Confidence

It was about a week after the flowing fist tournament and everyone was back at school. Excitement levels were high because the students were a couple of weeks away from graduating into senior high school.

However the excitement was cut short for some students, as it was exam week.

Most of the students had gathered in the cafeteria as the school was offering a free breakfast to those who had exams.

"our journey to Horizon begins now" said Rando excitedly, as he placed his still bandaged hand on Yashiro's shoulder. For his breakfast, he kept it simple and got a sausage and egg sandwich with milk. While Yashiro decided to have cereal instead.

"What makes you say that?"

"We have most of our exams this week. I doubt any good institutions would accept students with bad grades, regardless of what their powers may be"

Yashiro smiled, and looked around the cafeteria "I guess that's true. We should be fine though...By the way, have you seen Rani?"

"No, I haven't really seen her much since the tournament.

"Neither have I. Should we be worried?"

Rando shook his head, "She's a tough girl, I'm sure she's fine"

After he said that, he noticed a couple of students looking in his direction and whispering to each other.

One of the boys, Kazeka Yuki, walked up to the table where Yashiro and Rando were sitting, folded his arms and spoke, in a way that was meant to be intimidating, "I heard you guys got your ass kicked during the tournament. Looking at your hands Rando, I'd say that was an understatement". To Rando, Kazeka was one of those classic students in high school. Who believed that for some reason, they were above everyone else. So, he felt he didn't have to respond to him and just continued eating his breakfast.

Kazeka spoke again, this time, while laughing "I heard that loser, Rani got messed up the most. Not a surprise that she's not here today. "

Yashiro got annoyed and stood up aggressively, but so did 3 of Kazeka's friends, who stood behind him. To avoid letting Yashiro do anything silly, Rando laughed and spoke, loud enough to make most heads in the cafeteria turn towards him, "you know, it's funny. I don't recall seeing you at the tournament. What? You're only a tough guy when your dumb friends are there with you?"

That question visibly angered Kazeka. He lashed out and threw a punch at Rando, in an attempt to prove a point.

Rando sat still, smiled and covered just the front of his face with steel. As his fist connected, Kazeka winced and fell to the floor, while holding his hand.

Yashiro sat back down, laughing and so were the other students around the cafeteria who witnessed it.

All Kazeka's friends could do was spectate because they knew if they were to retaliate, not only would they get in trouble, but they would automatically make Rando's statement about Kazeka true. As they picked him up from the floor and began to walk away, Yashiro waved them off in a very provocative manner.

Kazeka turned his head back to Yashiro and Rando, with pure anger on his face, "you're both dead".

After a few more minutes, Rani walked into the cafeteria, looking very exhausted. Carrying her tray of food, she walked towards to table the boys were at and sat down next to Yashiro.

"The Queen finally graces us with her presence" Rando said sarcastically.

"hey", Yashiro said, sounding slightly excitedly, with a smile on his face. "Are you alright? I haven't seen you since the tournament"

"I'm fine, Shiro" she responded as she stifled a yawn "I've just been doing some extra training before the entrance examination comes up so I haven't really had time for anything else"

In that moment, something finally occurred to Yashiro.

[How did I not see this?] he thought to himself as he watched her eat. [Even though she said she was fine, of course that fight with Mika ruined her confidence. She must have been over working herself, she looks exhausted...What can I say to make her feel better? Did I leave it too late to say something? I-]

"Rani, how many hours of sleep did you get?" Rando asked, Interrupting Yashiro's thought process.

"I got enough"

Yashiro placed his hand on Rani's shoulder. "You know we are always here for you right? No matter what"

"Yeah, if anything is bothering you, you can always count on us" Rando added.

Rani looked down at her plate and sighed. She had a very unhappy expression on her face. "I just feel inadequate. I lost my first and only fight of that tournament and I feel like I have to work twice as hard as you guys to achieve the bare minimum. It just sucks."

Rando held her hand and smiled at her, "don't be too hard on yourself Rani. You lost to the girl who won the tournament, whose fighting style was very questionable. I do understand how you feel but we all know that wasn't an accurate representation of your abilities."

Yashiro took over, "also, we aren't really all that special. I mean, you beat us in most of the activities we do. I don't think you should be pushing yourself as hard to be like us. Like Rando said, Mika was really strong, none of us were able to beat her. Don't forget I punched her and she laughed it off. So please don't beat yourself up over that fight."

