Four were at the table when she was called in that night - Armstrong, three security, and one black woman.

"You said you saw Ms. Kishor die?" said Armstrong.

"I did." she chimed, sitting down and putting her legs up.

"Explain to us what happened, then."

"I fought a Revenant. Kirihara came and stole my credit - she scanned it before I had the chance, using Carve to throw me away from her."

"What happened then?"

"I murdered her. We fought. I struck first, and I murdered her."

"… you're confessing to murdering another student?"

"It was easy."

"You're aware your legal -"

" - I don't give a shit what you think." said Mia, and their blood froze as they felt the scarabs on their necks. "I'm a national level threat. You'll say that Kirihara died fighting a Revenant, and that I'm Urasaria's next student body president -"

The black woman tensed -

" - Worldwide." A trillion volts charred her to ash. "And that was self-defense." She smiled and stepped up, towering over a man taller than her. "And if you say a word about this to anyone - you won't die like she did, to a Solar Beam. You will die slowly, with a hole burnt in to your skull, and scarabs picking your eyes apart, bit by bit. I'll let you know if I need anything else."

She walked out.

◆◆◆

The next day, she had her wish in the amphitheatre.

"What a start to your presidency." laughed Matoi, Mia just having relayed it backstage.

"You threatened to kill her - but I finished it." chimed Mia.

"…uh. Yeah." mumbled Marisa. "I guess she was pretty... bad."

In some ways, she still saw Mia as her first-year protege. She didn't dislike her for killing Kirihara, but worried this was indicative of some turn in her or hidden trait. She even seemed to have enjoyed it.

"She would have fought Mia for the presidency, regardless." shrugged Matoi. "Better to deal with it then."

"Bet they're gonna be real careful who they hire as security now." said Samuel. "Careful. Might have someone out there that can counter Worldwide."

"They know it isn't worth the effort." smiled Mia. "Armstrong seemed like he was going to shit himself."

"If only." laughed Matoi, the crowd outside permanently murmuring. "Still. You should make your speech. They'll be gossiping about you regardless."

Mia nodded, gesturing to Samuel. He went out with her to the microphone, crowd drawing low.

"Urasaria." she said in to the microphone. Bizarrely, she felt more nervous here than she had the other night. "Urasaria, er - East."

She took a deep breath and nodded.

"When I was younger, I… remember that I - I had always wanted to be a Urasaria student. I know that sounds ironic, because of my father, but it was true. I ended up being a bit of a fangirl." She laughed. "I would get in to arguments online about - something that I do every day, now - killing violent criminals. In my mind, Urasaria students were perfect people.

But over my years here, I've realized that there's many students I haven't met or talked with, and - I haven't liked everyone I've met, either. I remember I - I had one moment when I was first brought to Urasaria, where -" - she laughed - " - I realized that - when my wife, Aimee -" ( - a few clapped, and she smiled.) " - when she was president. I realized that she was only a few years older than me, and I started worrying because - I knew what I was like, and I didn't think that anyone similar to me could protect people or run an investigation. I've met wonderful people here, but I still don't know if -I'm- experienced enough or - adult enough to be president. But, I'm going to try to be the best president I can be, and I've always succeeded at what I put my mind - or Revenant - to." She nodded and smiled. "Thank you."

The crowd gave her a standing ovation, though she tried not to frown at the hesitance on a few faces. She figured she'd correct that over the next year.

"And - of course - my squadron. Serena! Miasma!"

The punk drew up from the crowd, and the two smiled as she went down, meeting again.

"Yuruko! Genesis!"

The chemist drew up from the crowd, following close behind her girlfriend.

"And of course," laughed Mia, gesturing to Samuel, "the returning Boar. And these are your… Royal Four."

Her right hand burned purple as she raised it high.

"That's new." mumbled Serena, and Mia laughed.

◆◆◆

The new four returned to their office, Matoi still making her speech.

"Um, it's alright I told Yuruko, right?" said Serena, and Mia nodded. "Coolio."

"Man. She was always a real bitch, though." laughed Yuruko. "Uh - staff won't mess with us, right?"

