Rating: T+

Pairing(s): Akihisa/Mizuki(or)Minami, Yuuji/Shouko, Hide/Yuuko, Kouta/Aiko

Genre: Romance, Comedy

Notes:

Hello, one and all!

Zancrow here (re)submitting his first ever story. While I was a first time writer when I posted this three and a half years ago; I've grown a bit and decided to update this little piece before continuing it. As should be, any comment, criticism or such is welcomed and appreciated. Similarly, any questions or comments about myself can be asked by a review, PM or just checking my profile. Also, if you're a fan of Baka & Test do check out my Q&A fic of them (Ask A Baka) if you haven't already. I'll be updating that one shortly. As for this story, just look a little bit lower…

Disclaimer: Don't own Baka & Test.

Morning coffee was for most people a strict part of their morning routine. A freshly brewed, steaming cup of the substance was almost mandatory to get the body to shed the layers of heavy sleep it unconsciously clung to even after being forcibly woken up from the night's slumber by the alarm clock on the side shelf. So much was this need that for some people coffee came first in the shopping list when it was time for groceries. Even first that toilet paper, and that's just wrong.

But for someone like Souichi Nishimura, coffee was like gasoline, oil and vodka all rolled into one. Well, maybe a shot of vodka was its own good thing, but coffee was still important.

"Two things I need to feel like I actually came to work today," the iron man of the academy spoke up, in between sips of his coffee. He currently sat on the teacher's lounge, having recently clocked-in for his shift. The only other person there was his boss, Kaoru Toudou, the principal of the whole facility. She just glanced at him as he spoke, seemingly lost in his moment. It wasn't until he added "don't you agree?" that she picked up he was talking to her.

"On what?" she asked on instinct. She hadn't really listened to what he had said.

"Two things that make my day here," Souichi repeated, giving Kaoru a peace sign. Or, more likely, signaling a number 'two' at her. "One, is coffee,"

"You're starting to sound obsessed…"

"Two," he paused, taking a sip. Before she could excuse herself and go back to her own office, a loud crash echoed throughout the area. Kaoru's eyes widened at the shock, since it sounded like something broke. Something big broke. Souichi just smiled. "…is that."

"Akihisa!" the cry of a man filled with rage filled the area, as Kaoru narrowed her eyes.

"Are they seriously…?"

"Yep, earlier than expected too, but, as I was saying, there are two things that make me feel like I'm truly at work. The smell of coffee," he stood up as he tossed the now empty cup towards the trashcan. "…and the smell of fresh student corpses."

"…Don't let the parent-teacher association hear you."

"Wouldn't dream of it, now, to work!" with that spoken, the resident iron man made his way out of the lounge and towards the destructive sounding hallways, leaving a unamused principal behind.

"Sometimes I wonder if that man lied in his Good Conduct Certificate…" she muttered to herself as she walked out of the lounge. Before she exited, she heard another loud noise, but further away. At that moment, the lights in the lounge flickered briefly, before resuming. "…What was that?"

-0-

"Akihisa!"

The shout echoed throughout the entire campus, bouncing itself across the empty halls all across the Academy. Normally, such a verbal call, sounding more like a threat than anything else, would be ignored by any of the students not currently involved in the predicament of whichever class it belonged to. Today was no exception.

The students already knew the drill; they knew what was going on behind the closed doors of their respective classrooms. It happened every so often, involving one or the other at least. But, as per usual, it involved them all.

Class 2A was at war against Class 2F.

Class 2B through 2E would not get involved, this time at least. The reason this time didn't involve them. It was something more personal between the two. Something that rumor had involved Class 2F's representative Yuuji Sakamoto having been seen hanging out with another girl, or something to that extend.

"Akihisa, you stinking idiot!" Yuuji's voice sounded a mix between hatred and tears, his fatigue noticeable as he had been running through the halls with Shouko hot in his heels. The death glare he sent towards the young blond was met with a skeptic look.

