As the group of four began to head down to the canteen and were walking down the hall, Quinn noticed somebody.
His face scrunched up in annoyance, as it wasn't someone he wanted to see first thing in the morning.
Loop.
But, as the two of them locked eyes, Loop instantly stopped in his tracks.
He began to sweat, and his hands were shaking uncontrollably.
Loop remained there, frozen as a statue, as the group walked past him.
Eventually, he turned to them, and spoke.
"Hey, can I talk to you?" He asked, looking at Quinn, before his eyes began nervously darting from Tsukuru to Vorden. "In private?"
Quinn narrowed his eyes, and his eyes began to dart back and forth, trying to see if Fei or Brandon were nearby, thinking this was an attempt for them to ambush him.
He glanced over at Tsukuru, who shook his head, a disappointed look on his face.
"I can't tell." Tsukuru whispered in a voice so low, that only Quinn with his enhanced senses could hear him. "There's too many people around."
Though Tsukuru had his System's "Minimap" feature, it only showed "hostile" entities as "red dots", and they didn't have labels.
And with how many students were surrounding them, and how low on the totem pole the two of them were, roughly two-thirds of them were "red dots".
He honestly had no clue if Fei or Brandon were nearby.
Quinn glanced back up to Loop.
If Loop wanted to talk to Quinn "in private", it most likely meant that he had figured out that it was him who had attacked Loop and Fei yesterday.
However, the fact that so many students were nearby might also be a good thing.
With so many witnesses, it was unlikely that Loop would try anything.
And even if he did, Quinn could defend himself without revealing his Skills.
It was at that point that Vorden stepped forward.
"Hey, is everything alright?" He asked in a stern tone, his eyes locked on Loop.
Quinn's response was to raise his hand behind him, signaling Vorden to stand down.
"Yeah, it's fine, Vorden." Quinn replied. "You three head to the canteen. I'll be there shortly."
The three boys exchanged looks, before Tsukuru eventually jabbed his thumb in the other direction, signalling them to go.
As they departed, Vorden kept staring back at Quinn.
He saw Quinn and the boy walk off into a nearby classroom.
It was a classroom down the hallway, towards the canteen.
Since the day had just started, most of the classrooms were empty.
Of course, Quinn made sure to stay by the door at all times, just in case Loop did decide to attack.
That way he could run into the hallway where the rest of the students were.
Loop stood there, nervous and fidgeting.
It seemed like he was struggling to get his words out. Eventually, he spoke.
"I'm…sorry about yesterday." Loop said with a bow.
The action completely threw Quinn through a loop.
Loop was a Level 3 Ability user.
He was two whole Ability Levels above Quinn.
Seeing him bow to him felt…weird.
"I know Fei and Brandon hurt you in training, and you were probably just getting revenge." Loop then looked away. "When I came to the roof and saw you, I panicked and attacked you. Please forgive me."
Quinn just stood there, stunned.
He was speechless.
This was unexpected, and he didn't have a clue what was going on.
"I promise I won't tell anyone about your…secret." Loop said, lightly swinging his hand down in the air.
Looking at it, Quinn realized that he was imitating Quinn's Blood Swipe Skill.
"So please, just let me live. I won't bother you again, and no one will ever know what happened."
Although Quinn had his suspicions that this was all an act, it seemed like Loop was actually genuine.
Either that, or he was the best actor in the world.
But, what Quinn didn't understand, is what on earth had happened to make Loop act like this.
"Thanks for keeping my secret." Quinn eventually replied, a smile on his face. "Besides, I don't really have a grudge against you. You weren't one of the ones who had attacked me."
Hearing Quinn's words, Loop let out a sigh.
"Thank you, thank you for sparing me." Loop said, his hands folded in a pose known in the previous era as "a prayer". "I promise if you need anything, I will help you. I don't want what happened to Brandon to happen to me."
At his words, Quinn's eyes widened in surprise.
'Brandon?' Quinn thought. 'What happened to Brandon?'
Quinn was about to voice his questions, but it was that point that footsteps could be heard from behind.
He turned his neck to look back, and he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
Standing right outside the doorway was Tsukuru's older sister, Sergeant Shizuka.
