I did have enough time for a shower. Which was good.

Tomoe met me outside again and I didn't immediately hate the sight of her. She was helping me out a ton. It didn't excuse any of her violent behavior of course. But it still had some effect on my opinion of her. So, from hate to….dislike?

“Sorry I wasn't able to help you get your skills back,” she said, not looking at me.

“I wasn't expecting them to come back.”

“Do you still want to continue with the training?”

I wanted to refuse as I could still feel all the bruises from earlier. But I needed to know how to fight and this was seemingly my best option for now.

“Yes.”

“Good,” she said, all of her hesitation vanishing. She proceeded to lay out an absolutely ridiculous schedule.

Groaning and cursing inwardly I pushed my mind to other matters as we started our short trek to school.

I had a major problem ahead of me.

Ok, I actually had hundreds of problems ahead of me.

But most pressing of all right now was that I had to fight Jason and I had to win. Clearly not possible.

Fake still having injuries? Would Jason postpone his fight with me if I did that?

I looked over to Tomoe.

Get her to fight him? Would he do that? She was technically one of my subordinates.

I could probably convince him to fight her.

The real question was, could I persuade her to fight him?

Aah, this was such a mess.

“Tomoe,”

“Yes?”

I paused. Was this the best decision? Probably not, I guessed.

I'd have to try anyway.

“How would you feel if hypothetically I asked you to,” I stopped again. “Fight someone. Hypothetically that is.”

Her look turned grim. “Why would I do that ?”

“As a favor to me.”

“And just who is it that you want me to fight?”

“Jason….Hypothetically.”

Tomoe glared at me. “I'm not getting involved in your gang stuff.” She proceeded to punch me. I didn't react quickly enough to avoid it, but I did manage to halfway drop into my stance.

Tomoe wasn't holding back however, so the attack knocked all the air out of my lungs and left me standing in place well she marched off.

Fantastic. I'll have to go with, plan 'still injured’. I wish I still had some bandages to truly sell the effect.

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

Jason hummed a tune as he walked.

“Stop that you're scaring off everything in sight. Also, it's annoying,” Sachi said, trying to snap a picture of a bird as it flew away.

“Whatever, you shouldn't be doing your homework now,” Jason responded.

“First, you have no right to tell me that. Second, it's not homework, it's for an assignment.”

“Assignment, homework, it's all the same.”

“Of course, you would say that." Sachi shook her head.

"Hey, big bro, could you lift me above this fence?” Sachi asked innocently.

“What for?”

“ A picture. Duh.”

Jason ambled over and lifted up his sister.

“Higher,” she said.

He lifted her higher and she stepped onto his shoulders.

“Hey!”

“Shoosh, you might scare it away.”

“It?” Jason asked quickly.

Sachi’s camera snapped a photo.

“Ok, down now.” Just as he lowered her, something smacked against the wooden fence followed by loud barking.

“The hell, did you do?”

“It must not have liked the flash,” Sachi commented as she walked away.

The fence rattled again and Jason took a step back.

He could see the head of an ugly and ferocious dog as its jump let it peak just above the fence.

“We-we need to run just in case,” he said.

“Carry me.”

“No way.”

“You want me to get mauled to death big bro?”

Jason grunted in frustration and then carried his little sister as he sped away.

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

“You have to g-g-get as far a-a-away as you c-c-can I’ll t-try to h-hold it o-f-f,” Jason panted out before depositing his sister onto the ground and turning around swiftly with both of his arms raised ready to fight.

Jason blinked and then looked in every direction.

“Where is it?” he asked.

“Oh, it was never chasing us, I made that up,” Sachi said.

Jason collapsed onto his knees, letting out a relieved breath, and then gave his sister an incredulous stare.

“Why did you do that?” He asked after taking in big gulps of air.

“We were actually running late and what better way to catch up than to run up.” She struck a pose giving a thumbs up.

“Ah, come on big bro don't be mad,” Sachi said walking alongside her brother.

“I thought we were in serious danger.”

“Just think of it as good practice for when we're really in danger then.”

Jason grunted.

“You're going to school today right?” Sachi asked him as they neared her middle school.

“Maby.”

“What? Why ‘maybe’? Didn't you beat up that guy yesterday and become top dog?”

“Something like that.”

“What? My bro failed? What has the world come to,” she gasped fakely.

“I did fight him but it was over in one hit.”

Sachi waited.

“And his girlfriend or whatever got super pissed, telling me that sneak attacks don't count and how I should be ashamed of myself,” he answered, rubbing the back of his head.

Sachi put her hand in front of her mouth and giggled.

“Hey! You’re supposed to be on my team.”

“Just go and properly challenge him then,” she said after regaining her composure.

