Kazura Machi was Ariyama's closest friend, and so he loved her, in a platonic kind of way. As such, he liked her.

Still, she was being really annoying when she forced herself into Ariyama's mission, and wouldn't take no for an answer. The only way to deter her would be to reveal the truth, but that would definitely either land Ariyama in magic jail, or get him magically executed.

All in all, he was irritated.

And the irritation only grew when Genichirou Shoei of all people appeared out of nowhere and ended up joining him too.

As Ariyama gave in and tried to explain – in the most simple way, leaving no room to ask questions that may lead to the unveiling of the truth – the basics of his plan to Kazura, he got a tap on his shoulder.

The two were currently discussing it in the one place Matsune had deemed safe: the backroom. And since Ariyama wasn't too confident in his own decision-making skills, he decided to go by her example.

However, it seemed luck wasn't on his side, as the door to the backroom was opened and Genichirou Shoei sauntered in, his face twisting in meager shock as he realized Ariyama and Kazura also occupied the room.

“Oh, shit, my bad guys. Ijichi-sensei told me to go find a spare whiteboard marker, and I just happened to find this place. I'll just leave and let you two get back to making babies.”

Ariyama stumbled over his words as Kazura stared wide-eyed at Genichirou.

“Oh, um, nah. We're now doing that. Actually, we're discussing a thing we're doing together later this evening.”

“Oh sick, is it gender-neutral?”

“What? I mean… Kazura's a girl and I'm a guy, so I guess so?”

“Awesome. Can I swing by and join you guys? It's just that I've been dead bored the last few days in the evenings. No one's been inviting me out for parties or anything, and I'm really upset about it.”

At another person asking to join, Ariyama winced with annoyance.

“Yeah, sorry dude, but there's only really need for two–”

“Sure you can!”

Ariyama looked at Kazura, who was smiling at Genichirou sweetly.

“Hey, I'll send you the info later after school, ‘kay? We can all meet up this evening.”

Genichirou winked at her.

“You're the best, Kazura. Alright, I'll catch you later, Ariyama!”

With a pep in his step, Genichirou sauntered back out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Aghast, Ariyama glared at Kazura.

“Machi, what the heck was that all about–”

At the sultry smile on her face, along with the pink blush dusting her cheeks, Kazura made Ariyama stop mid-sentence.

“Huh?”

“Woah. Ariyama, Genichirou-kun is just so hot, isn't he?”

Ariyama fought the will to facepalm on the spot.

And thus, Genichirou was begrudgingly added to Ariyama's plan. He was starting to regret letting Kazura intrude on his work. If she hadn't been there, Genichirou wouldn't have been added either.

The gist of Ariyama's plan was that he planned on actually entering the school itself that night, to check on a few things. Namely, any place that the hooded man had been. Matsune had said something before about linking the patches of foreign mana she found to the same frequency as whoever, leading to the reveal of the culprit.

However, she hadn't mentioned anything about connecting the aura of the hooded man to any of the excess mana. Probably because she was too busy trying not to die.

So, Ariyama reckoned that, since he was able to use mana detection at a much more stable level now, he could hopefully find more intricate and faint levels of aura around the school. Since it was impossible to do that while there were tons of people during school hours, or even soon after school closed, due to the risk of being caught by people staying back for clubs or cleaners or others.

As a result, the only adequate time was after dark when the only risk was sounding the alarms.

But it just so happened that Genichirou had noticed that there was a backdoor near the backroom Matsune always used, which luckily had no alarms connected to it, meaning that if it just so happened to be burst down randomly during the night, the only sound would be the hinges snapping under the pressure.

Ariyama also didn't believe it, just because of how unbelievably convenient it was, but when Genichirou showed it was genuine during the day, all his worries washed away

With that, his plan was ready.

The three of them met up outside the school gate, staying close by the woods. The wind was howling in their ears and sending chills through Ariyama's body, as it had a week prior during the encounter with the hooded man.

“So, what exactly are we here for again? You said you'd explain once we got here, and now we've got here.”

That was Genichirou, as he sidled up beside Ariyama as he crouched near a bush, gazing intently at the school. He had wanted himself to look like he was deep in though, concocting the perfect idea. But in reality, he was just psyching himself up for his first solo mission. Well, it was supposed to be a solo mission, before Kazura and Genichirou rudely invaded. Now, Ariyama had to ensure the two of them weren't put into harm's way, which wouldn't happen as long as the hooded man didn't show up that night.

As such, on one hand, Ariyama both did and didn't want the unregistered Tribute to show up. He did, so he could prove his worth to Matsune and not let her down, but he also didn't, as that'd mean Genichirou and Kazura would be in grave danger.

