They both got one week suspension.

The school sent someome to notify Mmanuell and Kkele's parents of their misbehaviour and, until they are picked up and sent home, are to be kept in the Detention Room: a dingy, old classroom in the school's basement that nobody uses anymore because all the windows have been permanently shut by mounds of ice. It's damp and the walls are peeling and it kinda smells like old bananas and coming down here sucks. Mmanuell is in here a lot more often than he'd like.

'I don't know, I'm not really happy with that.', Mmanuell is hanging upside down from the only table in the entire classroom, chewing a piece of gum and staring at the dim bulb hanging from the ceiling. 'What do you think, are you happy with that, Kkele?', he picks his head up and asks Kkele, who is sitting on the opposite side of the table, sniffling with her head buried in her arms.

'Leave me alone...'

'Come on, Kay. There's nothing to be so upset about, we both did what we could. The rest is up to Sam, and he's had more than enough time to get everything sorted-'

'Nothing to be upset about?! For you maybe! I got in WAY more trouble than you, Mmanuell! Somehow!' Kkele picks her head up from her arms and glares at the wall, too angry to even look in Mmanuell's direction. 'The nurse called me an "Irresponsible young lady"! I've never been more embarrassed in my life!'

How is that fair. 'Kkele come on! You're telling me the pen diversion wasn't a stroke of genius? That was hilarious! Did you see how pissed Miss was after that-'

Kkele was NOT humoured by that at all; bursting out of her chair and scowling at Mmanuell, watery eyes on the brink of tears and a blade of Ice Magic to his throat for good measure. 'I got the idea pretty quickly, literally any other item in my pencil case would have been enough. You know how valuable that pen was.'

'Okay, Kkele! I was joking, jeez! I'll apologise properly. Sorry. Sorry, alright?' Even if he's her best friend and she'd never actually hurt him, Mmanuell knows better than to get on the nerves of a Mage as strong as her. Mmanuell holds his hands up in surrender and slowly pushes the floating sword away from his neck. 'But, how was I meant to know you were following along with my razor-sharp initiative and cunning?' He gets up and sits at the edge of the table, giving Kkele a cheeky smile and poking her forehead back. 'The only things you ever get mad about are your precious collectables, so we all know what I did was necessary. "Good girl" Kkele Monntiba? Saying that she would purposefully get in trouble? You gonna tell me you don't need your glasses anymore either?'

Kkele scoffs at Mmanuell in astonishment and softly shoves him onto the floor. 'Wow, okay Mmanuell, if that's how you really feel(!) I am not a "good girl", I can break rules whenever I want thank you very much! I just...don't! Because I don't need to, you and Ssamuell are in charge of taking all the blame for our plans. And I'll have you know the golden stars that I earn are the only reason we ever get chocolate on Fridays!"

Mmanuell clasps his hands together and grins at his partner in crime. "See?! There's the Kkele I like. Cheer up! You're acting like the boss man Mister Komodia is going to bust through the door and tell us our lives are worth nothing and we serve zero purpose-"

Fate has had enough of being tempted by Mmanuell, it seems...because that's exactly what's going to happen.

I swear to Ethraksha sometimes I just need to SHUT. U- Exactly on cue, the person in question- Wyverius Komodia: headmaster of St. Balwarts and Miss Komodia's father, opens the detention room's door and squeezes his portly frame through the entrance, crimson eyes piercing through Mmanuell's ego as he and Kkele's stuff are dragged in behind and placed by the door, carried atop swirling currents of eerie flames that brightened the dank room with their flickering glow. Mmanuell's Crystal Chest included- wrapped in a large hempen cloth. You can see the stress in his soul as the headmaster pinches his eyes and sighs, creating an office chair out of his own Fire Magic and setting it by the table. 'Sit down, both of you', he wheezes. Mmanuell and Kkele put their chairs on the opposite end of the table and sit down in silence, waiting for Wyverius' old, hoarse voice to tear into them.

One twenty-minute-lecture-that-went-in-one-ear-and-out-the-other-later...

Mmanuell couldn't even get a 'Yes, sir, sorry sir.' in before old Wivvy harrumphed his way right out the room, leaving him and Kkele alone again in their musty prison. Another "constructive conversation" where Mmanuell's opinion didn't matter anyways, lovely! At the very least, this particular lecture wasn't even that bad, Mmanuell isn't too bothered by it. Kkele on the other hand is back to staring at the floor and crying her eyes out. She doesn't handle being reprimanded well so Mmanuell gives her a pat on the back to try and cheer her up.

'Oh, Kkele(!). Don't worry about it, Wyverius has said much worse to me in the past. This is your first time getting in trouble in YEARS, you will be fine. It's all good so...don't- don't cry please?'

'I would much rather have "once" be "never".' Kkele closes her eyes in shame, putting her head in her palm and rubbing her lip with her pinky, sniffling.

Oh damn, she really isn't taking this well. Let's just bust it out now.

