The first half of UnOrdinary's Season One, which covers from the prologue up to chapter 76.
The Prologue (Ch. 0)
The prologue opens with the main character, John Doe, narrating how his father wrote a book two years ago. Said book was about a man who chose to use his power to help the cripples of society. The character in the book dies in the end, but his efforts managed to change the world for the better.
In the present, John is seen attending Wellston Private High School in a world where people are shown to have superpowers. In the school cafeteria, two of Wellston's students, Arlo and Remi, are seen having a playful duel using their power abilities over who gets the rare slice of Triple Chocolate Cake. John watches from afar crying in tears that he missed out on getting the cake slice for himself.
Season One - First Half (Ch. 1 - 76)
The story begins with John in one of his classes at Wellston High. He asks the teacher for a bathroom break, which his classmate, Mardin, warns John to not die along the way. In return, the teacher throws a piece of chalk at Mardin for speaking out. Along the way to the bathroom, John ends up running into Blyke and Isen in the hallway getting into a fight over a pen. John of course avoids the fight because as it turns out, John is just an ordinary person with no power to defend himself, which in this world is known as being a cripple.
At the bathroom door, John comes across Gavin bullying a weaker student named Terrence. John comes to Terrence's defense by fighting Gavin with normal fighting. As Terrence gets away, John looks to be successful fighting back until Gavin activates his Stone Skin ability. Gavin easily lands a hit that injures John's right arm while gloating that this is what happens when a weakling takes on someone stronger. John taunts Gavin that his ability is quite weak compared to the stronger students of the school, which enrages Gavin to charge at him without thinking. The charge allows for John to catch Gavin off-guard, and manages to throw him out the window.
John ends up needing to go to the school nursery to get his arm healed up, which leaves the school's doctor, Darren, annoyed that John has returned with yet another injury. John is forced to stay at the nursery until his arm is healed up, which his friend, Seraphina, comes to visit him. They play a phone game together until Doctor Darren is forced to leave to stop a fight going on outside the nursery, which John and Sera use as a chance to leave.
At the school's entrance door, John runs into Gavin again, who's seeking revenge for the earlier embarrassment. However, Gavin is easily disposed of by Sera, which shows that despite being a cripple, John managed to befriend a powerful student at Wellston. Meanwhile at the nursery, Darren remains angry over catching Blyke and Isen fighting in the hallway. An injured Gavin arrives needing his injuries healed, which angers Darren even more when he realizes that John escaped.
John and Sera go out for drinks. The two of them talk about John's encounter with Gavin, which leads to a debate about why high-tiers tend to beat up the weak instead of just talking things out. Sera remains confused about what John's going through, which is a given since she was born strong, and never had to deal with getting picked on. They see on the news that the mysterious organization, EMBER, has killed another vigilante recently named X-Static, which Sera doesn't find surprising that another person trying to play superhero died for not minding his own business. John replies that X-Static was just trying to make the world safer, which Sera asks back if X-Static succeeded. In the end, John's unable to answer.
The story flashes back to a year ago to when John is transferring into Wellston High. He studied hard to pass the difficult entrance exams, and planned to continue studying at the school not wanting to get into any trouble. During his first day of class, a fellow classmate named Elaine introduces herself to John, which the conversation appears to start off on a good note.
However, it turns sour once Elaine asks if John has an ability, which also catches the attention of the rest of his classmates. John reveals that he's actually a cripple, which angers Elaine to the point of rejecting him, and finding it disgusting that she wasted time speaking to a weakling. Later on, John gets cornered and bullied by two students, Crail and Lin, who aim to put the cripple in his place as students who are stronger than him. John calls out to Sera when he notices her walking by, but she ignores him since people without power are considered to be nothing.
Back in the present, John is seen as someone who lives alone at his home away from Wellston High despite the school having student dormitories. Sera calls him up to go out for a bit of fun, which the two of them head off to Kovoro Mall. After some clothes shopping, John and Sera come across an interesting sight mall booth.
