The night before the first mid term, I stayed up doing some final preparations. All of my classes would be easy to pass, but I had reignited my father's drive to be the best. I prepared for any situation that the testers could throw at me. As I pushed my study session into the small hours of the morning, I thought about what had happened that night on the street.

  Everything that had taken place in those last two months before I jumped back resurfaced in my mind bit by bit. That cold night in the rain replayed. I pictured Kryne’s dirty apartment. I saw the stained rug and chair that he sat in. The patch job blanket that his daughter was bundled up under flashed before my eyes. Her mother's screams once she discovered the revelation of all I had done pierced my ears again.

  I remembered the Captain's cold stare as I gave my report on the mission. My leg burned where the sniper shot me at the beginning of the final chase. My heart pounded in my throat, and I felt the weight of total defeat at the end of everything again. Number 12's face burned in my memory, but as her demented smile melted away, I saw the Angelica Grey of this timeline — crying in on a dimly-lit sidewalk after she took down a crime boss well deserving of it.

  Is it already too late to save her? She was quickly twisted after her first kill last time, but something seems different now. We were all forced to do our jobs, but she seemed like she was fighting it. Agh! I can't focus anymore; I guess I'll go to sleep.

  * * * * *

  Midterms were a bit challenging at points, only because I wanted perfect scores. Since Principal Kushida knew about me, there was little reason to hide what I could really do. Besides, thinking of college early hardly hurt anyone, and three years to keep perfect grades seemed like a challenge I could enjoy. The week went by slowly, and everyone seemed to take it differently.

  Nina seemed stressed because she wanted to remain at the top of the first year students. Chika seemed stressed because she was a terrible test taker and only had a thin grasp on the material anyway. Denki loved the challenge as usual, and Natsu wanted the chance to one-up his now rival. Kaori was very easygoing about it all, but she was confident that she did well. Rito seemed a bit overwhelmed by everything, but he was doing well — thankfully, he had learned the basics of redirecting his ability since the Kawasaki incident. Hiro was almost unfazed by all of it; when I asked him, he just gave me an out of character smirk.

  The final day before break, the rankings were published, and I found out why Hiro smirked at me that day. I claimed my spot at the top of the first years with Nina coming in second. In third place was our dark horse, Toshinori Hiro. I always knew he was smarter than he seemed, but he must have pulled out all the stops to make a name for himself.

  "That's insane, Kazuma! You beat the first year rep?" Hiro asked wide-eyed.

  "You did pretty well too, Hiro. Your ranking is absolutely nothing to scoff at. I'm so proud of you!" I pulled him into a playful headlock. "Keep it up, and you'll give me a run for my money come time for finals."

  "I—I can't believe it. I lost? To you?!" Nina was shocked and angry. "How? Did you cheat or something?" She got really close. "I bet you froze time and copied my answers."

  I tried to keep a cool face. "Why would I copy your answers? I just got more right than you, that's all. But, hey, if you want my help on the finals, I guess I can be persuaded to tutor you." I gave a smirk.

  "As if I'd want to be tutored by you, idiot," she turned away and walked off.

  "What did you say to her to make her face that red, buddy?" Denki asked as he walked up with our group.

  "She's just mad that she lost to him," Hiro replied.

  "Oh! Top 50%! Nice!" Rito was satisfied with his score.

  "Look at that, same for me. I should try harder next time, though. Want to give me a hand studying when the time comes, Kazuma?" Kaori asked.

  "Yeah, I guess I co—"

  "Top 50%! That's such a relief," Chika burst out. "Kazu, I'm going to die if I try to do it on my own next time. Please save me!"

  "He's still not all powerful," Denki chimed in. "But, if he's offering to bring me from top 25% to top 10%, I won't turn him down. I need to beat Natsu next time."

  I looked at Hiro. "Looks like the two of us are leading a study group in the spring, huh?"

  Hiro smiled back at me. "I can't wait, almighty Kazuma."

  *  *  *  *  *

  The last meeting of the student council for the semester was sort of surreal. Everyone sat while the president and vice president served tea and snacks. They told us it was an example of servant leadership and a tradition in the student council. As they came around filling our cups, they congratulated each of us on a job well done throughout the semester. The next semester would hold the election for the next leadership positions, so this was also a sort of pre-farewell.

  "Ishigami, I heard you scored the highest among all of the first years," the president said as she poured my tea.

  "That's correct."

  "I see, very impressive."

  Our eyes met, and I saw how much she was holding herself back since we were at school. It sent a shiver down my spine because I knew what was waiting for me at home. At the same time, I felt two sets of burning glares: Nina and the vice president.

  Why? Why did I have to get elected to this stupid council?

  * * * * *

  The day of the party arrived in the blink of an eye. I woke up early to start getting everything ready. I was a decent enough cook, but my baking skills weren't the best. Although, with enough time, even I could make enough of my dish.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Most of the decorations are already up, so that will save me some time...

  Heh. Ironic. I can literally prevent tomorrow from ever coming, and I'm panicking about having my friends come over for a party.

  Hours passed, and after several tries — I couldn't really jump back unless it was a split second mistake — I finally got my holiday cookies finished. I prepared the other kitchenware for everyone who needed space to prepare their own foods. Ino was bringing everything to make takoyaki, and Kaori was doing the same for gyoza. With the sweets that everyone else was either making or bringing, we would have plenty to eat throughout the day. As I stood and pondered everything, I felt a presence creeping up behind me.

  "Good morning, Zuzu!" Yui pounced on me.

  "It's too early for your weirdness, sis."

  "It's never too early to express your love," she had latched onto me. "It took a lot to hold back how proud I was during that meeting, you know. I'm still celebrating you taking first place."

