It was early in the morning when I came into school. It was around 7am, so there wasn't that many people around.

I went to class anticipating everyone to be talking about Matsushita's party that happened last weekend, but instead I was greeted by the shrill scream of Sakigamiya.

"Our class... what happened to it?!"

She had came to class a bit before me, and stood at the entranceway gobsmacked by the sight before her. Even I had to pause and blink several times to make sense of what I was looking at.

The other people who arrived to class before us, Nora and Ayano, were currently standing in the middle of a mess. E Class was completely trashed from top to bottom, inside and out.

It was as if a tornado had shredded through our classroom. It was a complete mess, with our chabudai broken, our zabuton slashed into, the curtains ripped, lightbulbs smashed on the floor, and insulting graffiti plastered on the walls.

Even so, the most absurd part of this vandalism was the missing door in the entrance, which was now rammed through the gap of a smashed window and left suspended midair.

An overly calm Ayano was examining the state of the room like a detective, pondering on who the culprit could be.

Meanwhile, Nora stood over his seat with a frightened expression. His body was shaking as a massive kanji for "die" had been boldly spray painted on the tatami floor where his seat was for all to see.

He looked absolutely crushed as his eyes scrolled over all the disgusting insults carved into the wall and written on the window next to his seat. He took it all in, going pale with fear the more he read.

I slowly made my way to the back of the class, where my seat was. Since it was directly behind Nora's, I had to slink past him to get to it. As I did, I noticed a strong pungent smell lingering in our area.

Upon closer inspection, I could see something like a rotting animal corpse had been cruelly stuffed inside his slashed zabuton. I looked at Nora, who couldn't handle it any longer and began to silently cry to himself.

Even though the entirety of E Class had been trashed thoroughly, it became clear to me that this was actually an attack on Nora, since the state of his seat was worse than anyone else's. In comparison, while both of our chabudai had been snapped, his one had threats written on it in blood.

Ayano looked over to Sakigamiya, who was also trying to make sense of what happened to us. She was scrambling to salvage anything from her seat, but to no avail, since her zabuton was also torn in half like mine.

"This probably happened over the weekend."

Sakigamiya looked a bit annoyed that was what Ayano said to her.

"Our class was still intact on Friday, so thanks for stating the obvious."

"We don't know which day though. Did you happen to visit the school on the weekend by any chance, Sakigamiya-san?"

"Nope. How about you?"

"Me neither. I was visiting Hana-san."

"Who?"

Since Kita never came to class, Sakigamiya had no clue who she was.

"She's one of our classmates. Kita Hana."

"Oh, her? Isn't she the girl who doesn't show up to class like... ever? If you're in contact with her, tell her to come to class so we don't lose Cl over her absences."

"Will do. How about you two, Nora-san, Takanori-san?

Ayano passed the question to us next. Nora was too shaken up to answer, so I went first.

"I haven't."

After my dry response, Ayano patiently waited for Nora to reply. However, he seemed to be lost in his own world, unable to respond. Sakigamiya tried gently calling out to him to snap him out of his daze.

"Nora-chan."

After snapping her fingers and repeating his name, Nora finally responded.

"...eh?"

"Are you even paying attention? Ayano-san asked you a question."

"Oh... um, no..."

Nora seemed to have at least listened to what Ayano asked, so he wasn't completely lost. However, he kept his crying face hidden from those two. Only I could see it right now.

"A-although... I think I might have an idea... on who did this..."

Even though he mumbled this last bit, Sakigamiya picked up on it and demanded an answer.

"Eh? Who, who?!"

Nora wiped away his tears and turned to face Sakigamiya properly.

"I-I think... it might have been Ritaka-san from B Class."

Upon hearing his name, Sakigamiya snarled angrily.

"First he tries to grope Yukina-chan, now he's throwing a tantrum in our classroom... I swear to god, I'm going to castrate that pervert!"

Her frustration towards him was justified. Ritaka even got me angry enough to punch him once. He was part of the Machida faction, so it wasn't a stretch to say they were the culprits, since they've harassed us before.

"What makes you think that?" Ayano asked.

"Well... on Sunday, I got something weird in the mail. It was my chabudai's nameplate snapped in half..."

The only way this could've been mailed to Nora was if someone had broken into the room and taken his nameplate from his chabudai. Considering the state our class was currently in, it makes sense why Nora connected these two incidents together.

"And when I checked who sent it... it was Ritaka-san. That's why I think it was him."

"Now he's even taunting us? Damn that little rat, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind!"

Sakigamiya was ready to storm into B Class to hunt after Ritaka, but Ayano stopped her.

"Hang on. While it's a solid conclusion, we can't go around accusing him as the perpetrator. Your overreaction is exactly what they want."