Ariyama had brought his sword, of course, but judging from the first fight with the hooded man, he doubted he could do much more than hold him off for a little bit.

So, in other words, those two being there really screwed over the plan. And what was worse was the fact Ariyama had to come up with a totally invalid reason to come there at last. It wasn't like he could tell them he was breaking into the school to scan the area for traces of aura with his mana detection skill that he'd been learning for the past two weeks straight.

So, the supposed ‘plan’ that he'd came up with was as follows:

“So, basically, Yasuke and I were planning this thing for a while. Basically, it's a kind of prank on Ijichi-sensei. At night, we break into his classroom and draw some lewd artwork on his board. Then in the morning, we'd act completely innocent to our classmates until Ijichi arrived and then blew the whole room down with fury. I know it's not mature in the slightest, but I wanted to do it. In remembrance of Yasuke”

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Dammit, he really did hate using his friend's death and supposed ‘unfinished plan’ as a scapegoat to complete his own mission. It tore relentlessly through his guts when he first came up with it, but what else was he to do? He couldn't think of anything else that would genuinely make sense.

“Wow, I knew Yasuke-kun was a rebel, but I never thought he'd have thought up something this diabolical!”

Kazura skipped over to the two of them happily. It was good to see she wasn't dwelling on Yasuke as much as Ariyama was. No, that wasn't fair. She most definitely was, but was probably hiding it deep down as well.

Ariyama faked a smile, moving his gaze from Genichirou to the approaching Kazura.

“Yeah, it was gonna be his biggest hit yet. I really wasn't planning on helping, but now I want to honor him by doing it. Now, enough of the why. Time to get to the how. Genichirou, you showed us that door which had no alarms triggered to it. Is it still possible to do the same thing we did earlier today?”

Genichirou flashed him a dazzling smile of white teeth. The smile wasn't even directed at her, but Kazura looked about ready to pounce on the tall blonde.

“Yup, chief, all systems are ready to go.”

“Nice. Alright you two, ready to head in. One last thing: I do want to be the one to do the deed, so if you'd just stick close to me and not wander off, that'd be great. After all, I don't wanna get caught, so the second I'm done, I'm boring it out of there.”

That one was actually true in both ways. In the case that Ariyama finished the main detection and came up empty, he was sprinting it out as fast as possible. This place was seriously giving him weird vibes.

So, as the time passed ten o'clock, the three slowly made their way around the back of the school, heading towards the back door.

The cold was nipping at Ariyama each step he took, and his stomach wasn't fairing much better. He wasn't sure if the breeze had made him catch a cold, or if it was nerves because of doing all this without Matsune.

It was probably the latter. Along with the added responsibility of having to take care of Kazura and Genichirou, it just made his job even harder.

Finally, they rounded to the back of the school and climbed over the metal fence, dropping down into the back courtyard and quietly sprinting over to the door. It was a simple fire exit, but Ariyama has to remind himself that he was shown that he wouldn't trip any alarms. Unless someone installed an alarm system between the time Ariyama had left school, and now.

Swallowing thickly, his breath coming out in long, shallow huffs, Ariyama reached out with quaking fingers and slowly pushed the bar handle. With a soft click, the door unlocked, and Ariyama pushed it open with a rush of adrenaline, prepared to hear the blaring alarm, preparing to turn and sprint off as soon as he could.

But no alarm came.

Ariyama breathed a sigh of relief. He really was being unnecessarily anxious. He just needed to not second-guess himself as much.

“Come then, let's head in. You know what to do, right, Ariyama?”

Genichirou slapped him on the back and swaggered inside, quickly followed by Kazura.

Seriously, they needed to get a room.

The halls inside the school were coated in cold mist, illuminated by a bluish-gray moonlight. It looked almost enchanted, like a fairy village in a fantasy story.

Ariyama shivered against the cold pressing against his jacket. He really should've brought more insulated clothing. As he looked around, Genichirou and Kazura came up behind him.

“What, don't tell me you've forgotten where Ijichi's room is, Ariyama.”

Ariyama resisted the urge to glare.

“I haven't. I'm just… looking. Eh, whatever, come on.”

The three walked through the hallways, their breath misting in the winter night air, their footsteps echoing through the walls. Finally, they reached the door leading into Ijichi Morimoto's classroom.

Genichirou was first to speak again.

“So, you said you wanted to be the one to do it, right?”

He pushed the door open, then signed and put his hand back down by his side. Ariyama noticed this.

“Is your hand OK?”

“Huh? Yeah, it's fine. I just cut it a while back. The thing was sharp so it left a nasty cut on my palm.”

