It was the Monday after Steven’s party, and he still couldn’t get his mind off of what he saw in Mr. Noronake’s room. He thought to himself, “Why does a teacher like him need that?” He heard a knock at the door, and opened it. It was Seven. “Hey, Steven. Sorry I forgot to give you Bash during the weekend, here you go.” He then handed Steven the game disk. “Thanks,” Steven said, still a little tired. "Today, we need to confront Mr. Noronake," Steven said with a heavy heart. Seven nodded.

Period 4, Journalism

Steven, Seven, Iris, Marty, and Ivy all looked at each other as they walked in with the same thing on their minds. What was on their minds was what they found in Mr. Noronake's drawer, and why he would have it. Mr. Noronake walked up to the front of the class and announced, "Hello students! Your assignment is...a document I sent to you all, I got lazy." He then sat in his seat, and our 5 students reluctantly did the assignment. When class ended, all of the students except our 5 had left. Mr. Noronake asked them, "You guys aren’t going to lunch today? I mean, the school food is ass, but you guys should at least eat." Steven stood from his desk, and pointed a pistol at Mr. Noronake. Seven pulled out his grenade launcher. Iris pulled out her pool stick. Ivy pulled out a pistol. Marty...held his fists up. Steven asked him, "What was with those things in your drawer. You know what we're talking about." Mr. Noronake looked down. "It seems...you have a score to settle with me." He then stood up, with an angry face. He took a pistol from his pocket, and pointed it at Steven. In a nasally voice, he said "You wanna fight, you little…" he started to lose his breath, "you little bi-...you little…" He fell to the ground and started laughing his ass off. "Ahaha, ahaha, ahaha, oh my god you guys! That was so funny!" The students looked at him confused. He stood back up and brushed his shirt off. "Really though, I’ll explain. But, I would prefer this to be a conversation for AFTER school. Meet me in this room after the final bell rings. If you think I’m gonna turn you all into swiss cheese with my...items, get Iris to use Slide Zone to look inside of this room." Mr. Noronake pointed to the door, “But you guys can’t stay inside here, I have a class that will be coming any moment. I think the last thing they should see is their great teacher being threatened with guns and...a pool stick? To each their own, now go!” The students exited the room, and the last to leave was Seven. As Seven was exiting, Mr. Noronake kicked him out of the room in a comical fashion.

Lunch

They left the room, and were silent. Ivy then broke the silence, and said “I’m gonna go meet up with some of my other friends. I’ll meet you all after school today.” She then walked away. Iris asked the others, “How...did he know the name of my signature?” Steven thought, “Maybe he overheard us when you named it?” Iris then asked, “Ok, then how does he know what the signature allows me to do?” Marty answered, “He could have overheard you when you were explaining it to us for the first time.” Iris sighed, “Maybe, but what if there’s something more? Like a secret he’s keeping from us?” Steven told her, “Well, we’re gonna find out after school today.”

