While he has been enrolled since his birth in Darkeas, the school of supervillains, Uchiri Nanaya ends up by mistake in Aitori ... the school of the Magical Girls.
All the girls in Nanaya's class almost threw themselves on him. Only the teachers knew the details of what had happened, but the students knew at least one thing: Nanaya had brought Kōtarō back and he had almost died for it. They almost forgot that he was not alone, but Kenji claimed that the magical had the most merit on this improvised mission. They weren't much help in the end.
They resumed classes almost normally. Of course, they couldn't just forget the events. And they now knew that the famous "Lord" urban legend was real and more terrible than the rumors portrayed. But now law enforcement and heroes knew. They technically didn't have to worry more.
At the lunch break, Mineko preferred to turn the conversation to Nanaya. She had spent the day wondering what had changed, before finally realizing that his hair was a little shorter and his red ends were gone.
"I asked Thoki to cut them," Nanaya explained, "I had made this color to enter Darkeas...because red is often associated with villains. Now I'm just going to let them grow."
"How far ?" Enko asked curiously.
"I wish I had them as long as Thoki..."
"Oh ! You'll be great with that!" Affirmed Tomeo.
"Dad also made me a new prosthesis to replace the one Lord pulled out."
"In one day ?!" Mineko choked.
"He already had several started. But he used a blue metal to go with my magical form."
Nanaya lifted her hair to show off his new prosthesis. It wasn't much different, except for the frosty blue color that covered part of it. His friends couldn't help but smile as they thought that a year ago he would never have shown his right side so easily. They were somewhat touched to know that he was comfortable enough with them for that.
"I'm still curious," Udo said suddenly, landing on Mineko's shoulder, "for this invisible man who saved you. What if it was a trap?"
"I don't think so..." mumbled Nanaya, "I vaguely heard him tell me that I was safe, I think..."
"It wasn't a trap." Suddenly said Kōtarō.
They all turned to him. He hadn't spoken much in all that time. He sighed and put his fork down.
"When Lord called Kashiwa," he explained, "to confirm my identity. "There was an invisible man with her. He called him Phantom. I think it's the same. He was worried about what Lord was going to do to me and Lord told him he wouldn't hurt me... but when Phantom and Ita left... Lord called them fools. I'm not sure all his men are here by choice. Or rather, they are there because they have nowhere to go. That is my opinion."
"You think ?" Monaka wondered. "Actually, it's not so stupid..."
"Please," Mineko muttered, "we said we weren't talking about that..."
Kōtarō apologized but Mineko demanded an apology from Udo, who had revived the subject.
Finding no other subject, they finished their meal in silence. As they were about to get up after their lunch, Starlight's voice rang through the school's intercoms, calling for everyone to gather in the cafeteria.
"Are we... staying seated then?" Enko hesitated.
"Well yeah," Haru replied with a shrug, "I wonder what's important..."
"Are they going to talk about what happened?" Jun asked.
The friends exchanged a look. No, they had no reason to panic the students.
As many of their comrades returned to the cafeteria to settle in, Shadow, Starlight, and Bunny also entered, accompanied by Nakamara.
Nanaya let out a soft "Oh." but said no more to his friends.
The four adults waited near the counter, talking with Chef Josuke, until all the students and teachers were finally present in the room. Phen-X was the last to enter, after walking around the school to make sure everyone was there, he waved to the principals and settled in as well.
"We have two important announcements," Starlight said stepping forward, "I want you to pay special attention. For starters, I'm going to stick with Saurity's direction now. The general management of the SDA complex will now be entrusted to Uchiri Nakamara."
The cafeteria fills with whispers. Some still found it hard to believe that he had abandoned Experion and his place as an evil mastermind, but many students had a change of view, knowing that he himself had improved the security of the school and training. Starlight slapped his prosthetics between them to produce a metallic sound and call for silence.
"Stop doing that..." Nakamara muttered.
"It's efficient," assured the hero, "anyway, the general management office will be set up next to mine, on the floor of Saurity. He will not always be present since he also has to take care of Uchiri Corporation, but do not hesitate to ask us if you would like an interview. I will now let you speak, Uchiri-san."
He stepped back, letting Nakamara step forward in his place.
"I suspect that some of you still find it difficult to forgive some of my past deeds, but it was precisely in part to redeem my faults that I accepted this position."
"The decision is already made anyway," Shadow interrupted, "let's go to the announcement, Uchiri-san."
"Yes of course. A last minute event has been decided for the month of December. We got confirmation this morning. We are going to organize an inter-school tournament with our American counterparts."
A much louder whisper ran through the room. Since the existence of the schools of heroes, villains and magical girls, never this kind of events had taken place. Everyone stayed in their country. And some countries didn't even have a villain school. Nakamara glanced at Starlight, who again used the metallic sound of her prosthetics to plead for silence.
"Thank you," Nakamara continued, "so I was saying, Heritage, Ravenwood, and Acadia schools are coming to spend three weeks here in Japan, from December 1 until the holidays. During this time, friendly tournaments will be organized between our schools."
"Excuse me Uchiri," cut Aitori's math teacher, Lady Mime, "but why? And why so suddenly?"
"I wish I could just say it's a way to celebrate my position in the complex... but there's no point in lying. These tournaments will serve as additional training and they will not be too much. Future heroes, magical girls, and even villains have a right to know what they might be up against. Lord's name is not unknown to anyone here. Has anyone never heard stories about him?"
He paused. The students exchanged worried looks. The stories of the elusive smuggler, Lord, were even known beyond Japan as an urban legend. In the eyes of the world, he was no more real than the ghost stories were.
"Lord," Nakamara continued after a moment, "does exist. And he's worse than rumors claim."
(I didn't prepared anything here so here an illustration of Lord)
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