Luke was still waiting for Akira to reveal her true colors, like she had done briefly when she had attacked him after yielding in their fight. However, he was counting on that taking a while longer, hence his bluntness in asking her a question directly. He couldn't care less about how she would screw him in the future. All he wanted right now was to learn more about mana on Earth.

Keeping a dialog through the headache would suck, but if he got the answers he wanted, it would be worth it.

He was a warrior, wasn't he? Well, not really. The hype from the talk with his granddad last night was gone, but Luke wanted to be one. He wanted to make his mother and grandpa proud.

No matter the old man's words about how Luke had acted like a warrior, a warrior wasn't dominated by fear.

Unless it was a reasonable fear, he supposed? But Akira wouldn't kill him, and his phoenix heart would let him deal with anything else. Probably. Unless she cut his limbs off? She wouldn't do that, would she?

Should he just... lower his sight? And say he was sorry for asking?

Before he could conclude his line of thought, she looked at him with mocking eyes, "Curious enough to look straight in my eyes, are you?"

"N—" He started denying as he would have done to Jackson. Submitting to an aggressive person, even if just in how they looked at him, was too ingrained on him. However, he managed to stop himself.

No.

Maybe, just maybe, it was reasonable to back down from something truly dangerous. But a warrior would not step back from mere loud voice or aggressive speech. He refused to keep being that pathetic.

He took another deep breathe, and said, "Yes."

She snorted and opened the window to look outside. He thought she would keep silent, but she eventually replied.

"Using ki isn't as rare as the skeptics believe," she said non-aggressively for the first time since they had first talked at school, which made Luke notice once again how beautiful her voice was. That, in turn, made him give her a second glance. The air blowing on her black hair while she looked outside made his heart flutter a little. When she put her flexed arm on the window and rested her head on her hand, his heart started to positively accelerate.

She was beautiful.

He willed his phoenix heart to send another heat wave through him at once. He needed to distract himself from the stupid feeling.

He wasn't a masochist!

He would not fall for the new school tyrant!

Thankfully, she looked at him and continued talking, which also helped take his thoughts away from his stupid hormones. "Feeling ki is very hard, but once you do it, controlling it is easy. My family is old and has a martial arts background. Back in the days, martial arts was all about energy this and energy that, so it's no surprise that a family ancestor learned how to feel ki. Many others that we know of did too, but most of their families died out or their teachings were lost. Mine didn't, and some other ancestors even developed a system that lets about one in ten martial arts experts feel it. We know of at least fifty other powerful families in Japan who can do the same, and there are underground associations where ki is studied and knowledge about it is disseminated." She looked at him. "Some of the best doctors in the world use ki in secret. My elder didn't tell you because he doesn't know I told you about ki, but our best reiki practitioner is also coming to help with your grandad."

That was surprising, to say the least. It was that normal to find people using mana? In hindsight, it was obvious that some people would find out about the energy that was everywhere. Akira's family, and probably other people too, had even developed a system to make it easier to feel ki!

If he had known, he would've asked for her to teach it to him instead of using the IOU from hers to have her bombard him with mana waves.

On the other hand, he couldn't understand why he had never heard about people using energy if it was so common...

Though he had, hadn't he? He had just never believed the stories. Without mana channels, people couldn't cast proper spells, so they couldn't prove that they were doing something unless someone was there to feel it by themselves. There were many first-hand reports everywhere about people feeling cold or heat waves being shot by someone, but who would believe that in this day and age?

If something couldn't be measured with scientific tools, it didn't exist, and it seemed humanity had yet to develop the tools that would allow them to detect mana. Or at least, if those tools existed, the people who knew about mana were keeping them to themselves.

"Reiki?" Luke repeated the unfamiliar word.

Akira nodded. "It's a type of ki healing, considered alternative medicine by the broader world. It involves placing one's hand on someone and injecting ki in their bodies while willing it to heal. Most people who use it are whacks, but some are great healers. The only downside is that it takes time to work."

