Being called to the front office wasn’t on Natsuki’s bucket list for the year.

He was supposed to be in his lab not sitting through some boring lecture he was only half-understanding. He didn’t even bother trying to hear what the person was saying—he just zoned out.

He chanced a glance to his left and saw his friend, Ayame, sitting there, also forced to listen to the same lecture he was. The sight of her there reminded him why the two of them were in trouble in the first place.

The day had started off normally with Natsuki finishing up a weapon prototype he’d started about two weeks ago. His lab was silent as he worked, until someone suddenly burst into the room. He didn’t even need to look up from his work to know who it was.

Kamikaze Ayame. One of the most well-known students on campus and an engineering student.

It was already rare that there was a female engineering student in the JCC—most of them were male—but one being smart, popular, and fashionable was like a diamond surrounded by coal. Natsuki couldn’t even stress how most of the guys barely knew what a toothbrush was, let alone how to put together a decent outfit. Most probably bought white shirts and sweatpants.

These guys also had zero resistance to girls—they’d probably let a girl touch their new weapons if she asked. But when it came to Ayame, all she had to do was glance at something and they’d instantly bring it over for her to inspect. Those dumb idiots.

Well...

Not like Natsuki was any different.

He just hid it better.

Most of the guys—sometimes even girls—would bring Ayame cliché stuff like chocolates, flowers, and stuffed animals. But Natsuki wanted to give her something different, something that would stand out. So he did what any guy would do when trying to impress a girl:

He made a whole energy blaster as a gift.

The blaster was completed about two weeks ago. He expected Ayame to be messing around with it around campus but she decided to tweak his model slightly.

Everyone knew Ayame’s specialty was hidden weapons. Most people would assume the boring sword-in-an-umbrella trick, but her creations were much more than that. She could hide a whip in her belt and even poisons in her ring. She had pulled off many near-impossible feats that even Natsuki himself found impressive.

Apparently, Ayame wanted to hide the blaster in a pocket knife, making it portable and giving it the element of surprise. Natsuki almost didn’t believe it would work, but he decided to just let her be.

So she finally finished Blaster 2.0 and dragged Natsuki out of his lab to watch her test it. He almost refused, wanting to finish his new prototype, but seeing her look so proud and excited made him bite his tongue.

She dragged him all the way to the firing range, yammering on about her changes to the blaster. He almost thought his ears would fall off from how much she was talking.

Natsuki stayed back as he watched her crank up the blaster. She had this crazed look in her eyes as she released the energy it had been holding in. The blast sent everything in a five-foot radius flying back—mostly dead leaves.

Even Ayame wasn’t safe from the blast. Let’s just say she’d forgotten to wear shorts under her leather skirt.

So the next thing Natsuki knew, he was in the front office, listening to the person drone on and on about public indecency.

“Kamikaze Ayame!” the man said, making Ayame visibly jump in her seat. “For the act of public indecency, you will be given three days of detention!”

Three days...

That wasn’t so bad. Natsuki was expecting her to land a whole month of detention for that little stunt.

“Seba Natsuki!” the guy said, finally snapping Natsuki from his thoughts. He looked over at him with a disinterested expression, waiting for whatever punishment he was about to receive. “For assaulting ten students in broad daylight—eight days of detention!”

Oh yeah... Natsuki forgot about that little bit.

He may or may not have attacked everyone who looked at Ayame after that little incident.