"Ell ello." Shizuka said, adjusting her cap, and putting on a fake, British accent. "What's all this, then?"
Quinn and Loop both stood there, frozen like a deer caught in headlights.
Loop gulped hard as he looked at the woman.
For some reason, being around her felt like he was standing in front of a bloodthirsty shark…while he was bleeding.
He involuntarily took a step back.
Seeing the look on the two boys, Shizuka burst out into laughter.
"Aw, come on!" She replied, her whole body shaking as she laughed. "Tsu-Tsu always found that hilarious!"
Loop and Quinn remained silent.
Eventually, Shizuka stopped laughing.
She let out a long sigh.
"Wow, tough crowd." She muttered, adjusting her cap.
Eventually, Quinn tested his luck, and spoke up.
"Shizuka, what happened to Brandon?" Quinn asked, a raised eyebrow.
Hearing his words, Shizuka smirked in amusement.
Loop, meanwhile, looked over to Quinn in surprise.
The tone in Quinn's voice made him genuinely sound like he didn't know what happened to Brandon.
"Wait." Loop spoke up, causing both Quinn and Shizuka to turn to him. "Does this mean that you didn't kill Brandon?"
Quinn's eyes widened in surprise.
"Brandon's dead?!" Quinn asked, surprise in his voice.
"Indeed." Shizuka's voice replied.
Quinn spun around to face her, and saw her fiddling with her cap.
She seemed to do that a lot.
"Student Brandon Richardon was found deep within a forest clearing, beaten into an inch of his life."
Her gaze then shifted to the two boys.
"By the time he arrived at the doctor's office for healing, he had already…expired."
A cold dread filled the room, as both boys realized that "expired" was a euphemism for "dead".
Quinn and Loop exchanged looks.
Loop had been certain it had to have been Quinn who killed Brandon.
After all, who else would have such a grudge against him.
The two stood there, stunned, until a ringing filled the room.
The two snapped their heads towards Shizuka.
She was holding a gold pocket watch by the chain.
The chain was wrapped around her hand, and the watch was swinging down like a pendulum.
The pocket watch was modified with two small bells at the top, making it reminiscent of an alarm clock.
The clock's face had the minute hand on "12" and the hour hand on "8", making it read "8:00".
Shizuka lifted her hand up to bring the pocket watch up to the side of her face, and glanced over at it.
"It is now 8 o'clock." She replied, swirling her hand, to wrap the watch around her hand and arm.
She then placed the pocket watch in her breast pocket.
"If you don't want to fight on an empty stomach, I suggest you 'put the pedal to the metal'."
Quinn and Loop stood there, stunned for another moment.
They then bolted out of the room, each boy running past either side of Shizuka, them both barreling down towards the canteen.
As he ran, Quinn began to think.
'Just who DID kill Brandon?' he thought. 'The school literally JUST started, and the military made sure to split up schools so nobody knew each other!'
Quinn found it hard to think of a suspect.
All he knew about Brandon was from what he had seen of him in the combat classes.
If he was petty enough to pull that stunt yesterday, then it was highly probable that he had tons of enemies in the school already.
Quinn ran through the doors of the canteen.
Looking around, he saw Vorden and Tsukuru sitting at a table in the "Level 1" section.
Like yesterday, Tsukuru was eating that strange sandwich made up of a cooked egg, sausage and cheese, with pancakes as buns.
The table was completely empty aside from the two, with Peter nowhere in sight.
Quinn quickly grabbed his food, and sat next to Tsukuru.
Tsukuru glanced over at him.
"Looks like you came to the same conclusion I did." Tsukuru muttered between bites.
Quinn's eyes narrowed, and he nodded.
"Yeah." He replied. "It seems that people will keep bothering us anyways, so we might as well sit where we want."
Tsukuru and Vorden both nodded in agreement.
"Anyways, where's Peter?"
In response to Quinn's question, Tsukuru and Vorden exchanged concerned glances.
Eventually, Vorden spoke.
"You're looking in the wrong place." He said, before pointing at another section of the canteen.
Confused, Quinn snapped his head towards where Vorden was pointing.
His eyes widened, as he saw Peter sitting at the table where the Level 4's and 5's were eating breakfast.