"Yuuji, you're alive?" an almost genuine expression and tone could be heard from Akihisa, as he saw his best friend enter the classroom their little group had currently hidden themselves within.

"What the hell is that supposed to even mean?" Yuuji countered as he quickly shut the door behind him, locking himself inside with Akihisa. Sitting down next to his bemused looking friend, who he felt like smacking for some reason, he noticed that both the class voyeur Kouta as well as the class' own unknown gender Hideyoshi were there as well. "Alright, let's take a step back, shall we." Yuuji spoke up, striking Akihisa in the head when the latter stood up and walked backwards. "Figuratively you idiot! Now, do any of you know why we've been declared war, by Class A of all people?"

"It may have something to do with your date yesterday." Hideyoshi mentioned, still eyeing the door, half-expecting Shouko to barge in at any time, chainsaw in hand. He just hoped that his luck with his looks helped him avoid punishment from the girls as they usually did. Except when his sister was around, since she never showed him pity, but hopefully she was not too much concerned with Yuuji's love life to come barging in with her best friend.

"Date? What are you talking about Hideyoshi? What date?" Yuuji eyed the younger androgynous boy, who simply turned his view towards Kouta. The shorter boy just shifted his glance from his camera to Yuuji.

"The job was well paid," he muttered, in monotone. "I have no regrets."

"Job! What the-?" Yuuji blurted out, before it hit him. If they were talking about a date, it meant that they had seen him yesterday at the diner. Which meant Kouta's "job" was what it always was, pictures of things people didn't want pictures taken from. And that could only mean the "buyer" was none other than a currently very unhappy customer.

"What Kouta means Yuuji is that there is some evidence that you were out with a girl yesterday night, eating at a nearby restaurant while chatting about what to eat, your favorite television programs and how easier your life has become after you stopped looking down on people," Akihisa commented everything on a single breath, which made Yuuji cringe. Clenching his fists, Yuuji took a deep breath.

"So let me get this straight…" he took a deep breathe. "You took those photos of me…"

He pointed at Kouta.

"…while you gave them to Shouko…"

He pointed at Akihisa.

"…all the while you did absolutely nothing to stop them…"

He pointed at Hideyoshi.

All three nodded.

"And here I was actually worried we we're going to be so downgraded in our school equipment that we will make the Flintstones look advanced in comparison!" he pressed his hand against his temple, contemplating. "Are you three for real? We're supposed to be friends, and you sell me out to Shouko! It wasn't a date, she was just an old friend! You three are so good at spying that you couldn't even tell that!"

"Hey!" Akihisa complained, raising his voice. "We didn't sell you out to the FFF. That's worth something!"

"And you idiots keep asking yourself why were always such losers," Yuuji practically growled, causing Akihisa to cock his head.

"Yuuji…"

"Shouko and I aren't a thing, so she has no right to get mad at me even if I do go out on a date. And I wouldn't expect my closest friends to rat me out!" his tone was louder, causing the other three to stiffen a bit.

"Yuuji," Hideyoshi spoke up, a bit shaken up. "We didn't mean it like that…"

"…I, it was just like we always do…" Kouta muttered, feeling a bit off this time. He had meant no harm. But before he could try to explain himself, he heard the door unlock itself. Or rather, become unlocked. The female students of Class 2A were behind the door, all of them with their summoned avatars already activated. Opening the door, Shouko, Yuuko, Aiko and Miho stood at the classroom's entrance; blocking anyway out.

"Shouko," Yuuji blurted out. "Stop this, this is stupid! If you massacre us here we'll be left in a classroom with shoe boxes and 99-cents sharpies."

"…You should have considered that before you went out with someone else." Shouko spoke softly, in a tone that betrayed the sensation she was giving off as she positioned herself before Yuuji, not allowing any room for escape, as he tensed even more. He swallowed. He could let Shouko still boss him around like this. Better grades or not, she was not going to boss him around, he was a man! And so he clenched his fist, but before he could talk, Akihisa stepped between them.

