Authors Note: I apologize in advance if my portrayal of Arata's DID is inaccurate in any way and if I make mistakes, please feel free to correct me. 

                                                                                           XXXXXXXXXX

A red-haired boy stared out at the sea as the boat bobbed along the waves. It's destination, Kamui Island is not far away and he was eager to get off the boat and start his mission. It never gets easy to be away from his family or his handler and to be thrusted into situations that could potentially outs his secret. But for now, he wants to be left alone until he got to the school and 'Happy' will automatically take over like he usually does for social settings.

Thankfully, it doesn't take long for the boat to dock. As he was walking to the school, he paused to admire the town which is old fashion.

"Happy would love this. This town feels cozy." Arata muttered to himself.

"It's emulating the townscape of the 1960's."

Arata tensed and slowly turned to the side where a blond boy was staring ahead with a pad in his hands. He forced himself to remain calm. "Oh. And you are? I think I saw you on the boat. I'm Sena Arata."

"Hoshihara Hikaru."

Arata tilted his head as he had heard his name before but could not remember where. Maybe Happy knew. He shrugged and continued on to the school. After a while, Hikaru glanced up and realized that Arata was ahead. Reading Arata's info again, he scoffed. Mediocre was the best way to describe the red head. The tournaments that Arata participated in were not renowned and obscured. But still qualified to allow him to enroll in the academy.

"And within the last three months too." Hikaru noted the dates of the tournaments. He raised an eyebrow and glanced at the receding back of the red head. He had to keep an eye on him despite his mediocre record, he decided.

XXXXXXX

Eventually, both boys arrived at the school. Despite Arata's head start, he allowed Hikaru to catch up and they went through the customs at the front gate to verify their identities. They were then told to hand over their LBX, CCM and any other electronic devices. Once done, they were brought to the class.

Along the way, he felt the familiar feeling of dizziness and slowly blacking out. Blinking, his eyes became brighter and grinned cheerily as Happy fronted. He was slightly aware that Hikaru was eyeing him suspiciously. And for the rest of the day, Arata allowed Happy to take over and get to know his classmates while he watched through his eyes to keep an eye for any sign of the illegal LBX battling ring he was investigating. He was aware that Hikaru was suspicious about the sudden change in personality but Happy can wave it off as being shy earlier.

He tensed when he felt something stirring at his corner of the system. Skimming through it, he winced when he realized it was Violent.

Violent was an alter that he did not want coming forth. He was unpredictable and could potentially jeopardize his investigations about the battling ring and Happy's relationships with his classmates. Thankfully, after briefly scanning their surroundings through the body's eyes, he seemed satisfied by what he saw and retreated back. Arata sighed in relief and resumed watching while keeping an eye on Violent in case he resurfaced.

XXXXXXXXXX

Two weeks later

Over at the Swan Manor, many Rossius students were taking advantage of the weekend and clear weather to catch up on their school work or plan for their upcoming missions. Muraku had decided to do his school work outside and enjoy the warm wind at the same time.

"Did you hear the rumors?"

Muraku glanced up from his homework at his friend Mikhail who spoke. "If it is about the battling rings, then yes."

"Are you going to do anything about it?" Mikhail asked, sitting across from his friend.

"Eventually. I am giving the headmaster a few more days before I take action."

"You really want to deal with the battling rings yourself?" Vanessa and Kageto came over and sat down with them.

"If I have to. I cannot allow this to affect my plans. If someone has the same idea as I do, they can use the battling ring to accumulate silver credit easily." Muraku said grimly, homework forgotten.

"Ok." Vanessa slowly said. "What's your plan then? Assuming that the headmaster doesn't shut them down within your deadline."

"I need to find a way to infiltrate the battling ring and get as much information as I can about it. And gather evidence about the students participating."

"But how are you going to infiltrate the battling ring? No offence, but you're not the best liars and there's no reason why you would join a battling ring to get silver credits when you can just make a few more students LOST." Kageto pointed out.

"Kageto!" Vanessa and Mikhail hissed, the former elbowing the mechanic. Muraku barely reacted outwardly but his friends could tell that this bothered him.

