Hiro stepped up to station three with a smooth, completely unbothered stride. He pulled out the high stool next to Michelle Jones, dropping his notebook onto the black tabletop. As he turned his head toward her, he flashed his most charming, effortless smile, leaning one elbow casually onto the desk.
"Hey there," Hiro said, his voice smooth and low. "I am Kirigaya Hiro. But you can just call me Hiro."
MJ didn't even look up from her microscope at first. She slowly adjusted the focus knob, her expression entirely neutral, before finally cutting her eyes over to meet his gaze. An amused, sharp little smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
"And I am taken, nice to meet you, Hiro," MJ responded dryly, her voice dripping with her signature calm sarcasm.
Hiro didn't miss a beat. His smirk only widened, his eyes gleaming with genuine entertainment as he leaned back slightly. "Damn. Who's the lucky bastard?"
"A guy who actually looks at the chemical formulas instead of trying out his pickup lines during a graded lab," MJ countered smoothly, flipping a page in her manual. "He also doesn't wear his hair in a ponytail, but I try not to hold that against him."
Hiro let out a chuckle, running a thumb over the edge of his pen. 'She's sharp,' he thought, thoroughly enjoying the quick-witted pushback. "Ouch. Fair point. But for the record, it's a tactical ponytail. It keeps the hair out of my eyes when things start exploding."
"Right. Because high school chemistry is famous for its high-casualty explosions," MJ noted, finally pushing a tray of glass slides toward the center of the station. "Grab those tongs and help me adjust the burner. If we fail this module, the lucky bastard is going to mock me for a week."
"Can't have that happen," Hiro said, his tone shifting into an easy, cooperative rhythm as he grabbed the metal tool. "Let's get to work then."
The two of them settled into a comfortable, light-hearted groove, trading dry remarks and quick observations while easily measuring out the liquids. Hiro kept his massive power entirely suppressed, his hidden fox ears and multiple black tails resting quietly beneath the veil of his glamour field. To anyone else, he just looked like a normal, incredibly laid-back kid helping his partner pass science class.
Meanwhile, across the room at station five, Peter stood by his stool, adjusting his backpack strap with a quick, energetic shrug. He was tired from his nightly duties, but he kept an optimistic, fast-paced rhythm about him as he uncapped his pen. He wasn't nervous around her; he was just trying to navigate the sheer absurdity of having a multi-tailed celestial entity as a biology partner.
Nozomi approached the desk with a slow, deliberate pace, her movements entirely weightless. As she slid onto the stool next to him, she turned her head, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. Her golden eyes locked onto his face, a slow, highly mischievous smirk spreading across her lips.
"Okay, where do we start, partner?" Nozomi asked, purring the last word softly.
Peter offered a soft, amused chuckle, swinging his legs lightly under the stool as he looked down at the complex diagrams on the page. He matched her smirk with a bright, knowing grin of his own. "No offense, but I don't know your level of knowledge on these things."
Nozomi tilted her head slightly, her gaze drifting toward the ceiling for a brief second as if genuinely calculating the vast depth of her own memories. "I would say I am advanced in organic biochemistry."
Peter raised an eyebrow, pleasantly surprised by the sheer confidence in her voice. "Really? Good then."
With the initial introduction out of the way, the two of them immediately dove into the assignment. Nozomi effortlessly pointed out a structural flaw in the manual's example diagram, her finger tracing the carbon bonds with a practiced ease that showed she wasn't exaggerating in the slightest. Peter quickly followed her lead, his pen flying across the lab report as they cross-referenced the high-density molecular chains.
'She really wasn't kidding,' Peter thought, a faint trace of genuine admiration brushing through his focus. 'This might actually be the fastest lab report I've ever finished.'
Peter glanced over at station three for a brief second, watching MJ and Hiro casually laughing about something written in their textbook, before turning back to Nozomi with a funny, dramatic sigh.
"Oh no," Peter muttered under his breath, though the wide, bright smile on his face didn't fade for a second as Nozomi caught him looking and let out another quiet, teasing giggle.
Hiro and Nozomi quietly worked through their respective assignments, but their minds were completely connected across the classroom.
'The loud one at the back desk keeps staring at you,' Hiro noted through their link, checking a chemical bond on his paper. 'Flash. He looks like he tries to style his hair with a leaf blower.'
Nozomi let out a silent, mental snort as she adjusted a slide for Peter. 'Oh, please. He has the intellectual depth of a sidewalk puddle. He asked me if we ride bullet trains to school in Japan. I almost told him we ride giant celestial foxes just to see his reaction.'
Hiro couldn't help it; a sudden, quiet giggle escaped his throat.