"So, who cares? I'm not going to let those assholes get away with this! Our class was trashed, how is this acceptable?!"

"I agree, but we shouldn't incite any further conflict. Instead of taking matters in our own hands, we should instead tell Chabashira-sensei about it and let the school handle this."

"And since when are you the leader of this class? Ayano-san, not to knock you down or anything, but you barely ever contribute to the class. Now, all of a sudden, you care? Where was this attitude when we were getting bested by D Class in the war, huh?"

That was true. Even though he was one of our better cardfighters, Ayano didn't do anything in the war. He didn't get any kills nor did he die. What was he doing back then?

"Sakigamiya-san, with all due respect, this isn't the time to be arguing about my contributions to the class."

"I'm arguing about your intentions."

"That either. You've got to realise, my seat was trashed too. Of course I'm going to involve myself in this matter, because it directly affects me as well."

"Ah, so you don't want to get involved in class affairs unless it hurts you, is that it? Is that the kind of selfish person you are, Ayano-san?"

Ayano rubbed his temples. He was trying to genuinely help out the class for once, but instead Sakigamiya got hung up on something petty and started an unnecessary argument with him.

"I'd rather not get involved in matters that don't relate to me because it's not my place to comment."

"Yeah, and you badmouthed Nora-chan's makeover when it didn't matter to you."

"I was just trying to give him advice... never mind, this is a waste of time. If you're going to maul Ritaka-san for what he's done, then I'm going to find Chabashira-sensei."

Ayano sighed and left the classroom.

"Good luck with getting the teachers to care."

Sakigamiya huffed and left the classroom.

It was just me and Nora alone now.

"Those are some pretty nasty names."

I got up and quietly approached him.

"Y-yeah..."

Nora turned towards me before looking away. His blood must have been running cold from the shock of realising this was a targeted attack at him.

I wasn't really good at consoling people, so I decided it was better if we moved away from his seat, because it was only making Nora more upset the more he emptily stared at it.

"Come on, let's go with Sakigamiya-san."

"You want to confront B Class...?"

"Not particularly. I just want to keep an eye on her, in case things get ugly."

"O-oh... yeah, I guess that makes sense, considering how combative Sakigamiya-san can be..."

I could hear Nora's anxiety manifest in his uneasy voice. It was quiet and wobbly.

"It's fine if you don't want to. Maybe we should get some breakfast from the canteen, or something."

"N-no... if that's what you want to do, Takanori-kun... then I'm fine with that..."

Nora drew his hands close to his chest as he said that. For some reason, I had the urge to reach out and pat him on the head.

"Alright. Let's go."

Nora obediently followed me outside as we left class. However, blocking our path was a crowd of students from our year that had begun to gather outside our classroom, attracted by its unsightly state.

"Nora-chan, Yuu-kun! Over here!"

"Yuu, what happened to our class?"

Mixed in the crowd was Taiga and Yukina, who called out to us after seeing the state of things.

"We think the Machida faction vandalised our class."

"That's horrible..." Yukina gasped.

"What?! Why would they do that?!" Taiga exclaimed.

"We have no clue, unfortunately. Although, it seems this was meant for Nora-san in specific, since... well..."

I pointed over to his seat, where the two girls proceeded to stare at it in horror.

"Nora-chan, are you okay? It looks like you've been crying..."

"I-I'm fine."

Naturally, Yukina was concerned about one of her friends. I was surprised she noticed that though.

"Could you guys hold things down here while we check out B Class?"

"Sure thing. Shouldn't we tell the teachers though?"

"No way, I'm going with you guys! This is unacceptable!"

I got two vastly different answers from Yukina and Taiga.

"Ayano-san already went to get Chabashira-sensei."

I answered Yukina's question first before turning my attention to Taiga.

"In that case, Yukina, can you manage things here?"

"I'll try... but the crowd's getting really big."

Yukina pointed over to the growing crowd. However, a couple of familiar faces stepped forward.

It was Yukimura and Mitsuba.

"Don't worry about it, Kazuraba-chan, me and Yukimura-san will act like bouncers. Ain't that right, buddy?"

"Huh? Don't call me buddy."

"Ain't that right, pal?"

"Can you even beat someone up?"

"I wear a normal belt and a Gucci belt for a reason, pal."

"Cut out the weird nicknames before I assist you in your suicide."

Yukimura grunted, slapping Mitsuba in the back of the head. Mitsuba winced.

"Ow..."

"Yeah, me and Mitsuba can help you out, Kazuraba. Takanori, do me a solid and knock the teeth out of Ritaka for me like you did last time. Oh, and sock Machida in the jaw too!"

"...I'll consider it."

"Attaboy."

With that, me, Nora, and Taiga all went to B Class to confront Machida's faction.