"I doubt it, after that." laughed Mia. "We'll be meeting with them at the beginning of next year - by that time, Aimee should be able to let me know their Revenants, if they have anything new. Do, er…" She laughed. "… do - any of you have any suggestions?"

"Um…" Serena scratched her neck's back. "… I mean, um…"

"Probably shouldn't rock the boat - President Mia." nodded Samuel. "Might be best just to go for small changes."

"Maybe… huh. Iunno." shrugged Yuruko. "I mean - maybe new housing, but that'd cost way too much."

"Um." said Serena. "Could they - maybe cover Kamon's fee? For anyone that needs it?"

"Kamon?" said Samuel.

"I… perhaps." murmured Mia, sitting up. "I suppose it would be - fifty thousand, but…"

"It'd… also mean they'd get political." winced Yuruko, relevantly. Serena sighed and nodded.

"… yeah. I dunno. Um."

"What're you talking about?" said Samuel, and Mia waved him down.

"Nothing."

"Um, I needed to have surgery for something." chimed Serena, and Samuel nodded, utterly clueless. "Uh - something personal."

"I thought you looked a little different." laughed Samuel, and the others followed. "Still. What more do we even need?"

"Luna back." chimed Yuruko, and Mia leaned back.

"… perhaps a new cafeteria." she murmured. "A new cafeteria, perhaps."

The door knocked, and Mia went up to open it.

"Your fanmail." muttered Armstrong, head low as he handed her a stack of eight boxes. "For you and your squadron."

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Thank you." she chimed, slamming the door in his face. Serena checked the boxes with Blackburn as she sat down and nodded as she passed them around.

"All good. Just letters."

"You never know." said Samuel -

" - wait, you have more boxes than me?" said Mia, glancing over -

- and the four laughed at Samuel's three boxes, Mia & Serena had two each, and Yuruko one.

"…I've got a few theories for why that is, but I'm not saying them." muttered Samuel and the rest laughed -

" - wait, what's that supposed to mean?" laughed Yuruko -

" - well, I'm saying -" - he laughed - " - before I, before I even open these - I've got the feeling these are all from women -"

" - uh, they could be from gay guys -" laughed Serena -

" - only one way to find out." he laughed and Mia smirked.

"Go ahead."

He opened his box and started flipping through. "Jessica. Sabrina. Paula. Jolyne. Lisa. Suzie. Hermes."

(Yuruko & Serena glanced at each other.)

"I'm telling you, these are all female." he laughed, flipping through the second box - " - they're all female names -"

" - uh, they could - could still be from guys -" laughed Serena, and his head shook -

" - well, checking - looking at a few of these, these are some very submissive men, then -"

" - god -" laughed Mia, relevantly - " - I - I don't want to hear any of it -"

" - every single one of these are female." he laughed, pressing the three boxes away. "Should probably disintegrate these once we finish up -"

" - what's your theory, then?" laughed Yuruko, and his head shook -

" - I'm in a room full of women - I'm not about you -"

" - as president, I order you to - to tell us your theory." chimed Mia, and the four laughed.

"Fine." he laughed. "Fine. I was just thinking about… now. You know how - Charles Manson and all of them? Don't they have a lot of, ah, female fans -"

" - wait -" laughed Yuruko - " - what are you even -"

" - and - and if my violence is known enough that it says 'extremely violent' on it, I get the feeling that -"

" - that's the stupidest fucking theory I've ever heard -" cackled Mia, relevantly -

" - but the evidence is right here!" he laughed, gesturing to it -

" - yeah, it's because you're fucking rank #3 -" laughed Serena -

" - I'm just saying, I - I know myself quite well -" laughed Samuel - " - and any woman who'd be attracted to, to this can't be all that right in the head -"

" - like that - like that one woman we saw?" laughed Mia, and Samuel nodded, gesturing for her to tell it. "We - we were patrolling a few months ago, and - this woman came up to us and -"

" - she just flashed - well, it looked more towards me than anyone else -"

" - what the fuck?" laughed Yuruko, relevantly. "Was she like, drunk, or -"

" - we - we never found out." laughed Mia. "But, it - it was definitely for Samuel."