  "I'm honestly surprised I didn't die that day," I tried shaking her off of me. "Between your depraved lust, the vice president's ravenous envy, and the representative's burning wrath, one wrong move could have spelled my doom."

  "I'd never let Hana harm a single hair on your precious head." She was all but drooling on me at this point, and I finally broke free. "Spoil sport," she pouted.

  "How you've managed to fool everyone into believing that you're the model student and not an utter degenerate is beyond me."

  "Like I said, Zuzu," she crept closer to me. "You're the only one that gets to see this side of me. Don't you feel happy about it?"

  "Happy isn't the word I would use."

  Before she could leap again, the doorbell rang, and she shot out of the room since she was still in her pajamas. Once I heard her door slam shut, I opened the front door to see Denki, Daichi, and Hiro. They brought drinks and plenty of them.

  "Welcome guys."

  "Happy holidays, buddy," Denki said with a smile. "Mom is at work, and she made me bring him."

  "Sorry to impose," Daichi said shyly. "I brought our game station and plenty of games."

  "You're not imposing at all! Please, come in."

  The next group to arrive was Ino, Rito, and Kaori. In addition to everything they needed for their dishes, they brought some more sweets that they had made together. Apparently, Kaori stayed at Ino's the night before, and they spent the whole night baking. Rito brought a number of Christmas movies from his vast collection.

  "It's good to see you again, Ino."

  "Thank you for having me," she replied with a smile as she entered.

  "I didn't know which ones you all wanted to watch, so I brought them all," Rito said as he laughed. I patted him on the back as he walked in, but his tripped and his ability activated. He, of course, crashed into Ino and landed face first under her skirt. She got super red and slapped him, launching him into the wall.

  Looks like that's back. Just like old times after all.

  "Honestly, it's a good thing she's so head over heels for him," Kaori said as she walked in. "Got any mistletoe for me?"

  "Huh?" I was taken aback.

  She laughed and winked as she put her finger over her lips. "Just kidding." At that, I felt a deadly glare coming from the stairs.

  Nina and Natsu arrived next. They brought even more drinks and some party mix even though we had told them several times that they wouldn't need to bring anything. At this point, snow began gently falling from the otherwise bright sky.

  "We don't do stuff like this often, but thanks for having us," Nina said in an oddly embarrassed voice.

  "I'm just here to eat and beat Denki in video games," Natsu said with a smirk. Nina must have elbowed or punched him in the gut because he grabbed his stomach and bent over immediately after the words came out of his mouth.

  "Regardless, I'm glad you two could come. Please, come in."

  As usual, Chika was the last to make any indication of showing up. I got a call from her asking me to come over to help carry things back. When I arrived, she had a number of cakes prepared. She had been up longer than even I had been making them; I was actually impressed. Slowly but surely, we made our way back to my house. We grew up in the same neighborhood a couple of houses from each other, but we had hardly been to each other's house since early junior high.

  "Thanks for your help, Kazu."

  "It's no problem. I'm certain we won't be running out of food today."

  As we walked, I caught glimpses of her. Even with the light in the sky and the light reflecting off of the snow, her face glowed brighter than anything. Her hair was tucked into a knit beanie, and she wore a long grey coat and high rubber boots. By the time we got to my house, her nose and cheeks were red from the cold.

  She really is cute... it still should feel wrong to think that, though.

  With everyone present, the party began. For hours, everyone enjoyed themselves. Natsu quickly learned that the threat of Denki paled in comparison to that of Daichi when they played their games. Out of seventeen matches, he lost all but one of them which he spared no celebration on. Hiro and Rito half-argued about the selection of Christmas movies while Kaori and Ino made their dishes. Nina seemed really taken back by all of it, but Chika helped her warm up after a while. As I made my rounds between the subgroups, I still felt a stare on me. When I turned around, however, Yui would be engaged in one thing or another.

  After everything was prepared, we ate until we were ready to burst. My cookies turned out fantastic — objectively speaking, of course. Kaori's gyozas were juicy and firm; she had been perfecting the technique for a while, she later said. The takoyaki that Ino made was the icing on the cake: the simplicity of the ingredients was ultimately deceitful since the finished product had a delicious complexity.

  As for the actual cake, Chika's cakes were the perfect balance of ingredients, she was understandably proud of her red-velvet triumph. As we finished up, Hiro and Rito finally decided on a movie, and we enjoyed every moment of it.

  The last event of the party was upon us, the gift exchange. We gathered around the tree where we had dropped our single gifts at the beginning of the party. Bags and packages of many shapes and sizes filled the space under the ornate plant. One by one, we drew numbers. In a sick instance of the universe's sense of irony, I pulled number nine. My bag was the one that Denki had brought. Inside it was an oversized pink shirt that said "girlboss." I couldn't help but laugh at it.

  Everyone else's gifts were just as funny: the exchange was meant to be gag gifts. They ranged from fish-shaped house slippers to a tiny white wooden elephant. Needless to say, the laughs made the night. Even Nina, who was reluctant at the beginning, ended up having a great time. As the clock struck 10pm, everyone began packing their things and saying their good nights. One by one, they all left until only Natsu, Nina, and I remained.

  "Thanks again for having us, Kazuma," Natsu said as he put on his coat. "She may not admit it, but we're both very thankful for being invited."

  "It was my pleasure to have you. You're both a part of our group, after all."

  "Thanks," Nina said quietly. "This is the first time in... a long time... that we've had something like this. We won't forget it."

  "What do you mean by that?"

  She was silent for a moment. "It's nothing. Forget I said anything," she said as she turned and walked out. "Merry Christmas, or whatever."

  I chuckled. "Merry Christmas, Nina, Natsu."

  Seriously, what does she get out of acting all tough like that?