[A/N: Trying to get back into the swing of things, but it's been hectic in my life for a while, so no promises. Till then, enjoy the update!]

The note had every right to burst into flames while no one was looking in the classroom, its ashes floating down to the ground below Tomoe. The fox glared down at the clock, twitching slightly as the lunch bell had rung. Instantly, classmates began huddling into groups and chatting loudly, opening bento boxes or rushing to the lunch line. Tomoe scoffed and rolled his eyes, feeling no appetite whatsoever, and he just sat down at the desk without moving an inch.

Specifically, a blond male with this obnoxious, irritating grin plastered onto his face. "So Momozono isn't eating today, huh? Did ya forget your money or someth—"

Roughly, Tomoe covered his hand. "For once, stop being such an obnoxious brat and go dig into someone else's business, you annoying parasite," he snapped, glaring at the classmate, this particular one, Isobe or something, enjoyed getting his nose where it didn't belong. "Whatever I've done to you, it doesn't deserve this sort of subpar treatment, so take your business elsewhere…"

Isobe blinked, staring at "Nanami" in shock. Someone's hand yanked him by the shoulder, Kurama giving a tired look.

"Seriously… don't pick fights with girls, Isobe. It looks bad on any guy."

Not as bad as trying to eat the girl's heart, Tengu.

Tomoe sat back in the seat, giving now cares for the Tengu's scolding. Isobe didn't seem to listen, and only shrugged as he walked away.

"Nanami, that was pretty surprising, all that coming from you," Kurama commented.

"I'm full of surprises," Tomoe spat, shrugging irritably. Ignoring the Tengu stubbornly, he stared intently at the doorway, wishing for something to just go wrong and leave school without any other option. However, the dream was broken when he got a glimpse of dark, long hair.

Akira gave a wave, looking down at "Nanami" from behind. "Nanami, mind doing me a favour?"

Tomoe nodded. He sure as hell did mind.

The idol's face fell, but he soon shrugged with a laugh, arms crossed. "You don't even know what it is, Nanami. Hear me out, okay?" he asked, leaning in.

Tomoe shoved a hand into the idol's face harshly, pushing him back. "Screw off. You're annoying me."

Akira patted Tomoe's head, ruffling his hair. "I see, then the least you should do with your spare time is check on that friend of yours." He pointed over to the door, briefly looking away from Tomoe.

"Friend?"

"Ami Nekota, isn't is?"

"I'm sure she's fine," Tomoe said.

Akira nodded and smiled. "Then you've nothing better to do! I wanted to continue our conversation from yesterday." His smiled remained, but sighed loudly, in a long, drawn out way. "Regrettably, you're not interested, so I'll just plan another date later, kay?" His smile had the slightest ounce of – what was is it, pity? Sympathy? Something. "Nanami, you're a good person, I hope you know, but if you act as clueless as you tend to do, don't be surprised if—"

Tomoe shot up from his desk. "First off, who the hell said you could lay your hands on me, and why would I want to hang out with you more than required?"

"Sudden annoyance?" Akira asked, tilting his head.

The fox scoffed loudly, narrowing his eyes. "Don't touch me, don't talk to me, and hell, don't breathe the same air as me," he ordered, beginning to walk away.

"Nanami," Akira sighed, yanking at "her" arm. "What's got you so—"

Tomoe whipped his arm away, a small fire erupting from his hand.

Akira blinked in small surprise, but huffed in amusement. "Whoops."

Damn…

Tomoe bit his lower lip, hearing the idol go on.

"You're a bad actor, y'know."

Actor? Actor?

So he knew? And for how long had he known? Without any hesitation, he outed himself on knowing more than he let on, on being more than he let on, as if it was second nature to him. Whatever he was, it couldn't have been human. No, that was impossible. His insistent interest in Nanami, his attitude and mannerisms, the way he approached Tomoe, none of that seemed normal, but it only made sense now. He knew about Nanami, and who exactly she was, and he was able to distinguish her from Tomoe's disguise without the slightest bit of surprise or shock over the truth.

"You-"

With a loud bang, the classroom door thrusted open, and that small girl, Ami, bursted in and sprang straight for Tomoe, tightly hugging him and wailing Nanami's name. Her hug was absolutely suffocating, and she blubbered about something or another in the infirmary.

In a much calmer fashion, Arika walked in. Or rather, she peered in, and her bright blue eyes landed on Ami. Her shoulders slumped, and she rolled her eyes just enough for Tomoe to catch a glimspe of the action; soon, however, she sported a light smile. "Is she talking about seeing something in the infirmary? I went to check up on her but she suddenly ran out and was shaking my shoulders! 'There was a monster in the room!'" She waved her hands around, as if imitating or mocking Ami. "I didn't see anything, and I tried to tell her to rest some more, but she wouldn't listen."

Numerous murmurs and comments erupted. "A monster?", "Nekota believes in that kinda junk?", "Maybe she has a fever?"

Ami bit her lower lip, shaking her head. "That's not it. There was someone odd in the infirmary too. Not a student. It looked like a monster!"

Arika moved towards her, yanking her away from Tomoe. "Ami, I'm telling you, you gotta go back and rest." She spoke gently, and her grip was now just a light hold of Ami's shoulder.