That made sense. The mana she had used for each mana wave the day before wouldn't be strong enough to heal his grandfather, not unless Sakura used it everyday for months or even years. Though constant usage could prevent someone from getting a stroke, a heart from clogging, or even assist modern healing methods.

He wondered about something different. She had stopped her uncle from talking about some random family teachings at breakfast. Wasn't knowledge about mana also a secret?

"Should you be telling me these things?" Luke asked.

"It's usually kept in secret unless you show you can use ki first, but yours is a special case."

"How so?"

She bit her lower lip—which made Luke's heart flutter again—and looked back through the window. "That is not for me to reveal. A family elder will come talk to you when the time is right."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Her words made him remember something. Back in class, she had known that he would say something stupid to keep her away from him. At the time, he had thought she had experience with being a transfer student and that it was normal.

But now...

"Is that the reason you approached me in the class?" he asked.

She nodded without looking at him. Then she bit her lower lip again, visibly torn about it.

Luke was dumbstruck. Was her entire family into terrorizing him? Or was he just... wrong about her?

Well, he had been right in that she had a hidden agenda in approaching him, but she might not be a bully after all. She had approached amicably and only started acting like an asshole after he showed he would respond better to that. And all the while, she had been claiming she wanted him to "become human." He had thought she was just playing games with him, but now that he had actually "manned up" to ask questions while looking her in the eyes, she had talked to him like a human being.

Could she be telling the truth the whole time?

The thought was so unexpected he even forgot about what her family might want from him. He could only stare at her openmouthed. She glanced at him sideways at a certain point and blushed furiously, but he still didn't stop.

He just couldn't stop.

For two years, he had hated the people who demeaned him just because he was poor. Now, he had hated a girl for an entire day just because he had heard something in her voice that reminded him of his bullies. It was a different kind of prejudice, but still made Luke realize he wasn't much better than Jackson, after all.

No. No, that wasn't right. Jackson took pleasure in making other people suffer, but Luke didn't. Moreover, Jackson kept doing it even after being called out. Luke, however, knew better.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I misjudged you."

Akira's eyes opened wide, and she turned her head so fast to look at him that her neck snapped. Luke could only smile embarrassed.

A big part of him was repeating in his mind that he was being an idiot, that he was falling for her ploy, that he should keep his distance or he would get a knife to his back any time now.

But he couldn't be a cockroach his entire life, could he?

He also couldn't stand the idea of being even slightly similar to Jackson. He would resent and hate Akira if she betrayed and tortured him, but not before.

Her surprise quickly turned into a lip smile that made her even more beautiful. The wind messed with her hair and pushed it over her face, and she looked positively gorgeous when she pulled it back behind her ear with her hand.

Luke couldn't deny it anymore: he had fallen for her.

And he hated himself for it. It didn't matter that she wasn't an asshole, she was still rich and powerful. She was also way too beautiful. Someone like her would never want anything to do with someone like him if it weren't for her family pushing her to approach him for whatever reason. Even with that "advantage," it was one thing to be told to approach someone in school, and another thing entirely to get into a relationship with the school's loser.

Only pain would result from getting attracted to Akira Sakura.

Yet Luke couldn't stop himself.

As if his life wasn't bad enough.

He sighed, rested his back on the seat, and closed his eyes. 'I'm an idiot,' he thought, and by the heat wave released by his phoenix heart, it seemed to agree with him. Or maybe it was showing support for his feelings. He couldn't tell.

They rode in silence for a long time before she asked, "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

He opened his eyes and regretted it immediately. How could she be so damn beautiful? He would have to develop some sort of resistance to it, because he didn't want to feel like an idiot every time he looked at her.

At least for now, the headache fulfilled that role, as the pain made him distracted at once.

"Would you believe me if I said one day I just woke up knowing how to fight?" he asked with a joking tone.