Huh.

“I see. Well, actually, I… need the bathroom. You too just day right here and don't wander off, OK?”

Without letting either of them interject, Ariyama sped off.

He didn’t stop till he was back on the first floor again. Slightly out of breath, he leaned against a wall to catch his breath, before standing straight and properly having a look around.

He'd wanted to stay close to those two at all times, but because of that lie he'd told, it would be impossible to use mana detection while around them. But it didn't matter, really. As long as it only took him a couple minutes, he could be back in no time.

And so, he did just that. He stood straight, closing his eyes and focusing on accessing his mana detection. He felt the cold pressing against his skin through his clothing, and tried to push the feeling away. He let the heat from his body expand out, as if tearing a hole in a balloon and letting the helium escape. As the heat counteracted the cold, Ariyama focused even more. He imagined the bluish mist around him shifting and transforming into a deep red. Among the sea of red, there were points of flickering blue. Ariyama counted only two of those blue sparks. He wasn't sure how it worked, but he was able to see that those two sparks were located on steps of the stairs leading up to the second floor.

Dammit. So, there was residual mana inside the building. Ariyama doubted Matsune ever used her Enchanted Tool --which he was pretty sure was the only way mana could be released into the atmosphere – indoors. So that meant it had to have been the hooded man. Since his Enchanted Tool seemed to be a knife that could duplicate itself seemingly infinitely, it probably wasn't something too hard to conceal in public.

He let his concentration slip and as his mana detection wore off, Ariyama cursed to himself and raced up the steps.

Kazura and Genichirou better be OK.

Please.

Ariyama hurried towards Ijichi's classroom. If those two did what he had said, they should've been close by.

Ariyama almost cried of relief as he suddenly heard two voices in the distance – it had to be Kazura and Genichirou. Slowly he came to a stop, just about to round the corner when he saw the scene in front of him and quickly edged back behind the corner. Ariyama's heart pounded, his face flush with embarrassment, as he slowly peeked back into the hallway.

On the left wall was the door to Ijichi-sensei's classroom, and on the right wall was a line of lockers. Kazura was pressed back against those lockers, looking really submissive with a huge blush in her face, as she looked up at Genichirou towering over her. The tall blonde was resting an elbow over Kazura's head against the lockers. He was grinning down at her with a bright smile, eyes narrowed with desire. Both of them were red in the face, and breathing heavily.

Ariyama was as dumb as to not realize he had narrowly missed seeing a full on makeout session between those two.

“...how you really feel about me, huh?”

That was Genichirou, chuckling slowly as he caressed Kazura's tan cheek.

Kazura was flustered and couldn't find the words to say. There was a pang of something in Ariyama’s chest, something he didn't quite understand. Was it that he was jealous? No, no way. Was he thinking – even wishing – that he could've been the one pressing Kazura against the wall?

“Listen, Kazura-chan–”

“M-Machi. Just call me Machi.”

“Really now? Machi, I'll ask you again. So this is how you really feel about me, huh?”

“Y-yeah. I've always thought you were so… so damn hot, and now…”

She trailed off, and then both looked at each other deviously. Before either of them could start ripping the clothes off one another, Ariyama reckoned it was best he invaded this moment before anything crazy happened.

Trying to act natural, he walked back to them, pretending to just catch them in the act. As her eyes met his, Kazura flushed a deeper red and pushed Genichirou off, stepping into the middle of the hallway, peeking at Ariyama guiltily.

“Sorry, Saato-kun, I…”

Genichirou stepped up next to her and gave Ariyama a cocky wink. He had a sudden urge to punch the guy, but withheld it and strode back towards them.

“Look, what you two do is not down to me. Just remember, there are cameras around these parts. Anyways, are you too ready?”

Kazura nodded quickly, then glanced at Genichirou beside her, who looked down at the girl who was only eye-level with his stomach. He smirked.

“I know you wanna rip the clothes off me, don't ya? I'm afraid not.”

He chuckled to himself.

“I've got things to do, girl.”

Ariyama's heart raced with panic, his limbs suddenly feeling heavy. His stomach churned and he felt like vomiting on the spot. Warmth and ice drenched his insides, twisting and turning his veins to lava and ice water simultaneously.

That voice.

Ariyama moved instantly and pushed Kazura away, ripping off his backpack and pulling his sword out, leaping at Genichirou, who still looked confused.

Ariyama knew he recognised that voice during the one sentence he heard from the hooded man.

And that wound he'd given him on his palm, using his sword…

It was Genichirou.

Genichirou was the culprit, and the unregistered Tribute.