The main courtyard of Kuoh Academy had been functioning like a different organism for two hours now.

  Banners stretched between buildings, whistles, shouting that didn’t need a reason.

  The Interclub Tournament was exactly the kind of event designed to keep people from thinking about things they shouldn’t think about.

  Kaelan played basketball with the mixed team.

  Not because he wanted to.

  Because they had signed him up without asking for his opinion — Hiroshi and Tatsu with the kind of energy that left no room for refusal — and because saying no would have required an explanation he didn’t have.

  The game was normal.

  Kaelan moved without drawing attention, passed when he could pass, intercepted when it was unavoidable.

  His teammates won.

  No one asked how he had done it.

  After that, dodgeball.

  Saji appeared with the expression of someone who already knew he was going to lose but couldn’t walk away.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Kaelan threw the ball to him on the second turn without warning.

  Saji dodged it on instinct, then looked down at his own hands as if they weren’t his.

  —Was that a trick? —he asked.

  —A pass —Kaelan replied.

  —A hostile pass.

  —All passes are a little hostile.

  Saji stared at him for a long second.

  Then he let out something that might have been a laugh.

  In the end, Kaelan and Koneko ended up on the same team, alone against everyone else.

  Koneko threw with a precision that didn’t match her size, and Kaelan covered the angles she left open — not because they had coordinated it, but because after weeks of classes together, the way they moved within a shared space had developed something resembling grammar.

  They won.

  Even though no one expected it.

  When it ended, Koneko picked up her ball from the ground without hurry.

  —You were comfortable —she said.

  Kaelan looked at her.

  —Is that a problem?

  —No.

  A brief pause.

  —You were comfortable until you stopped moving and started staring at Kiba.

  Kaelan didn’t answer.

  —What’s going on with him? —Koneko asked.

  —Nothing yet.

  Koneko processed that answer with the same calm she processed everything else.

  —That’s not the same as nothing.

  Kaelan looked toward the stands.

  From above, Rias and Sona were watching them.

  Not together.

  But clearly looking at the same thing.

  —No —Kaelan admitted.— It’s not the same.

  Koneko left without saying anything else.

  Kaelan remained standing on the empty court, the sun lowering its angle and the noise of the tournament pressing in from every direction.

  Thinking about what the canon had told him about Kiba Yuuto.

  And about the difference between knowing something is going to happen and knowing what to do when it does.

  He didn’t have an answer to the second part.

  Not yet.