed on his face at her response.

I would love to…

~x~

Homeroom had just ended and students were presently filing out of the room whilst conversing with the people that they were going to bunk with. Tooru and Julie had avoided making themselves the center of attention by not asking any questions themselves for the rest of class. Some people noticed that they were the only mixed gender pair but decided to remain silent rather than risk a confrontation with Tooru which most of his classmates feared. They did however send Julie numerous sympathetic glances while the girl, Tomoe if he remembered her name right sent him a glare. As if warning him not to try anything funny with Julie.

After class ended it left only three other pairs of students who were presently talking quietly to one another, Mikuni-sensei who was finishing up his report, Rito-sensei who was writing something on a notebook on her desk, and finally the two of them.

An awkward silence descended upon them however as first of all he couldn't leave without her, him being her partner and all, and secondly if he did leave it would make meeting up a lot harder. So he could only sit there, nervous as the cute girl next to him wrote something in her notebook.

"Tooru" he heard a soft voice say beside him, he turning to look at Julie only to see her this time making eye-contact with him "Please look after me" she said politely with a small bow, momentarily surprising him at that as she did not shy away from him like before.

Gradually a smile formed itself on his face at that "Same here" he said happily as he stood up, she mimicking his action as they made to walk out of the room.

"Kokonoe-kun" Rito called out making him stop mid-step as he turned to her "You stay, I need to discuss something with you!" she said with a deceptively sweet smile, immediately giving him a sense of foreboding at that.

By this point Mikuni-sensei had already left and the last of the groups was filing out, they were the last pair there.

"Julie?" Tooru said softly

"Ja?"

"Can you wait for me outside real quick, I will be out there in a second okay?" he asked her with a small smile

She looked at him curiously for a few seconds at that before she nodded slowly to him "Okay" she said as she continued out the door without him. He quickly turning around to regard Rito-sensei, whose smile had widened even more and had become slightly more sinister in appearance.

"Close the door" she purred to him making him scowl at that before he walked over to the door and softly closed it shut. The sound being like a nail being placed in a coffin as the door locked shut.

"Turn around" she ordered her tone possessing a darker seductive undertone to it rather than the cute and bubbly tone that she used in class. Turning around he quickly regarded her and crossed his bandaged arms in front of him. Rito looking at him with a dark smile all the while.

"We have some very important things to discuss with one another Mr. Irregular," she said as she pressed a button next to the smart board. This making the windows slowly close one by one as a security measure was enacted that prevented anyone from looking into or out of the room.

The last window showing a view of a psychotically smiling Rito and a stone cold expressionless Tooru regarding one another.

Very important things indeed...

Omake:

"Do you think you can find it in your heart to think of me as precious to you one day?" Imari askedhopefully with big puppy-dog eyes

'My god! The girl's a veritable mine-field with her questions, one wrong answer and its game over! At least it would be if this was a dating-sim, like Tsuko thinks it is apparently. Too bad that I know exactly the perfect thing to say in this situation, Tsuko eat your heart out, guess what my hobby was in middle school!' he thought with an inward smirk before he turned to Imari and answered her sincerely.

He had been subconsciously convinced by Tsuko of pursuing a Harem ending, he would not screw up any of the routes he needed to take with the girls. He had played too many of these type of games in the past to lose now. He would not be defeated, he would avoid the yandere end, he will get all the girls, and he will emerge victorious!

Imari – Captured/First Girl/Harem Route Initiated

?/Cute Silver Haired Girl – Next Girl

Sakuya-Hime – Must have/Final Boss

Cute Girls – Must have

Omake featuring a look into a deep, deep part of Tooru's mind where everything that happens is being categorized and analyzed as if it were a dating-sim. It also shows a Tooru that used to play numerous dating-sims in middle school explaining how he always knows just the right thing to say in almost any situation to make a girl fall for him like cannon. (Even though he screws up big time too due to him being an idiot at times and saying the wrong thing. A mistake that will not happen in this story as he is going to have that IQ boost that is necessary to not make him such a blatant dumbass and/or inconsiderate jerk.)

Author's Note

~x~

Imari is going to be extremely accepting of other girls to the point of encouraging them to pursue a relationship with Tooru and for Tooru to in turn pursue one with them. Why? Because she did this in cannon, on the island she encouraged Miyabi to pursue Tooru. Imari also admitted that she could have seen herself falling in love with Tooru if she had gone to the main academy with him. That means that in about the hour or so she spent with him she had already developed a crush on Tooru before she left. Tooru works that fast, that is insane.

Tora is going to mostly take the role of a strategist/comic relief, he just fits the role for both perfectly in my mind.

This chapter also shows that Tooru has in fact given some measure of thought to the Blaze, Lukifer, and the institution as a whole. However that was just a hypothesis he developed with his limited information, at this point he had not heard of the duo system and is clueless as to the nature of "Absolute Duo". His thoughts on the matter will change slightly as the story progresses. I know that a tragic past is not a requirement to activate a Blaze that is just an assumption he made with his limited info, all of it is.

Like you have already seen in this chapter Kunai girl is in as Imari's temporary duo as they were sitting next to one another. I just observed that they had really good symmetry during their fight in the third volume and thought they could work out as partners. Imari a close range fighter, with the kunai girl as mid to long range support. However guest reviewer Shiranai did in fact guess who I was going to pair up with Imari so I do give props to them as well.

I found out that the bow/archer girl is named Kibitsu Momo, and kunai girl Miwa. I previously had her listed as an OC since I thought she didn't actually get a name in the story, but found out she did when I looked at the Light Novel. I intend to flesh out both characters a lot more than in cannon, same for Imari. Imari will develop differently due to her remaining in Koryo Academy.

Suggestions on kunai girl's last name are welcome, she will be Kurumi's sis (The OC female from last chapter) I have decided that Miwa's personality will be apathetic/shy. She will be fairly emotionless at times but will mellow out slightly while around friends, her composure can crack at times however.

Fun Fact: Miwa/kunai girl got a stub on Absolute Duo Wiki while this chapter was in production, yay!

Anyways I will provide her an adequate personality later on, she is not an OC, just an at most OOC character. We don't know almost anything about her on her personality so cut me some slack, but I am going to try to make a personality that I believe will be fitting for her.

Note

~x~

FUBAR: Fucked Up Beyond All Reason

Please post suggestions on Kunai girl/ Miwa's last name. As far as I know she does not have one and will need one in future chapters. Also if anyone knows Mikuni-sensei's Blaze please P.M. me what it is.

Thanks ❤

-Cuddly Cat

Edited: 11/20/2015