"It was all a misunderstanding on our part Shouko," Akihisa waved his arms a bit as he spoke, trying to calm the girl down. "You see the girl was a, erm… cousin of Yuuji's!"

"…Cousin?"

"Cousin…?" Yuuji also asked, before grabbing Akihisa by the sleeve and pulling him backwards. He then formed a circle between his four soon-to-be doomed friends. "My cousin?"

"If she thinks its family, she won't get mad," Akihisa pointed out, rather proudly of himself.

"Akihisa's got a point, I used to go out with my sis all the time, nobody thought anything of it," Hideyoshi mentioned, realizing midway in his statement that he and Yuuko used to be a lot closer than they were now. He wondered why that was.

"You have a hot cousin," Kouta muttered, earning him a glare from Yuuji.

"Don't call my cousin ho-I mean, she's not my cousin," Yuuji clenched his fists as he spoke. "I don't have to lie to Shouko because I'm scared to admit I was hanging out with someone who doesn't have a wiener, no offense Hideyoshi,"

"None take-wait…"

"And I don't have to feel bad for it," with that spoken and clear for all those present, he turned and faced his childhood best friend soon-to-be murderer. "Shouko…"

"…Who is she?"

"She's…" he spoke up, as she looked on. Everybody stared, until he made it clear. "…my cousin," Yuuji blurted out, causing Akihisa to feel his high opinion of his friend crash down like a jet without fuel. Shouko merely tilted her head in response.

Akihisa pulled Yuuji back while whispering an "excuse me" to Shouko. "Way to be the bigger man, Yuuji! What happened to that "I don't have to feel bad about it" speech?"

"You idiots left me no choice," he muttered back. "She's about to-"

"…You've never mentioned this before, Yuuji," Shouko's tone sounded a little bit rougher. Like a woman when she was being lied to.

"There are a lot of things about me I haven't mentioned before to you, this one isn't-" Yuuji quickly clapped his hands over his mouth, cursing his mistake, as she would undoubtedly take that the wrong way. And she did, as her eyes quickly lit up in a rather eerie, yet calm furry.

"Shouko! He's telling the-ouch!" Akihisa's attempt at helping was met with a swift kick from Shouko's avatar to his, sending a wave of pain from the little Akihisa to his normal counterpart. Before Akihisa could properly clench his head and wallow in pain, two young figures stood by the door, a big fluff of pink hair alongside a red-head ponytail; both of whom stared wide-eyed at the scene.

"Yoshii!" spoke Mizuki Himeji, eyeing the predicament her friends currently found themselves in. Upon seeing her, Akihisa felt an incredible amount of relief, as everyone had turned their attention to her. Everyone except Shouko, who was dead set on Yuuji. Minami equally looked over towards Akihisa, followed by at the rest.

"We heard what happened Aki, sort of…" Minami clarified, unsure if they should intervene or not (girl-code and all), but they did not want to have to sit on the floor again. "We came here to help!"

"Shouko," Yuuko spoke up, getting tired of this prank turned murder routine. "If it was just a cousin, let's drop it. I never understood your obsession with this idiot."

"Come now Yuuko," Aiko added, smirking. "You know how boys that age are, kissing cousins is a common occurrence."

"Eww, don't lump everyone with your perverted tendencies…"

"Can you really talk, or should we mention kissing twi-"

Even Shouko had to admit at being slightly surprised by the left hook Yuuko gave Aiko, swiftly knocking her out. The hit seemed to resonate towards Kouta, somehow, who after getting a glimpse of something also fell down with blood dripping down his nose. "Shouko…"

"…You'll understand when you fall in love," was all Shouko said before she turned to Yuuji again, who has activated his summon. Everyone else followed suit, as they all prepared to clash. Save for a currently down-but-not-out Kouta and Aiko. "…You'll learn to respect what we have Yuuji."

"You'll learn that we don't have what you think we-"

The lights went out.