"Sorry." Kageto apologized while rubbing the part where Vanessa elbowed. "But still, I don't think anyone would believe you if you wanted in the battling ring for no reason at all."

This time, Mikhail nodded in agreement. Tilting his head in thought, he then suggested. "What about Vanessa or I? Would that work?"

"Probably not." Muraku shook his head. "Our platoon earns the most silver credit in the high school division. The battling rings are said to mainly target students who are struggling to earn silver credit."

They all paused as an ideal person came into mind. Vanessa, Kageto and Mikhail shared apprehensive looks while Muraku sighed. "Mia."

XXXXXXXXXXX

"No."

Muraku raised an eyebrow at his twin sister. "You haven't listened to what I have to say."

"I know what you're going to ask." Mia rolled her eyes. "You need someone to infiltrate the illegal battling ring that was set up on the island recently and I'm the only person you can trust who fits the profile of the students they are recruiting because I'm always broke no thanks to my troublemaking duo and maniac mechanic."

"That pretty much sums it." Mikhail rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"I really need your help with this. I would do this myself but my reputation as the Violet Devil won't let me get close to them." Muraku pleaded.

Mia sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "It's not that I don't want to help you, but I'm already on thin ice with most of the teachers. If something goes wrong and I get caught, I'll be expelled on the spot, no chance to explain that this is your scheme. And who knows what they'll do to my platoon. You know that they are anxiously waiting for the day they find a way to get themselves expelled with all the trouble they caused."

Muraku cannot argue with that. While he was lucky that he was assigned to a platoon that had enough common sense to keep out of trouble, Mia was not. Mia's platoon had two troublemakers who love pranks and cause chaos during War Time with their shenanigans. And their mechanic was just as crazy as those two with her maniac ideas despite her capabilities. But at the end, the three of them are fiercely loyal to Mia just as his platoon is to him so he'll give them that. Even so, he had to try and convince his sister to help him out one more time.

"I really need your help on this Mia. And I promise that if you get caught, I'll step in and take responsibility."

Mikhail blinked at him while Mia glared at him. "You are only making me worry more if you say that." She then threw her head back. "How about we compromise on this? We'll wait three days to see if the headmaster takes action against them. During that time, we'll find out who are the students participating in the battling rings."

Muraku slowly nodded. "Alright. We need to focus on the students who are low in the rankings and narrow it down to those who have more silver credit to spend than they should have."

Mia nodded. "And by the end of those three days, if the headmaster hasn't done anything yet, I'll go with your plan and infiltrate the battling rings. But," She held up a finger for emphasis, "I'm only going to find out where their base of operations is. Once we get the location or if something happens, I'm bailing out and we give the location to the headmaster."

"That's reasonable." Mikhail nodded but Muraku has other plans.

"Can you help me infiltrate the base once you are in?"

Mikhail shot his friend a panicked look. "What?!"

Mia raised an eyebrow at him. "Why?"

"Giving the headmaster the location, and list of the students we suspect are participating in the battling rings is not enough. We need more information about their operations and photos of the students actively participating in the battles."

With a groan, Mia facepalmed and slumped in her chair. "You and your thoroughness genes." She held up her hands in defeat. "Alright, fine, I'll help you get in once I infiltrate the ring. But just remember that this is your idea."

"Thank you so much." Muraku said sincerely.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

When Vanessa and Kageto learned about the change of plans, they were understandably upset. But they were not willing to let their captain do this alone. By the end of the deadline, Mia did her part of the plan and sweet talked one of the students they figured was participating in the battling ring to help her get in. And the 6th platoon was waiting outside the Swan Manor for her signal.

"You don't have to follow me in that place." Muraku grunted for the third time.

"And we want to. We're not letting you into enemy territory without backup." Vanessa said pointedly. The other two boys nodded in agreement. Warmth filled Muraku's chest at their commitment and loyalty to him. It made him glad not for the first time that he had the best teammates in the whole school.