'Ah. Mm. Well, Kkele, you know I wouldn't have taken such drastic measures unless the plan ended up at least net neutral.' Mmanuell gets up and tears the cloth off of his Crystal chest, pressing open a hidden compartment inside the stylised lid. 'Sooo, let me get you your prize for being such a good friend!"

Kkele glances towards Mmanuell, unaware of any additional rewards besides the plan itself being a technical success. After a minute of rummaging, Mmanuell finds what he was looking for...a Limited Edition Houseki no Kuni Jumbo Pen, a carbon copy of the broken one that belonged to Kkele.

'Ah, there we go. I stole like twenty of these during the travelling funfair a few months ago. You remember "May 5th: Calligraphy Carnival", right? Yeah, this was the success that I didn't tell you two about. Gave them all to my mum and she flew all the way to Kingston to sell them for me, but I kept one because I knew that if I broke yours you'd get super angry and we may have needed that anger for a future plan, which was this one, but I also wanted a way to apologise afterwards, which is now. So here you go!'

He places the jumbo pen on the table in front of Kkele with an expectant look on his face, waiting to see if she'll instantly forgive him. She should though, right? If he wasn't such a good friend, then he never would have kept the jumbo pen in the first place!

'...'

The Kkele was too stunned to speak, but still staring at Mmanuell like he's done something wrong. 'What?'

'I hate you, so much.'

The pain! Mmanuell clutches his chest and flops onto the table as Kkele angrily flicks beads of cold Water Magic at him. All of her previous shame and guilt over getting in so much trouble has transmuted into annoyance...that Mmanuell looks proud of himself for admitting to lying to her for three years to invest in a way to manipulate her feelings as means to an end. Mmanuell prefers the term "emergency fail-safes", but if that's what you wanna call it. 'Ahhhhhh...!!! Don't say that, Kay! Come on, not telling you about this paid off in the end, didn't it?'

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

'Shush! So you didn't even enter the raffle to try and win one legitimately like EVERYONE ELSE DID? I was the only person who actually won one! Oh, but no! Mmanuell just steals them all and keeps them for himself, doesn't he?!'

Yeesh, it's a good thing I didn't tell her I actually have like, three more. 'Hey, hey, Kkele, there's no need to actually get mad here, yeah? The money we made from that..."small venture" is hidden away as emergency funds. It was hella worth it and you can't tell me otherwise and you'll thank me for this in the future. It's literally like, a quarter of the money we made off of October 6th.'

Kkele crosses her arms and points her nose away from Mmanuell. 'Oh really? So you've had what I can only assume is upwards of half a grand for nearly 6 months and yet you didn't think to use any of it to help Jeffery repair his house after half of it got bashed in by a rampaging Wyvern?!'

'YES! They wouldn't be EMERGENCY funds if I used them every time something- wait, who is Jeffery?'

'...are you serious? The one you used as bait to distract Miss while you got the back room key?'

'Oh, pfft! Yeah, him. I know who you're talking about. Wh- why the hell would I care what happens to that guy?'.

It's not Mmanuell's fault that people can be so forgettable, but according to Kkele not bothering to learn someone's name even though you're around them every day is very rude.

'How would you not know that!? Miss calls his name in the register every day right before yours! ...You know what? Never mind! Dunno why I even asked, that is so typical of you Mmanuell.'

Mmanuell holds his hands open in confusion and scoffs, 'Kkele you know that doesn't count, I have NEVER cared about that boy. He may be YOUR friend, he may be SAM'S friend, but he's not friends with ME. He's a crybaby, a wet sandwich, and I do not like him- actually, that's beside the point.' Mmanuell sits back on his chair and knits his fingers together à la Gendo. 'Ok. Kkele, look. I'm sorry for hurting your feelings, but you've got your pen, we've got our toys: it all worked out in the end. Right?.'

'...'

'What? Come on you can't still be mad-' A hushed, shallow voice crept up from behind and took Mmanuell by complete surprise.

'She'll cheer up in a minute...don't worry.'

'BLOODY HELL ESSAM WHEN DID YOU GET IN HERE!' Unlike Kkele, who was totally unfazed by his sudden appearance, Mmanuell nearly had a heart attack and jumped out of his chair, hitting the table instead and falling to the stale carpet floor.

Ssamuell Williams. He used to spend most of his time at school alone and actively avoided everyone else until Mmanuell took him under his wing. Now he's best friend number three- one rank lower than Kkele despite being part of the goon squad longer than her. He acts too seriously and has an attitude, but he brings results consistently, like, Ssamuell delivers, so Mmanuell can't complain too much. The air above the table began to shift hues, shimmering like a mirage. The colours and shapes then melted away to reveal a large cloud of foggy Steam Magic, which then further dissipated into Flow and dissolved into the air revealing Ssamuell in all his afro'd glory, floating atop yet another cloud of Steam Magic.

'I snuck in when Wyverius left.'

'I swear to Ethraksha Sam I am going to tie a bell around your neck.'

'Please don't.'

'Then stop sneaking up on me like that, man!'

"...I finished the job."