The man running the booth has the ability to gauge the level of one's ability on the power scale of 1-to-10 in exchange for 10 dollars. In addition, those who score higher than a 5 on the power scale will get a prize. John convinces Sera to go for it despite the latter believing it's a scam. They get in line, but before their turn, the girl in front of them named Levani gets angry at the vendor owner for being told that her power level is only around 4, which she threatens to blow him up for being a fraud. John interrupts asking for Levani to move on for others that are waiting, but Levani instead turns her attention to John feeling that he insulted her, and prepares to use her Grenadier ability on him. John notices a mall security guard named Payton walking nearby, and decides to taunt Levani to attack him. As she's about to use her ability on him, John calls out for help, which attracts Payton towards them.
John explains to Payton about Levani acting up, which she defends herself claiming that it's the fault of the vendor owner for scamming her. Payton ends up siding with Levani due to the man at the vendor being someone who caused trouble previously, and threatens to close his vendor if he continues to cause trouble. The guard orders the owner to return her money, which he does.
After Levani leaves, John remains angry that like usual, a person got away with acting like a jerk just because of her power. John and Sera apologize to the vendor owner, which the man doesn't mind, and goes forward with touching Sera's hand in order to read her power level. He's amazed to find that her power level goes as high as 8, and rewards her with a cute teddy bear since it's higher than 5, which Sera packs away with the other items she bought. The man then motions to touch John, but John quickly avoids him not wanting his power level read since he's just a cripple. As John and Sera turn around to leave the mall, the man at the vendor gives off a devious looking smile.
John and Sera are next seen walking away from the mall at nighttime while talking about John's frustration over what happened at the vendor. Along the walk, John notices that someone is following them, and grabs Sera to run from the area. After turning the corner of a building, John grabs one of the mall shirts he bought, and throws it around the corner. To their surprise, the shirt catches on someone that was following them using an Invisibility power. Sera activates her ability, which is revealed to be Time Manipulation; the ability to control time. While time is frozen, Sera moves to kick the guy that's currently invisible. This results in the invisible follower being blasted away from their location. Afterwards, John and Sera decide to get away before possibly being followed again. Arriving at John's home, Sera asks how John knew they were being followed, which John claims that it was just a feeling.
John manages to convince her to stay for the night instead of going home in the dark. Taking a seat on the couch, Sera notices the UnOrdinary book on the living room table, which she questions how John got hold of a copy when it was banned two years ago. John answers that his dad left him a couple copies, which causes Sera to realize that John's father is the infamous writer, W. H. Doe.
Sera questions how a book sparked such controversy, such as causing people such as X-Static to become superheroes, which John answers that it's because these people realized the message the book was trying to deliver. The message being that the world is flawed, because the people use their powers selfishly instead of bringing about balance and peace. John suggests for Sera to read it, which she agrees to borrow the book.
During the night, a mysterious group is seen keeping track of "Target 93's" location on a display screen. The target being Sera, which reveals that a tracker of some sort had been placed in the teddy bear reward she received at the mall. One of the group mentions how the target hasn't moved from a certain location (John's home) for almost 7 hours, which the leader, implied heavily to be the man that ran the ability vendor, orders to mark the house.
Meanwhile at the house, John ends up having a nightmare of when he was bullied in the past, but is offered help from a girl with green hair. Upon waking up shaken from the dream, John decides to go for a walk to clear his head since the memory of the green-haired girl is clearly a painful one. The next morning, John and Sera have breakfast, which Sera notices that something is on John's mind due to his uncharacteristic silence. John tries to make it clear that he's fine, but Sera decides to leave since it's clear that John needs to be alone for the time being.
Sera returns to Wellston where it's revealed that Elaine is her roommate at the girls dorm. Elaine remains worried about Sera being missing, and is able to guess that she was wasting her time hanging out with a cripple. However, Sera activates her ability, and threatens Elaine to stay out of her business, which silences Elaine from pushing any further. Sera goes to her room, and unpacks the stuff she received; including the tracked teddy bear and the UnOrdinary book.
Shortly after, Arlo, the school's King, arrives at Sera's room after getting word from Elaine that she returned. Arlo explains that their school's been challenged to a Turf War six hours from now, but are down one player due to the school's Queen, Remi, needing to attend a family emergency for a week, and hopes that Sera will sub in as their team's Queen despite Sera's obvious disinterest. Arlo assures her that she won't have to actually take part, and that it will just be him and the Jack that can settle things while she just watches. Agreeing to go along, Sera heads off with Arlo to take part in the Turf War.