Afterschool

The students walked up to Mr. Noronake’s door. They all looked at each other, and Iris used Slide Zone. “It’s all clear,” Iris informed the others. Steven opened the door, and they entered to Mr. Noronake sitting on a chair in front of the room. “Oh students of Magula, I’d like you to take a seat. Any seat, really.” They all sat down where they would normally sit during class. The teacher stood up, and asked the students, “Before we begin, do any of you have any questions. Of course, I’m not gonna answer them, I’m just curious!” Iris asked, “How do you know the name of my signature? And how do you know what it does? And why did you have all that stuff in your drawer?” Mr. Noronake smiled a bit, as the room fell silent. “Well, I guess that’s all your questions?” He put his finger up in the air, and said, “Alright then, let me first introduce myself. My name is Akifumi Noronake, I work here as a journalism teacher. The reason being…” He paused for a moment, “I will get to that later. You five are here because you saw guns in this room, so I should first tell you why I have them. The reason that I have them is to protect an important student of this school.” Steven asked, “What’s their name?” Noronake answered, “Steven Scriptum.” Steven looked at him shocked, and asked, “How am I important?” Noronake answered, “Because, Steven, we are friends. Or, I guess we were. Do you remember that box you got on the day of Peterson Combust’s attack on this school. That was me who sent it to you. I wanted to make sure you were protected during the shooting. ” “Wait wait wait,” Marty realized something, “How did you know about the shooting before it happened?” Noronake started laughing, “Ehehe...we’re getting to the good part my friends. Though...I don’t know where to start? The beginning, the end, the middle may even work.” He then came to a conclusion, “Okay! I’ve got it. First, we should start off with basics. Signatures are the powers that certain students of this school possess. They only manifest in 9th graders, and have only been recently introduced into the world. What caused these signatures to happen? It must have been the crystal.” Seven and Ivy were confused, but Steven, Marty, and Iris knew what he was talking about. “That actually makes a bit of sense,” Marty said, “Our signatures only started working after the crystal blew up.” Seven asked, “Umm, what crystal?” Steven explained the crystal to him, “There was this big crystal in the school’s running track. Marty touched it, it blew up, and we started to have signatures.” Iris then asked, “Wait, you knew about the crystal?” Noronake answered, “I’ll get to that.” He then continued what he was originally saying, “Of signatures, there are many different kinds with different levels of complexities. Wonderwall is just luck, whereas Eclipse is a little more complex. Lose Yourself could’ve just been turning into a butterfly, but for some reason it is only when no one is watching. Do you see where I’m trying to get with this? Signatures are not all the same. Now, the good part. Let me tell you a secret of mine.” He looked around as if there was anyone else in the room, and leaned forward towards the students. He whispered, “I have one of my own.” He then sat back in his chair, and said “It’s true, I do! I’ve called it ‘Running In The 90s.’” Steven asked, “You just said that only 9th graders can have signatures, so how on Earth can you have one?” Noronake put on a voice that you would hear in a Shakespearean play, “Once upon a time, there was a boy named Akifumi Noronake...and he…” His voice then went back to normal, “I can’t tell the story in that voice, my throat would hurt way too much. Anyway, Akifumi went to this very school, Magula High. There, he met three friends. Steven Scriptum, Marty Morpho, and Iris Ingrene. And then later, through chance circumstance, Seven Trecidecim. Sorry Ivy, you don’t really fit in this story. Anyway, they all began to develop signatures. Akifumi’s signature was named Running In The 90s, sound familiar? It allowed him to age objects up from 1990 to the current year. The students had their fun, and Akifumi was especially becoming close friends with Steven. On the fifth day of school, instead of meeting up with his friends, Akifumi decided to sleep in his dorm. He awoke to the sound of people screaming, explosions, and fire. He ran out of the school, and safely got to the authorities. After the incident, he met with Steven, who was miraculously alive. However, his three other friends were gone. The next day of school, Monday, a body was found in a science class. It was identified...as Steven’s body. The young Akifumi had never felt despair as much as that time in his life, he had lost his friends. But with that despair, came determination. Determination to save his friends. He decided to use Running In The 90s to age himself and the world to 1999, effectively time traveling. He’d have to meditate for a whole week for it to work, but he was able to pull it off. When he was in 1999, he enrolled in this school again and started over. He made new friends, one of which being Aiko Sukunara. That girl would end up becoming one of the biggest supermodels in the world...and later on, Akifumi’s wife. Woohoo, a supermodel! Anyway, Akifumi became an actor but decided to quit acting temporarily. The reason? He had a mission...to protect his friends. He became a teacher to give Steven guns, and make sure he, or any of his friends, didn’t die. And throw a few fights around, debates, slapstick, and we’re here right now. I will NOW answer questions.” Steven asked, “So...you left your parents behind?” Noronake told him, “No no, it’s kind of weird. My parents were juniors at the time I enrolled in the school, so I told them about my time traveling and how I’m their son. Of course the response I got was “Huh, I had a child with that person?” Anyway, I got my mother’s parents, my grandparents, to adopt me. So technically, now I’m my mother’s brother...See that as you will.” The room went silent. “OK,” Noronake broke the silence, “I suppose you all don’t have any other questions, right?” Iris said, “No, I think that sums it all up pretty well.” Noronake stood up, “Good good! Now that we’re friends again, I hope, you all can have my number. My actual number, not the teacher one.” He then gave a piece of paper to everyone with his phone number on it. “Also, I would appreciate it if you guys could keep this a secret, I don’t need people asking me to use my signature in the middle of class to age their bodies up to see how tall they get.” Seven said, “Ok, we’ll keep it a secret, Mr. Noronake.” Noronake shook his finger, “You don’t need to call me Mr. Noronake outside of class. You can just call me Noronake. If you call me Akifumi then people are gonna start talking.” “Well,” Ivy said, “I’d better start heading out. I’m gonna go see my friend Cyana.” She then left the room. Noronake told the students, “You all should join some clubs. The journalism club is accepting members.” Iris said, “No thanks, I’ll be joining the science club.” Marty said, “Ehhh, I’m thinking of joining the sports club but I’m not too sure about it yet.” Seven said, “I think I’ll join journalism club, I don’t have any other clubs in mind anyway.” Steven said, “Same.” Noronake smiled, “Well, at least you all are planning on participating in clubs. That’s all I’ve got to say to you all, you can go now.” The students left the room. “Well, I thought he was some sort of serial killer at first,” Iris told her friends. “Yeah, same,” Marty agreed.

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