A rarity of occurrence for the students, but it was more than what they've come to expect. The system was not perfect, so sudden lags in the system or minor graphical glitches were not unheard off; but never had the system shut down fully. The engines gave of a scratching sound, before it went dead. The lights went off in the classrooms, the halls and everywhere.

The group was left in total darkness, all of them frozen, as if waiting for the system to reboot. Shouldn't it?

Across the school both students and faculty members were dumbfounded, unsure of how to respond. The remaining students in Class 2F's homeroom were in the middle of a hearing. As all of the member of the FFF Inquisition looked around, in total darkness, their leader Ryou muttered: "Is that supposed to happen?"

"I don't think so," said a second member, touching around before he received a slap from another member. Apparently he had touched somewhere inappropriate. Ryou just waited, and waited. Nothing came back online.

"Well… this is awkward," he spoke, embarrassed. "Guess our initiation will have to wait…"

He turned to look, or try to look, at the member they were assigning as part of the group, who merely smiled, waved and gave Ryou an overjoyed "hi!" is response; causing the leader of the group to shudder. "Don't make me regret letting you join…"

As the group pondered, the rest of the students could be heard coming out of their classrooms. The teachers began to guide the students outside; the only light within the walls being the emergency led lights that honestly didn't show much. As all the teachers moved the gossiping students out; Souichi arrived at where the interrupted fighters were currently at. "Alright, everyone out. System's gone haywire, so it may take a bit for it to get restored."

"No school!" Akihisa ran out of the classroom, followed by a shout from the iron man to not run in the darkness. The rest of the group began to walk outside, as Yuuji walked passed Shouko towards where the rest were going.

"…Yuuji…"

He paid her no mind.

-0-

"I can't believe the whole system just went out like that, it had never happened before. But you know what that means right?" Yuuji spoke as he rested his back against one of the chairs of Akihisa Yoshii's apartment. It may not be his favorite place to be, but he really had nowhere else to go to right now.

School was out, literally, as the main computer which handled all of the Summon Battles and such had burned up with no prior warning, something which had never happened before. As the faculty brought the technicians to check the system, they found themselves unable to get out of the Blue Screen of Death. No system meant no school for an academy that specialized in summoning as the core of its education system. Without it, alongside as the loss of materials and student documents, it would take time for it to go back to normal.

The student's, however, couldn't care less. Class 2F in particularly saw this as an excellent opportunity.

No school!

No wars!

"No Shouko!"

"That's a bit mean Yuuji," spoke Akihisa as he set up his video game system. No school meant more time for important stuff, like games. "Did you even speak to her?"

"Why should I? She was about to cream me for eating with another human being, besides," he picked up the second controller, as he waited for Akihisa to turn the game on. "…she was probably the one who overloaded the system. Way too much firepower."

Akihisa merely pondered that as they began to play. A mascot racing game, with items to hit your opponents or make yourself faster; racing around in a variety of cool, yet impossible to recreate in real life tracks. Catchy music thou.

"Hey Akihisa," Yuuji spoke up.

"Huh?" Akihisa questioned, not taking his eyes off the screen. If Yuuji had gotten one of those flying blue things, he was going to scream.

"Your phone lit up."

"Oh," he said, and he looked at it. It had lit up. Pressing pause, Akihisa took his phone, and in a moment, his face became something of pure agony. "Yuuji…"

"What?"

"Our paradise is over before it even begun…"

"Huh? What do you mean by-" Yuuji was interrupted by Akihisa handing the phone over to him, so that Yuuji could read the horrible text which Akihisa spoke of, as the two found themselves having their unexpected vacation unexpectedly taken from them…

"They're sending us to a substitute school!"

-0-

"The Prestigious Kenoue Academy, highly known for its unrivaled excellence and strict but gentle guidelines. Where failure is not an option and success in your only goal," Hideyoshi read aloud the text that they've all sooner or later received. As he did, they all pondered what it could entail.