"Well, and I did appreciate it." he nodded and the four laughed.

"Maybe she wrote all of those letters." said Serena and Samuel laughed.

"She might've."

"I'll disintegrate them later, then." chimed Mia, setting a few in her drawer. "Er. Who should go next?"

"I'll go." laughed Yuruko. One finger opened her box, and she pulled a dozen letters out. "Uh… guy, guy, guy… oh." She pulled one out. "This one says 'Urasaria's #2 otaku.'"

"What's an otaku?" said Samuel.

"S-"

"-Yuruko." said Serena, quicker on the draw that day.

"Someone who's in to videogames and Japanese cartoons." nodded Mia, and Serena tried not to laugh as Yuruko paused.

"…uh… Oh, this is cute." she chimed, showing off a sketch of her & Serena together, one glove holding one tentacle.

"Nice." chimed Serena, and her tentacle sliced her box open. She started flipping through letters, and -

" - niiice." laughed Serena, pulling one paper out -

- of a black&white manga drawing of her, cloud of fog filling one man's face with knives behind her, tentacle lashing towards the viewer, caption that read 'URASARIA'S #1 OTAKU - MIASMA'.

"You motherfucker." muttered Yuruko ruefully.

"And now you have one." chimed Mia, gesturing to the black&white drawing of the Elite Four on the wall.

"Won't be able to go back next year, though." nodded Samuel, relevantly. "Yuruko, Serena - either of you speak another language?"

"Um." said Serena. "Kono you ni wa kekka dake ga - nokuru."

Yuruko tried not to crack up. "U-Uh, yeah. Kekka dake ga."

"What does that mean?" said Mia, relevantly.

"Um. 'The world only remembers the results.'" nodded Serena. "The results are the only thing that matters."

"Yeah." said Yuruko. "It's an ancient Japanese proverb."

Serena's lips clenched as Samuel nodded and said he liked it.

◆◆◆

[May 20th 2021]

Mia's spring classes had gone well, leaving the Royal Four with a summer of training, and her wedding in early July.

That night, Kirihara's parents ate at an empty table.

In her teenage years, their daughter had been little but a source of stress for them, constantly receiving calls from school, until her Revenant had activated and she had begun to dedicate herself to Urasaria. In recent years, a strong sense of pride had grown in their daughter, who seemed to be about the only person worth a damn at that school. Having an aptitude for business and mathematics, Ken had sat at the top of the caste system that formed in most immigrant communities even before he met Amiti.

Now, their daughter was dead and a pit of anger was growing towards that academy.

"…finally got a call back, this morning." said Amiti. "While you were at work."

"What did they say?" said Ken.

"They're still looking in to it."

"…like anyone can - fucking believe that. Did you - you told them what Mia did to her, right? That whole - burning a fucking hole through her -"

" - Ken - of course I told them -"

" - so what? So we're just gonna - you know. I bet it was her that did it. They say anything about the rankings? "

"They avoided every - f-fucking question about it. Said it must've been a fucking glitch."

"Bullshit."

"Bullshit is right. Bullshit. She's texting us she's rank one - and the next day - they take her off the leaderboards?"

"Should've taken a picture of it -"

" - well - her fucking tablet, too! Her fucking tablet, a-and -" - her eyes filled again.

"…w-we need to. D-Do something." he said. "Anything. Someone - someone had to have seen something. Even if it was all destroyed - someone had to have seen something."

"T-That's right. That's what we need to - f-focus on. For her. For our daughter."

"There's that whole fucking town that got blown up. Could have - maybe that had something to do with it."

He nodded.

◆◆◆

A week later, the two arranged for a visit to one of the few surviving stores, though reconstruction had already started. Only one convenience store had been left standing April 30th.

"Excuse me." said Ken to the clerk as they came up. "I was trying to - I had my car destroyed last month. It was parked outside here - a month ago."

"Uhhuh." he muttered.

"Do you - I know this is a hard request. The insurance is refusing to pay out without better proof - is it - is it possible that this store has security footage of it?"

He shrugged. "Plenty of people were asking about that. Uh. Stuff like that."