Rani's face had lightened up a bit. "Thanks guys. I'm really glad you're my friends. I feel slightly better" she sat up and rested her head on Yashiro's shoulder.

"Don't sweat it" Rando said, "that's what friends are for. Now, eat up, so you're refreshed for your exams."

She nodded and began to eat her food. Yashiro smiled and did the same.

The rest of the school day went by fairly quickly and the trio were walking home through a narrow pathway surrounded by trees and bushes, discussing the answers they had for their exams and how easy it was for them.

"I'm so damn tired" Rani exclaimed, as she stretched into a yawn. "I need to take a nap for about 6 hours"

Rando and Yashiro laughed.

"As for me, I'm going to eat then start preparing for the next exam. So I utilise all the time I have" said Rando, calculating with his fingers how many hours he had to revise for.

Suddenly, they heard rustling sounds and were surprised to see 4 students jump out in front of them, with Kazeka being one of them.

"You're gonna wish you never pissed me off". Kazeka still looked angry, and had a baseball bat in his hands. The three people with him had sticks in their hands and one of them had a small pocket knife.

"Rani, if you don't wanna get fucked up again, I suggest you leave right now" Kazeka said, and pointed his bat at her.

Prior to this encounter, Rando had told Rani about the confrontation he and Yashiro had with Kazeka in the cafeteria before she came.

With this in mind, Rani turned to Rando and laughed, "He really can't do anything without his friends being there"

As she said this, the trio burst into loud laughter, which infuriated Kazeka.

"Fine" He said, "you had your warning. Guys, get them"

The two with sticks charged forward and so did Rani, keeping her body low as she sprinted forward. Yashiro was about to follow her but Rando put his arm out to stop him.

"Shiro, let her handle this"

Yashiro nodded and stayed still, watching carefully.

The boys attacking weren't running together. One of them was in front as he was slightly faster.

He jumped and brought his stick vertically downwards with force, attempting to hit Rani. She rolled to the side and as he landed, she lunged at him and simply placed her palm on his face, with her fingers around his cheek bones.

She then released a pale yellow liquid from the hand on his face and he fell to the floor unconscious.

Without hesitating, she formed the toxic liquid into a ball and hurled it at the second boy. It hit him in the face and after a few seconds of struggling, he was unconscious too.

Kazeka's eyes widened with surprise as he thought to himself, [what the fuck was that?]. His friend with the pocket knife looked frightened, and ran in the opposite direction.

Rando shook his head. "What will you do now? You're outnumbered and outmatched"

Kazeka grit his teeth and reinforced the bat in his hand (His power is Reinforcement - He can reinforce and strengthen inanimate objects to more than 3 times their original strength)

"come at me" He said, glaring at Rani. "I'll take care of the three of you myself"

Rando looked at Yashiro and nodded. Yashiro squatted and increased the size of the muscles in his calves and shot himself forward zipping past Rani and closing the gap between him and Kazeka in an instant.

As he got closer, he restored his calf muscles to their original size and increased the size of the muscles in his arm, and punched Kazeka.

He managed to block with the bat but the force generated from the punch was enough to send him flying into a tree behind him.

Before he could get up, Yashiro was already in front of him again.

"I suggest you stay down Kazeka" Rando said, as him an Rani joined Yashiro. "I think you should go back to ignoring us, because the next time you disturb us, we might not be this nice."

Rani blew him a kiss as the trio turned away from him and continued their Journey home.

Kazeka got up and walked towards his unconscious friends.

[What was that power?] he thought to himself, as he was checking to see if they were okay.

When they were far enough away from Kazeka, Yashiro looked at his fist, which was throbbing.

[What the hell was that bat? Why is my hand hurting this much?] he rubbed it and shrugged it off and continued walking home with his friends.

"When did you learn to do that?" Rando asked Rani

"I've been researching non lethal toxins and their chemical compositions so I have more variety with my powers" she created the yellow toxin ball she used before and continued, "This is a weak form of Dimethylheptylpyran, or DMHP for short"

Yashiro laughed, "i don't even know how to pronounce that, but that's so impressive Rani. I'm proud"

"you've really put in a lot of work into your powers. In terms of usage, you're much better than us" Rando said. Rani smiled sheepishly and began to blush, "Thanks guys. I really appreciate it"

"our journey continues" Yashiro said and punched the air triumphantly. They continued talking as they walked home, taking in the cool breeze as they went.