“Maby.”

“Come on, you can't keep ditching. Promise you’ll go.” Sachi looked fixedly at her brother.

“Fine, whatever,” Jason said after a full minute had gone by.

“Cool, bro, catch you later,” Sachi waved goodbye then crossed the street and entered her school.

Jason kicked some loose stones on the ground. Then decided to go to school.

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

Grey stood in front of the bathroom mirror straightening out his uniform.

After he deemed his appearance acceptable he walked through the mostly empty house heading for the exit.

The empty house didn't bother him.

I might need to move again, soon regardless, he thought as he pulled out his phone to use the navigation app.

Grey observed the gang members as he walked.

They didn't wear any unifying piece of clothing or any distinguishing marks.

He could tell them apart from the normal students by the way that they carried themselves.

Although it seemed like most of the members weren't hiding the fact that they belonged to the gang.

Many actively broke the school dress code, harassed other students, and battled out in the open.

It annoyed Grey to see just how undisciplined they were.

He had observed yesterday's meeting something which only one-third of the gang themselves had done, If Grey's assessment of their numbers was right.

It was clear to him that black diamond was suffering severely from a lack of proper structure.

The gang had many sub-factions that all did their own thing. Well they acknowledged Akato as the king, because he could and had defeated many of them, it hadn't gone any further than that. No chain of command, or even any communication.

The king didn't seem to care about controlling the gang in any way. At least not until yesterday. What changed?

Could it have something to do with me? Grey doubted it.

But he couldn't be sure as he had no idea what game the king was even playing at. Especially with the whole knowing the future nonsense.

As far as Grey could tell the gang had no duke or ace, just numbers that constantly fought one another.

The queen didn't interact with the gang in any way whatsoever either.

He had heard rumors that she was a strong fighter but he hadn't confirmed that yet.

As Grey turned the next corner he spotted the very same people he had just been thinking about.

He looked around for any guards or backup.

Spotting none Grey once again questioned if this truly was the king of black diamond. Akato didn't act like any of the other kings that Grey had met or seen.

The pair stopped and talked about something.

Grey couldn't overhear the conversation but saw its aftermath.

A disagreement? What about? He wondered. Grey wasn't sure of what to do next. But after some time he decided to stay back and continue observing the king.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Akato regained his composure and walked on. Grey trailed him from behind.

The king of black diamond entered a convenience store that was two blocks away from the school. Grey stayed outside positioning himself behind a corner that allowed him to view the store, well staying out of its direct line of sight.

Akato soon exited with a roll of bandages.

Grey watched in bafflement as Akato wrapped his forearms and head.

The blow from earlier couldn’t have injured him that badly? He was moving perfectly fine afterward. This makes no sense.

Grey kept thinking of possible motives for Akato's behavior. He has to be crazy.

Akato proceeded on his way to school and Grey continued following him.

A skinny boy hesitantly approached Akato, handing him a small folder before bowing repeatedly and then running away.

Akato opened the folder, his face blank as he read through it.

Interesting, Grey thought as Akato slipped the folder into his bag.

Just as Akato was about to walk past the school gate another boy stomped up to him.

The boy’s hair had clearly never met a comb, and his uniform was well-worn with thick stitching throughout.

"I challenge you!" The boy shouted.

"Sure, but not today," Akato said calmly.

"Why not ?" The boy stepped closer to Akato.

"I'm still recovering," Akato said, lifting his bandaged forearms and giving Jason a perplexed look.

".... Ah, whatever, when are we gonna fight then?"

"Are you in a hurry or something?" Akato asked.

“In a hurry to kick your ass.”

Grey looked on amused by the situation. He recognized the boy now. It was the Mad Dog, Jason Murai.

“Why?” Akato asked.

“Why what?” Jason said, confused.

“Why do you want to fight me?”

Jason paused. "Because…. I gotta be at the top."

"The top? You want to lead the gang?"

"Yea that's right I want to be in charge!" Jason puffed up.

"Sure ok," Akato said.

"What?!" Jason said angrily.

"You're in charge of the gang from now on then."

"....is this a trick or something?"

"No, I just have one condition," Akato said, taking a step toward Jason.

"What is it?" Jason asked, confusion coloring his expression.

"We become friends."

"Friends?" Jason repeated back.

"Yep, so what do you say? Deal?"

".... Ahh, ok," he said unsure.

"That's great," Akato gave Jason a pat on the shoulder.

Grey pressed two fingers to his temple. What the hell had just happened?

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

Tomoe looked up at the clock set against the far wall of the courtyard.

She's usually never this late.

Could she have already…. no they wouldn't change their plans so abruptly.