He'd give Sam a pat on the back but he's not the biggest fan of personal contact, so applause will have to do. 'Okay, let's go! Mission was a complete success! See Kkele, I told you it'd all work out!' Mmanuell picks himself up and leans over Kkele's shoulder, his face plastered with an "I told you so" grin. She's not having any of it- Kkele turns away from Mmanuell and flicks her hair at him.

She's happy about it. Mmanuell laughs, then swings his head at Ssamuell, looking him up and down with a dramatically raised eyebrow. 'BUT SAM! Kkele doesn't seem very convinced that this is an absolute win, would you do the honours and give us your usual post-op rundown?'

As well as being tiny, quiet and rude to boot, Sam also speaks really slowly, which is useful since he always has so much to say. Little prick (Mmanuell says that with love).

'Sure. After you two...were taken out of the classroom, I just dragged, the confiscation chest right out of the...back room. I had to take off my jumper...to cover my hands, but I went to put your stuff in your bag, sure enough, the, um...replica, of the confiscation chest. That was in there. And..the note on top of it, that said...' Ssamuell took a deep breath and pushed up his glasses, glaring under the fluorescent lights, and started shouting like he was announcing his presence to the entire world. 'Ahem, "If you're not me and you're seeing this, SWAP THE BOXES. Miss will notice that the chest is lighter after we """"""Liberate""""""" our stuff, so replace it with this replica (filled with rocks). I HAVE A BIG BRAIN."...Thank you for the, several quotation marks around that, you clearly think you're funny.'

That impression of Mmaunell made Kkele giggle but he definitely doesn't sound like that. Mmanuell crosses his arms and rolls his eyes. 'Oh, ha-ha.'

Ssamuell coughs up blood whenever he raises his voice too- a disease or something- so it's clear he prioritises banter over his own health, 'ack..! Ahem, my throat hurts now...so, anyways, yes, I swapped the real box with the fake one. As long as nobody tattle-tales, or gets anything else confiscated ever again...we should be fine.'

...

Ssamuell furrows his brow for a moment, then sits upright on his cloud and coughs to get the attention of his friends. 'Uh...Mmanuell?'

He enjoys doing this, I swear. Knowing what's coming next, Mmanuell turns an ear to Ssamuell. 'Yes, Sam?'

'Why...wasn't the plan, just to swap the boxes? We could have skipped, getting the second key. That, would have, been a bit easier. Also...it's, the last day of school. I'm sure, Miss would have given us everything back, if we asked nicely. Was this even necessa- '

Here he goes again, trying to tell Mmanuell that there are "better ways of doing things". For a guy who can't talk much, he sure has a lot to say.

Before Ssamuell can finish that perfectly reasonable observation, Mmanuell gets up and starts pacing around the room, making wild over-the-top hand gestures to distract you from the baloney coming out of his mouth. Ah yes, Mmanuell in his natural habitat. 'Ah, hah *cough* haha! Ahh...well, Sam. Essam. Ssamuell. You see, there are these things called "fun", and "a challenge", that an "easy", "simple" plan, simply does not provide me.'

Mmanuell tuts and shakes his head in shame, walking over to Ssamuell and tightly putting an arm around his neck. 'Yes, sure, if they fail the consequences are dire and we get in big trouble...but when you plan something well enough then the only things that CAN fail are us- and we're us - so what's the issue?'

'But...we did, fail, Mmanuell.'

'Did we, Sam? Did we really?'

Mmanuell puts his face right up to Ssamuell's and stares him down with a smile, purposefully invading his personal space. They both know that Mmanuell made everything harder with such a blatant oversight...so there's no need to say it out loud and embarrass anybody, is there?

Judging by the scowl on Sam's face, he agrees. Our little critic, over here, moves Mmanuell's arm off of his neck and floats to the other side of the room to give Kkele some tissues.

'Well, I would be much...more upset, if I...were the one being suspended for this...here you go, Kay-Kay. Don't, worry. You won't get in that much trouble. If anything, just blame Mmanuell and your mum won't get too mad'

Kkele gracefully accepts Ssamuell's offer and uses them to wipe the tear stains from her cheeks. 'I hope so...'

'Yeah, you'll be fine, Kkele!' Mmanuell nods in agreement and reaffirms Ssamuell's words with an OK sign. 'I mean, I might get in trouble, but those are the risks I take. I'll try and persuade your parents not to tell you off too much. Just come with me when I get picked up and then we'll go to your house and talk to your mum with my-'

AGAIN, right on queue. Before Mmanuell can even finish his sentence, the detention room door is slammed open with enough force to knock the bloody thing off its hinges. The kids flinched and covered their eyes only to find, in that fraction of a moment, the room's original dull fluorescence had been replaced with a concentrated ultraviolet glow. A boulder-sized fist, a magical one made of turbulent, ultramarine Water Magic floated in the doorframe, evidently what was what busted it down. Its arm extended into the corridor behind spread across the walls and floor, highlighting the looming silhouette of its creator out from the rest of the lightless hall.

Ah. I know that style. That's a Stream-Fist. Fuck. Still adjusting to the intense violet pulsing from the Water Magic, Mmanuell gulps and prepares for an earful.

'...Hi, Dad.'