Ami pouted, turning to Arika sharply. "I'm not sick! I definitely saw what I saw! Didn't you see anyone?"

Arika shook her head. "I didn't see anyone."

"But... before you came in..." Ami stopped, only to try and straighten herself up. "I heard you laughing. Was it a prank?"

"A prank? Why would I pull a prank on you? And a mean one like that to scare you, too?"

Ami hesitated, hearing the wavering tone in Arika's voice. "It's… you were trying to scare me, is what it seemed like is—"

"Why would Arika do that, Nekota?" a classmate interrupted, raising an eyebrow. "She's been nothing but nice to you, right? I saw you and Momozono hanging around stores a few days ago, so why would she trying pulling a mean prank on you?"

"That's not it," Ami protested, looking around the classroom. Arika gave her a sullen look, as if holding back tears and shirnking more and more in her seat.

"That's awful, you hurt her feelings Nekota," another student called out. "Don't you think that's mean, befriending an idol just to try and ruin her reputation?"

Ami shook her head more sternly. "That's not it! I wouldn't do that, it's just that she forced me to go to the infirmary and—"

"She forced you?" Tomoe echoed.

Arika glared at him, then back at Ami, her look softening. "Ami, you looked sick, so I thought you should go."

The meek girl saw more glares directed toward her, save Tomoe and Kurama. In fact, Tomoe was more puzzled than anything. He narrowed his eyes at Arika. If she was with Akira, then there was no doubt she was in on him with whatever the hell he had planned against Nanami, and now they were targeting her friends.

Ami glanced back at Arika, who, with a lowered head, was smiling just so slightly.

"Nekota, don't cause unnecessary trouble for Arika, she's a nice person."

Ami shrunk, unable to reply under the pressure. She looked over pleadingly at Kurama, who seemed ready to stand up and interrupt, before a low laugh rang behind Ami.

Placing a hand on Ami's shoulder, Akira waved to the class.

Now what's he up to...

"My apologies, I'll talk to Nekota about this out in the hallway, if you don't mind," he said, giving a shallow nod of the head. Walking Ami out, he closed the door, leaning against the hallway wall with a tilt of his head. "So, what happened now? Something did happen, right? You certainly don't seem the type to set up people or deceive them."

"Ami," Tomoe started, "letting him help will just anger the other students. What happened?"

"…"

Don't be stupid!

Gritting his teeth, Tomoe went to move between them and drag Ami out the classroom or something. There was completely no reason to drag her, a normal human being, into this nonsense.

The taller of the two idols took a step back, bringing Ami with him.

"Okay, I give, yours is the iron will~," Akira sighed, patting the girl's head. "Tell you what, though, I'll still help you out even though I don't know the whole story, because I'm just that generous, and crying girls isn't my strong suit."

With that, he was already dragging Ami back into the classroom, hugging her from behind. It was clear she was uncomfortable, but the jerk didn't seem to care a damn bit.

"Honestly, I'm the one at fault. It's hard for me to catch everyone's undivided attention when they're distracted by my status as an idol, so I asked Ami here to cause a scene and get everyone off track," he pointed to Arika. "Of course, my brilliant and bubbly partner was in on it."

Arika looked up at Ami, making a peace sign. "Yup. Ami's a good actress!"

Ami stared with a deadpanned face, seeing the surprised looks on the class's faces.

"Naturally, the news regarding this cute little classmate is that we're going steady from today on~."

Ami was obviously at a loss, and the look in her eye was a sure sign that this wasn't some convoluted, heavily thought out prank. And, for a moment, Tomoe's mind went blank. The turn of events just didn't make any damn sense. Akira was blatantly targeting Nanami for some reason, but he was here stirring up more trouble for her friend than anything else. What did he intend on gaining from that? What could he gain, rather?

If he was trying just to get under Tomoe's skin, then he succeeded in that long before. And now he had the audacity to clearly have something planned for Nanami? As if he was even a demon or god of high enough stature to directly address as he had been. Granted, Nanami herself wasn't all that formal, but Akira was clearly of an inferior position, even if Nanami wouldn't have cared, being the fool she was.

...and it's that kind of foolishness that would make her burst out in defence of her friend if she heard about this at any moment. This was perfect bait. Of course that's what Akira had in mind.

The class was in an uproar of disbelief, while all Tomoe wanted to do was leave the school and ask Nanami a few questions about what's actually been going on.

She was usually obnoxiously noisy and bubbly, almost breathing down someone's neck with her presence; now, she seemed silent and indifferent, as if uninterested in the announcement. Kicking her legs under her desk and twirling strands of orange hair around.

Meanwhile, the eternally smug idol patted Ami's head, walking to his desk casually, the smirk never leaving his face, leaving Ami at the front of the class in her shock. Naturally, she looked over to Tomoe, in Nanami's form, for some sort of help or whatever. However, Tomoe was busy trying to figure out a way to discreetly burn someone alive and not get caught.

In the uproar, the teacher was struggling to get everyone to calm down, and Tomoe, fed up as he was, just wanted out of here.

"Teacher, I don't feel well," he said blankly, "I'm going to the infirmary."

Briefly, the teacher eyed him exasperatedly, but waved Tomoe off dismissively, completely focused on the rest of the louder students."Go on."

Eagerly leaving and slamming the door behind him, it was about time to settle some things at the shrine.