A chirp from his bracelet made him lift his wrist. He exhaled and nodded. "That's the signal." He tapped on the metallic surface of the bracelet and immediately, a radar with a red dot appeared. "Come on. She's down at the docks."

"Once again, I don't know how you managed to smuggle a smartwatch disguised as a bracelet into the island." Kageto commented as they took off in the direction of Mia's tracker.

"The perks of having a superspy dad I supposed." Vanessa laughed.

Muraku rolled his eyes at that. "Again, he's not a spy. He's a government agent."

"Similar thing." Vanessa shrugged.

XXXXXXXXX

It took Arata a while to regain his bearings when he fronted again once Happy left the Duck Manor and went to sleep. He exhaled deeply and leisurely walked down to the docks. Over the last two weeks, he was investigating the battling ring when he fronted and took his time convincing someone to let him join. Considering that he let Happy take over at school and around his classmates, it was a long but not difficult task.

'You'd think that the students would be more careful with their spending, considering that they aren't supposed to have a lot of silver credit.' He shook his head as he arrived at the warehouse that was the base of operations of the battling ring.

Casually leaning down to tie his shoelace, he secretly pulled out his CCM and plugged a UBS into it. The program in the UBS encrypted his phone and allowed him to contact the mainland. He quickly shot a message to his handler, informing him that he found the base of operations and approached the guard.

"Got an invite." He flashed the poster that was given to him that also functioned as the key to entering.

"Password?"

"Nothing can compare to Grandma's cooking but LBX battles." Arata recited.

The guard grunted and waved him in. Taking a deep breath, Arata entered and had to blink to adjust to the dimness of the warehouse. LBX dioramas were spread all over the floor with a scoreboard for bets and winnings on the wall. Above on the catwalks, spectators were cheering for their favorite contestants to win and occasionally collecting winnings for bets placed on the matches. Arata's face twisted in disgust and shoveled his hands into his pocket.

He climbed up the catwalk and tried to appear interested in the battles as he walked in the direction of the main office. But something he spotted made him pause. There was a girl his age flicking her eyes around and from what he could tell, was observing the place more than the battles. And what surprised him is that he instantly recognized her as his handler's daughter. This created a conflict in him at the thought of potentially needing to get his handler's daughter arrested. But thankfully, he didn't need to go through with it.

He watched as she walked over to a fire escape unnoticed and left the door ajar. As soon as she was done, she slipped away and seconds later, four people slipped in. Arata's eyes shot up when he recognized one of the boys as his handler's son this time. He cursed in realization of what they were doing.

"I need to get them out of here." Arata spun around and headed back down to Muraku's position. He was now alone and he did not spot any of his friends nearby. Most likely scattered to gather evidence on the students.

"Hey." Arata grabbed his shoulder. Muraku jumped but forced himself to remain calm as he turned around to face him.

Keeping his face blank, he asked, "Is there a problem?"

"You and your friends need to get out of here." Arata warned him.

"What are you talking about?" Muraku kept his tone even and Arata wanted to punch him but that would not sit well with his handler.

"I work for you father so I know who you are and what you are doing here. Leave and don't interfere with my investigation." He hissed, eyes darting around. He noted that two bouncers were watching them suspiciously.

Muraku's eyes narrowed angrily at the admission and he shoveled him away, the volume of his voice rising. "What I do is none of your business."

That caught the attention of the bouncers so Arata frantically grabbed him in a headlock and hissed, "Play along!" Out loud, he grunted and tugged at his captive. "I told you to leave me alone! I'm not in the mood for a battle now!"

"What's going on here?" One of the bouncers demanded as they approached the boys.

Arata loosened his hold, allowing Muraku to break free and answer. "Nothing, just a misunderstanding."

Sharing unconvinced looks, the bouncers each took ahold of one of them. "You're coming with us."

From her position on the catwalk, Mia could only watch helplessly as Muraku was taken to the main office. Their eyes met and he shook his head, mouthing to get Vanessa, Mikhail and Kageto out of here. Mia's mouth pursed and she spun on her heel to find Muraku's friends.