Tomoe turned her head at a couple of girls who were joking and laughing as they walked past. Their faces shifted once they spotted her, and the two quickly rushed away.

Is that because of the gang thing?

But it had been happening for far longer than a year or two so that couldn't be it. Tomoe sat down on a nearby bench and continued staring up at the clock.

Just five minutes before the starting bell, May arrived jogging into the courtyard looking frazzled. Tomoe rushed over to her only other friend.

“What happened? Are you ok?” Tomoe asked, glaring around as if she could find someone responsible.

“It's Tiger, she's gone missing. I spent all morning looking for her but she wasn't in any of her usual spots and before I knew it I had to get going,” May said in a rush.

“I just hope nothing has happened to her,” May continued.

“I’ll help you look for her after school. In fact, I'll get someone to come help us too,” Tomoe said.

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

That worked out better than I could have hoped for, I thought prematurely.

I can even get Jason to handle disciplining the gang. Since he was the leader now it would be his problem to deal with.

I froze in place on my way to class as I spotted the worst character in existence.

Ok, well, one of the worst characters in existence.

But honestly, this type of character was practically beyond stereotype.

The scumbag pervert, comic relief character.

I didn't know his name as I had skipped over any panels with him in it.

Luckily, he had nothing at all to do with the main plot so I wouldn't need to interact with the utter failure of a human being. Although I rather he not exist at all.

I still remember the first time I met him. I had barely said a word to him when one of his schemes got me thoroughly beaten up by Tomoe.

Ever since then, I've tried my best to completely avoid him.

Nothing good could happen with him around, about that I was absolutely, without a doubt, completely and utterly sure of.

He had a small mirror attached to a poll that he was holding out of the window.

I ran past so as not to get caught up in his immoral buffoonery.

He attempted to speak to me as I passed him but I ignored him.

Of course, he was on the very small list of people that weren't afraid of the main character.

I sighed in relief as I successfully entered the classroom without anything happening to me.

I sat and watched as the clock ticked down.

I turned my head to the sound of the classroom door being slammed open violently.

My heart skipped a beat.

Was it Tomoe here to beat me up? Did she think I was involved in whatever ill deed the scumbag had cooked up?

I sighed again once I saw that it was only Jason.

He looked like he was irritated but also deep in thought.

He moved to the desk in front of me and sat down loudly.

The other students gave each other frightened looks.

Grey entered the classroom next not giving me or Jason any attention just quietly taking his seat.

I didn't worry too much about it for now. Instead, I pulled out the folder that I had gotten from the gang member earlier.

It was filled with loose pages, sticky notes, and…. various candy wrappers.

I was a bit shocked not only at the candy wrapper reports but also at the terrible handwriting and the contents of the reports themselves.

Mostly useless information or not any at all.

Clearly, this report business needs to be rethought.

There were plenty of papers with just a name and nothing on it.

But worst of all was the first few pages that told of fights between black diamond and surrounding gangs.

It seemed that there were a few members that hadn't listened. Fantastic, I thought bitterly.

The report containing that information wasn't even written by the culprits, someone else had witnessed the event and then decided to write them up.

As I continued shuffling through the folder I caught Grey glancing over at my desk.

When I turned to look at him he was staring straight ahead.

It happened so fast that someone other than me might have brushed it off as just their imagination.

But I knew that he was probably very interested in this stuff.

After all, in the manga he was technically the person who was commanding and controlling the gang.

Most of the organizing that he did happened off-screen though, likely because the author thought that it was boring.

I wish I had seen at least some of it so that it could help me right now.

Sadly wishes didn't come true.

The bell rang and class started.

I didn't pay a lot of attention to the lessons. Most of my focus was being put towards remembering stuff from the manga. I managed to scratch out three plot points from my memory. I was sure all of them happened in this first arc.

The late school run, the drunk martial arts master, and the attack by the yellow hearts.

Of course, there was more that happened but I just couldn't remember every detail.

If I had known that I'd be transmigrated into this world I would have been studying the manga religiously. But that wasn't the case.

I had skimmed a lot of the earlier parts of the story because the comedy elements and lack of actual plot was incredibly boring to me.

I pulled out my notebook and wrote down what I could.

The second arc was the: Cards Of Spirit Arc. Where the supernatural abilities came into play. The main character met a robed mystery figure known as the bestower that asked him to draw a card from a deck. The main character received the Hero card. It was a Ruler card, the strongest card type of the five.

I had some interesting ideas for how I could use some of its abilities. Stuff that hadn't even happened in the manga but I was sure could work.

The second arc still brought along a bunch of comedy and ridiculousness with it. Something which I planned on avoiding as much as possible.