"We're being sent elsewhere until our school is fixed, it does make sense. After all, they can't just have us doing nothing for a whole semester," Minami added, since this Kenoue Academy didn't sound that bad as Akihisa and Yuuji had made it out to be. Heck, it could be fun, if the Class 2F idiots behaved themselves at least.

"…I'm sure it's only for a little while." Yuuko added, who had also gotten together with everyone there. Currently, the whole gang had come together at a fast food joint, making due with the news they had all apparently received. Aside from the main 2F's gang; Yuuko, Aiko and Toshimitsu Kubo were there.

Only Shouko was not present.

"It's not that that worries me," Yuuji spoke up, for once wondering what had happened to his little stalker. "Everyone else aside from us got sent to Wornaz Academy, which is well known for being very easy going place. Kenoue is known as being worse than a military school!"

Yuuji had heard horrible tales of that place, how even one's parents had difficulties seeing their children after they were enrolled into it. Rumor had it that they were very opposed to Fumizuki's summoning system, which made it odd they accepted to assist in taking in a few of their students. Especially the more rowdy ones.

"We all probably got sent there because it was our fight that got the system to blow, we just have to deal," Aiko chimed in, eyes closed and arms crossed across her developing bosom. Yuuji felt a vein pop in response.

"Our fight? You attacked us. We're being sent there because of Shouko's false ideas."

The slam of Yuuko's fist on the table caused everyone to jump slightly. "Oh grow up Sakamoto, you actually expect us to believe there is nothing going on between you two? I know Shouko, she wouldn't make all that up."

"Say what, there's nothing between us, as your brother!"

The both turned to Hideyoshi at the same time, whose eyes just widened in response. "W-Wait a minute," he almost shouted. "Why am I the authority in this matter?"

"We're still together, so we should be grateful about that," Mizuki interrupted, shifting her gaze from Yuuji to Yuuko. She didn't want any more tension to build, since she found it odd Shouko had declined an invitation to go out. Mizuki then eyed Akihisa as he lowered himself across the table, hoping to get some input from him but he was apparently more worried about the food than the conflict. "Besides…" Mizuki continued, turning back to the others. "The new uniforms are cute."

Everyone just stared. She cursed her inability to change the subject.

"I agree," Toshimitsu Kubo added, fixing his glasses in place. Himeji almost kissed him as thanks. "That said, however," he spoke as he turned to face the others. "Why am I being sent there as well for punishment? I was nowhere near you guys when you were fighting!"

"It appears all of Class 2A and Class 2F is being sent there," Yuuji spoke as he remembered having heard that much at least, since it appeared that Ryou Sugawa had received a similar text.

"So that means that the FFF Inquisition are going there as well?" Akihisa asked, earning himself a nod from Yuuji. As they all had their meal without talking too much about it, it was obvious that they each felt a bit nervous about it all. After having been so comfortable about their daily school life they now had to worry about entering a new school with new rules and classmates.

Even more so, no Summons.

-0-

Akihisa Yoshii didn't sleep.

He tossed and he turned and tried to bang his head against the pillow for five minutes straight to see if he could rock himself to sleep, but it all proved pointless. He was too nervous, which surprised him. He was never the nervous type, not when it came to things like this. A new school was no big deal, especially given that almost all of his friends were going to be there anyways.

After hours of staring at the ceiling, sleep finally came; only to be interrupted by his sister's "wake up sleepyhead; you're going to be late!" wake up call.

After kicking and punching like a little kid throwing a tantrum, Akihisa pushed himself up. "Akira, can I not go to school today?"

"Isn't today when you start at that new place?" his sister's voice could be heard from the other room she was at, as Akihisa sighed. Since when was he ever absent?

"Well yeah…"

"Well, don't have to go if you don't want to," she mentioned, causing him to give her (or rather, the wall at her general direction) a weird look. Before he could call her out on being an irresponsible older sister, she added: "But your friends are already here, so there's that."