"It - it would be a lot of help." nodded Amiti. "We can - well, we wanted to ask the police, but - they're overworked as it is."

"…yeah. Uh." He winced. "We don't have our tapes for the last few months, though. They got taken."

"What the hell are you talking about, was taken?"

"Some student came by and took it."

"Was it a woman?" said Amiti.

"No. Just showed his badge, told me he needed it for official business. Whatever. You know how those weirdos are."

"Watch your fucking mouth -"

" - what - what did it say? On his badge?" interrupted Amiti.

"Uh… god. What'd it say." He winced. "… 'Scourge'."

"'Scourge'?" said Ken. "Who's that?"

"He - he doesn't know. Do you?" said Amiti.

"I - have no idea. Dunno."

"Well, what did he look like?"

"I - look - I don't know if I should be - talking about this, even."

"What do you mean, you don't know if you should be -"

" - excuse me, is there a problem?" said a voice right, and they turned -

- to the store's manager.

"We were just -"

- the doors opened, and in stepped a punkish woman, black hair and boots with twenty spurs&straps, wearing a badge&jacket that read 'MIASMA'.

The manager nodded to her as she came up. "Go ahead. Whatever you'd like."

"Thanks." she chimed, swiping four bags of gummy worms, and as she turned back -

" - excuse me," said Ken " - do you know -"

" - please." sighed the manager. "She's a student helping with repairs -"

" - um, what's up?" she said and turned. "I'm just - uh, taking a break, so."

"Do you - do you know anyone named 'Scourge'? A Urasaria student?"

"…uh. Why?"

"It's about our daughter." said Amiti. "Kirihara. Kishor?"

"I don't know who that is." she shrugged, and turned -

" - please, are you sure -"

" - stop - harassing me." she winced. "I don't know who that is, and -"

" - are you covering for Mia?" said Ken, and she froze. "You know - my taxes pay your salary. I have a right to ask questions -"

" - leave, please." sighed the manager, and the woman glanced back -

- just as another entered, blue hair, lab coat, rubber gloves and thick glasses.

"Hey." she chimed, and the punk handed her two bags. "All good?"

"Yeah. Um. Fog's back up."

"Coolio."

The two walked out. The manager sighed.

"Leave, please - or I'll ask her to come back."

◆◆◆

The two arranged to stay for another week nearby, but realized their best option three days in. Amiti hung up just as they got in the hunting supplies store.

"Said they have no idea who 'Scourge' is."

"Maybe - maybe something online." muttered Ken. "Check online for it."

"Maybe. Someone might've… Someone might've - seen someone like that."

"Excuse me." said Ken to another clerk, one with a wider beard and smile than the last. "We're… trying to - gather information - on the forest fire that happened, recently."

"Are you with the police?" he said, and their heads shook.

"Our, our daughter. A Urasaria student - died near here." said Amiti.

"…ah. Guess there was that big fight. Damn near - well, sumathem came along to help fix up the store, all the damn water damage. Replaced all the walls. Damn near replaced the entire store. Guess they've got that new president here helping out, and… sorry, what're you trying to find?"

"Just footage, or - even just audio." said Ken. "Anything - anything like that. Around here. On April 30th."

"You try that place over on -"

" - we already did." nodded Amiti, and the man frowned.

"…ah. Well. No one else has come around here asking about it, anyway. You said April 30th?" (They nodded.) "Bout a month or two ago, then. Myself, well... I usually keep a few cameras when I'm hunting in those woods there, but most of them got destroyed. I can see what I have for you, though.

"That - that would be great." nodded Ken. "Around April 30th. And May 1st."

"Sure. Doesn't do me any good, anyway. Was just about to throw them out."

◆◆◆

The two returned home with April 30th, and her voice eventually spoke.

"Aimee. Urasaria's security. What are their Revenants?"

"I just murdered Kirihara. I need to know if they have anything that can counter Worldwide."

The two listened until the tape went taut, and cried after. Eventually Ken rose.

"We're getting this to the news. I need - I need a drink."

[END OF ARC: ROYALTY]

[END OF URASARIA ACADEMY: YEAR THREE]