MJ instantly looked up from her microscope, her eyes narrowing as she fixed her gaze on him. "What's funny?"
Hiro didn't lose his composure for a second. He kept his easy, relaxed smile entirely intact as he leaned back slightly. "Just having a conversation with my sister."
MJ raised a skeptical brow, staring at him for a beat. She slowly turned her head to look across the room at Nozomi, who was completely focused on her own lab manual, before turning back to Hiro. Deciding it wasn't worth the headache, MJ chose to ignore it and went right back to writing her notes.
A moment later, the loud ring of the school bell echoed through the PA system, signaling the end of the final period. The classroom immediately erupted into the chaotic sound of shuffling papers and sliding chairs.
Hiro stood up, offering MJ a polite nod before stepping away from station three. He walked over to station five, joining Nozomi, who was still finishing up her conversation with Peter.
As Peter packed his notebook into his backpack, he looked up at the two of them, keeping his voice low. "How did you guys even manage to get IDs and into this school midway through the semester?"
Nozomi simply smirked, leaning one elbow onto the edge of the desk with a look of pure amusement. "Dear, there is nothing money can't buy."
Before Peter could respond to that, MJ walked over to their station, tossing her bag over her shoulder. She looked between Peter and Nozomi, dropping in with a dry tone. "You sure have gotten close."
Nozomi's eyes danced with mischief as she leaned in slightly, teasing her. "Jealous?"
MJ just scoffed, rolling her eyes as she turned toward the door.
The group began to head out into the hallway, blending into the thick crowd of students rushing toward the exit. As they walked down the main corridor, they ran into Ned by the lockers. He was practically vibrating with unspent questions, his eyes darting frantically between Peter and the new transfers.
At the junction of the hallway, the two groups naturally separated. Peter, Ned, and MJ turned toward the stairwell leading upward, while Hiro and Nozomi stopped near the main exit.
"We have to head to the principal's office to report on how our first day went," Hiro said with mock enthusiasm, waving a casual hand as they turned the corner.
A few minutes later, Peter and his crew reached the school roof. The air was crisp, and the distant hum of New York traffic faded into the background. They leaned against the rusted metal railing, naturally dropping into a discussion about the future and the specific universities they wanted to attend after graduation. Ned was midway through explaining his dream curriculum when the heavy metal rooftop door groaned open.
Hiro and Nozomi pulled up, stepping onto the concrete roof with completely relaxed expressions.
"Oh! You guys are here too? Thought this place would be secluded," Nozomi said, a knowing smirk tugging at the edge of her lips.
Peter just looked at their identical smirks, entirely unamused as he crossed his arms. "And yet for some reason I feel like this was intentional."
"What possibly gave you that idea?" Hiro asked in mock confusion, blinking innocently.
"Just my spidey-sense," Peter answered automatically.
MJ felt her heart instantly drop into her stomach at Peter's massive slip of the tongue. Her eyes went wide with pure panic. "PETER!" she shouted, her voice echoing across the concrete walls.
Peter turned to her in total confusion, blinking. "What?"
Ned aggressively leaned in close, frantically whispering to him in a panicked hiss. "Spidey-sense?!"
Hiro cut right into their hushed panic, raising an eyebrow with an amused grin. "You do know we can hear you, right?"
Peter just giggled, completely waving off his friends' panic as he relaxed his posture. "Oh, it's fine, guys. They know. They are also not normal kids." He gestured toward the twins as Nozomi and Hiro moved closer to where the three of them were standing.
"Not normal?" Nozomi asked in mock annoyance, tilting her head. "Sorry for being born like this."
Peter's smile widened as he raised his hands defensively. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that."
MJ shifted her gaze between the three of them, her sharp mind working fast. "What do you mean they're not normal? Are they like... also superheroes?"
Ned leaned forward, his eyes practically sparkling as he became intensely curious. "Are you guys superheroes? What's your superpower?"
Nozomi and Hiro looked at each other for a brief second, trading a silent, knowing glance. Then, without a word, they let the golden glamour field that had been hiding their true physical features completely drop.
In a sharp, sudden fwoosh, the air around them rippled with a warm, dense pulse of energy. The illusion vanished. Multiple black, glossy tails burst out from behind them, swaying gracefully in the rooftop breeze, while two pairs of plush fox ears twitched at the top of their heads.
Ned and MJ's mouths instantly dropped open in pure, unadulterated shock, their faces freezing in absolute disbelief.
In that exact split second of total silence, Nozomi smoothly whipped out her phone, aimed the camera, and snapped a crystal-clear photo of their ridiculous expressions. A brilliant, triumphant grin lit up her face.
"I just love this world."
X X X