"They're where?" Akihisa blurted out as he dashed out of his bed. He quickly got showered and dressed in record time, rushing to the living room where Yuuji, Minami and Hideyoshi were waiting. "Guys… well, some of you guys…"

"Mizuki's going to be running a bit late, she's helping her mom with something," Minami mentioned, as Akihisa nodded. Yuuji added that Kouta had taken some more time to get ready as to prepare his cameras for new "models" or something. Akihisa found it reasonable.

"So I take it you're going then?" Akira spoke up as she walked into the living room, still dressed in nothing but a robe. Only Akihisa and Minami found it inappropriate. As Akihisa simply nodded to his sister's question, Akira smiled. "Good," she spoke, as she dropped the robe to the floor. "Now let me just get ready so we can all leave together."

Yuuji and Hideyoshi's eyes blurted out. Minami felt herself stabbed by the sight, as Akihisa screamed and grabbed his friends and ran out of the house; leaving a smiling Akira behind. "…Have a good day Aki."

-0-

Seeing The Prestigious Kenoue Academy for all its glory, Akihisa had to admit it did have a certain charm to it. It looked big, bigger than Fumizuki, but it didn't have the cherry blossom effect that Fumizuki prided itself in. It seemed well-equipped; the three-story main campus surrounded by four smaller two-story buildings which surrounded it. The whole place screamed Harvard-wanna-be, but Akihisa digressed; he would never step foot in Harvard anyway.

"Well…" he eyed Minami, who seemed to be pondering everything he was. "What do we say? To a new adventure?"

She gave him a soft smile. "To a new adventure."

As the two entered the gates, Akihisa gave the first step into the new academy, only to be met by an older man in front of him looking at him like if he was a street thug. "Pardon me," the older man called out to him, no doubt on of the professors here, causing Akihisa and Minami to stare. "Are you two, by any chance, students from Fumizuki?"

"Yeah," Akihisa answered, wondering if he stood out that much. Maybe staring at the building for five minutes gave that impression?

"I'm sorry, but to the Principal's Office with you," the they-assumed-to-be-teacher told him. Akihisa felt a chill and a sense of irony.

"What?" Akihisa blurted out. "But, why? I-I mean… What?" He was at a lost for word, until the older man pointed his index finger at him, causing Akihisa to get confused.

Seeing that the boy didn't follow, the "teacher" explained: "Here at The Prestigious Kenoue Academy we pride ourselves with our school's uniform, you on the other hand…" he tugged Akihisa by the tie, pulling it out from the buttoned jacket. "Seem unable to follow regulations. We use a special tie brand here; best you remember that."

"A… A "special tie brand" you don't say…" Akihisa did not feel this was a good sign.

"Excuse me?" Minami countered, getting in the way between Akihisa and the older man. "The texts didn't specify any of that."

"The texts were just a regulation procedure. The emails had all the information. And you had to check the emails," he spoke in the most monotone voice Akihisa and Minami had ever heard, before he turned to face Minami. "And you, young lady," before she could speak, she felt a hand on her skirt and a sharp tug which lowered it a bit. "Unmarried girls should not show so much skin."

The swift kick Minami gave the man in his nether regions secured that Akihisa was not going to the Principal's Office alone.

Welcome to The Prestigious Kenoue Academy, indeed…

The Author Rants About:

Fanfiction

I adore fanfiction. Anyone here probably does too, but that's not the point here. Many people here I'm sure have the dream of becoming an author; some more than others. I, too, share that dream. I would love nothing more than being able to entertain people with my works and have them enjoy and submerse themselves into worlds I create, but that's another rant in on itself.

Fanfiction is the start of it all. I write fanfiction to share my own stories, simply borrowing other characters not of my own. Is it less enjoyable, heck no! For one, it's much easier to use a pre-established world. Similarly, I only make fanfictions out of characters and series I love, so I sort-a feel like the characters are kind of my own in a way. This is where an author's journey begins. Who knows? Maybe someday you'll see your own work here, with many authors writing fanfictions about your characters…

…And making pairings that'll make you wonder if it's even possible.