To his surprise, she nodded. "That would explain some of it."

"Huh? Explain some of what?"

She shook her head with a sad smile. "I'm sorry, I can't say." Then she repeated, "An elder will come talk to you when the time is right."

Luke was aware that in some Asian cultures, respect for hierarchy and one's elders was very important. Filial piety was also very high in their priority list. It was still surprising to see someone his age be so respectful to rules. He himself had stopped believing in rules when the school and the cops ignored them because Jackson had a powerful family.

Then again, her family was powerful. He supposed it was easier to believe in rules when your own people were responsible for both creating and enforcing them. It meant the rules existed to their benefit.

They didn't talk again for the rest of the journey.

----------------------------------------

The limousine rode faster than the school bus, and they arrived quickly. The driver opened the door, and Luke left the car first, closely followed by Sakura.

It was extremely weird to see people look at him with surprise because of his means of transportation and company, rather than mockery or pity. And it was disgusting to see some calculative gazes from people known for sucking up to whoever was the top dog in school. They wondered where he now sat on the social hierarchy and whether they should suck up to him.

Luke disliked that kind of people almost more than his tormentors. You could always trust a bully to be an asshole, but you never knew if you could trust people who were only loyal to themselves but pretended to be nice. One moment, it might be better for them to befriend you; the next, they might conclude that betraying you was the way to go.

He awkwardly walked to the bathroom out of habit, only to realize he didn't really need to go there today. Well, he used the toilet, but the main reason he visited the bathroom everyday was to check on how presentable he was. Today, his clothes were more rumpled than usual because he had slept with them on, but he had bathed yesterday afternoon and was still relatively clean.

Before leaving, he checked his nose. He hadn't thought about it the day before, but if Akira had punched him in the nose, he would've been instantly put out of the fight. Now, touching it, he noticed it was still a little hurt but not overly so; his hybrid regeneration was in full swing.

He left the bathroom to find Akira waiting for him with a small metallic container that looked like a glasses case and a smartphone. She pushed both objects his way.

"When you ride a car with someone," she said, "you should wait for them to get out too if you get out first," she said a bit annoyed, but her voice was lacking a lot of its usual bite.

"S- Sorry," Luke replied. He hadn't even thought of waiting for her. Despite his earlier apologies, he still thought of her as a tyrant disconnected from him, someone who would only come to him when they wanted to hurt him. Thus, unless he was ordered to stay close to them, he left at the first opportunity. "What is this?" he asked, looking at the things on her hands.

"A smartphone so you can call your grandfather whenever you want." She pushed it closer to him. "It already has your grandfather's, my elder's, and my phone numbers recorded on it." Luke took it. As expected from the Akira family, it was the latest and most expensive model in the market. Akira then pushed the case. "This contains some things for your oral hygiene. I noticed a bad smell yesterday. You should take better care of your health."

She was... No, she wasn't. Was she? Yes, she definitely was.

Akira was blushing as she pushed the case his way.

Luke might be weak-willed in many things, but he wasn't totally oblivious to human interaction. Sakura could just keep complaining about his smell like she had done the day before. Instead, she was caring about him.

She wanted to be his friend.

He supposed her family had ordered her to approach him, but he guessed they hadn't ordered to give him such a thoughtful gift.

Others might get offended by it, but Luke...

He almost teared up because he couldn't even remember the last time someone other than his granddad or some teachers had cared about him at all. And that was further evidence that he had misjudged her too. She had prepared the gift even before their talk in the car—though she probably would just have ordered him to use it if he hadn't grown some spine.

"Thank you," he said softly.

"Don't mention it," she said. "Can you take it already? It's weird to talk to you in front of the men's bathroom."

"Oh! Sorry!" He picked up the case. "I'll take care of it at once. S- See you at the classroom?"

"Yeah," she said awkwardly and just left.

Luke looked at her back with a smile on his face.

After so long... could it really be that he was making his first friend?