What I could remember from the second arc was that the yellow hearts attacked again trying to get payback for being beaten up in the previous arc. Except this time, they also had powers.

Another plot I remembered from the second arc, was a bully character from black diamond that challenged the main character for his position because he thought his newly gained powers were a sure bet.

I tapped my pen against the table.

There was something else but again I couldn't recall.

I scratched my head in frustration and decided to move on to the third arc: Arcade Run.

A World-type card user pulled the main character, Grey, and Jason into different arcade games.

The arc after that was the: Night Hunter Arc. Where the main cast went to an island that was in the process of being taken over by a group of powerful card users.

It was in this arc that the manga dropped a lot of its comedy elements and became more serious.

I filled up the notebook with everything that I could remember from the first four arcs. Even as the bell rang for lunch I remained in my seat trying to remember any details and writing them down.

Jason also stayed in class during break and at some point he turned around and slapped his hand on my desk.

I was startled but quickly closed my notebook and gave him a questioning look.

“It isn't right,” he said.

“What isn't right?” I asked looking around. Did I miss something?

Jason folded his arms. “Becoming the leader like this…. It's. It's better if we have a fight,” he stated.

Ahh, great. Why did he care? I sighed. Just my luck.

“Can we at least stay friends?” I asked, a hint of desperation slipping into my voice.

Jason frowned. “Sure I guess,” he said, facing forward again.

Maybe I could still turn this around somehow?

I looked over at the clock, only ten minutes left. Standing up I pulled out a few coins from my bag.

Jason was eating a sandwich and scowling at the air.

“You want a drink?” I asked.

He was taken aback for a few seconds before responding. “Sure.”

I exited the classroom and went over to the nearest vending machine. I examined the drink selection. Wildd Cherry Cola, spelled with two d's.

Umbrella orange. Snapping grapes. Various tea flavors by a brand called D&R. Coffee, hot and cold by a brand called MoonMilk. Not a single brand that I recognized from my old world. I checked the vending machine brand not that I knew anything about vending machines brands but hey why not? 99 Industries.

Yep, I had no clue.

I paid for two of the orange sodas.

Re-entering the classroom I placed one can on Jason's table.

He stared at the can then looked over at me then looked back over at the can. Slowly he picked it up and opened it. Hesitantly he took a sip, then looked back over at me again.

I looked back with a slightly confused expression. What did he think I would do to it?

“Thanks,” he said.

“No problem.”

"So you really want to be friends?" He asked after a minute.

"Yes."

He scowled.

I didn't remember him being this prickly. What gives? Was the main character just more trustworthy than me or something?

The bell rang and break was over.

The lessons here weren’t that different from what I had been learning in my old world. Which was very convenient. Probably the luckiest thing to ever happen to me. It would have been a complete nightmare if I had to deal with plot shenanigans and a completely foreign curriculum on top of it.

At the next free period, I decided to hand over the reports I had gotten earlier to Grey.

I didn't see how it could hurt. I slid the folder onto his desk.

He turned towards me with a questioning look.

I smiled.

Grey narrowed his eyes at me but ended up opening it and started flipping through, a frown growing on his face as he moved from page’s, to sticky notes, and finally to candy wrappers.

“You've got a serious organizational problem,” he said.

“Very true. You wouldn't be able to help me out would you?”

“And what exactly would I get from helping you? Some advice about the future?” He said with a scoff.

I ignored the tone. “Well, what do you want?”

Grey took a minute to think. “What makes you think I can even help you?”

I hesitated. “Future visions,” I answered. Might as well stay consistent.

Grey shook his head. “And here I thought that we were having an actual conversation.”

“Visions aside, there is something that you want right?” I pressed.

“Make me the duke,” Grey answered.

“Is that all?” I was elated.

“For now.”

“Deal. On one condition,” I said.

"And what's that?"

"We become friends."

Grey looked me over. "You don't seem the type."

"Type?"

"The type to go around asking people to be friends."

I didn't know what to say to that.

“Don't you have to run this deal through your new boss?” Grey asked, adjusting his glasses.

“Jason? No, he gave the position back to me.” How did he even know about that.

Upon hearing his name Jason turned towards us.

“And why is that?” Grey said, looking between the two of us.

I asked Jason why he gave the leadership position back to me and he gave the same answer as earlier.

“So we have a deal,” Grey said a few minutes after the final bell rang and most of the other students had fled the classroom.

“What are you two scheming about?” Jason scowled at us.

“Just getting Grey to help me with the gang. You wouldn't mind helping out as well?” I asked.

“And what would I need to do?”

“I'm not too sure about that yet,” I said.

We walked out of the classroom together.

Tomoe was waiting for me in the hallway.

“I need your help,” She said.