Arriving at the location of the Turf War. Wellston's team consists of Arlo, Sera, Blyke, and Elaine. The team they're facing off against is a group of four Agwin High School students led by Broven. Sera quickly realizes she's been lied to as it was Arlo who challenged Agwin High and not the other way around. Arlo reveals why he made the challenge, which is to see Agwin's new undefeated Queen in action. Broven also notices a recent change to Wellston's team, but quickly realizes the trouble he's in when he remembers that Sera was strong enough to defeat Agwin High's whole team in the past Turf War. Shortly after, the Turf War between the two schools begin. The main rule being that it will be a string of 1-on-1 battles until just one remains.
With Elaine as the referee, the first match begins as a fight between the school's Jacks, Blyke vs. Gou. Blyke attempts to hit Gou with laser beams using his Energy Beam ability while Gou tries to get in close to land a powerful punch using his Super Strength ability. One of Blyke's lasers manages to injure Gou's leg, which keeps Gou stuck to one spot with the only method left to defend himself is to throw rocks at Blyke. However, Blyke easily shoots the rocks with his lasers, and gets in close to perform one powerful finishing blow laser beam. Knowing the fight is over, Broven admits defeat for the first match.
Agwin's Queen, Rein, steps forward to take on Blyke in the second match. Blyke attempts to hit her with his laser beams, but is surprised to see Rein blocking them with an extra set of body limbs. Her ability, Arachnid, allows for Rein to summon several extra spider-like limbs to help her fight against her opponent. Rein is also able to extend the limbs out a great distance, which catches Blyke by surprise as he's unable to evade being hit. After getting in multiple hits, Rein goes in for the finishing blow, but before she could knock out Blyke, Sera calls the match since it was obvious that Blyke had no chance of winning. Seeing the bloody mess that Blyke was left in, Sera asks for Elaine to take care of him, which Elaine uses her Healing ability to heal up Blyke's wounds. Sera is left annoyed at the way Arlo's been handling their Turf War team since it was clear that he left Blyke in for too long, and decides to step forward to be Rein's next opponent.
However, Arlo keeps her from going since he already told her that they can win without Sera. Arlo steps forward to take part in the third match against Rein. As the battle starts, Rein tries to hit Arlo with her Arachnid limbs, but Arlo easily blocks it with his Barrier ability, which is summoning up a defensive barrier bubble around himself. Rein tries an aerial assault with her spider limbs, but is blocked once more by Arlo's Barrier, and she notices that her own body has now taken damage as a result of a secondary-effect of Arlo's Barrier in that damage is returned back to the attacker.
Arlo begins walking towards her, which Rein is unable to hold him back throwing more unsuccessful attacks with her limbs. It's then revealed that Arlo isn't just able to summon up a Barrier bubble around himself, but can also summon a Barrier bubble around his opponent in order to trap them, which he summons one up around Rein to trap her. Unable to break out of the bubble, Arlo continues to move toward her until he's right up on her stating his disappointment since she's supposedly undefeated, and begins to choke her. Broven tries to call the fight since it's obviously over at this point, but Arlo decides to take it further to try to knock her out completely.
An angered Gou attempts to go for the rescue, but ends up having his body destroyed when he tries to break through Arlo's Barrier bubble. It's at this point that Sera steps in claiming that she's had enough of Arlo's antics. Not buying Sera's threat, Arlo continues to choke Rein, who still hasn't passed out. However, Sera activates her ability, and quickly charges forward.
She strikes Arlo's Barrier, which ruins her right arm from the recoil, but then activates Time Manipulation to rewind time around her arm until it's back to the perfect state it was in before the strike. On the other hand, Arlo is forced to finally let Rein go since his Barrier being broken ends up causing damage to the user, which has left Arlo in a rough state. Arlo is unable to believe that Sera would actually strike a teammate, which comes as a surprise to Broven as well. Sera then steps forward, and gives Broven the choice to either continue the Turf War with her as their next oppoent, or to just completely surrender. In the end, Broven agrees to a surrender knowing that Sera is way out of their league.
On the way back from the Turf War, Elaine remains at Arlo's side healing the damage he took from being hit by Sera. Arlo remains confused about why Sera is acting the way she is now, which Elaine answers that she's become a completely different person ever since she started hanging out with John. That she went from being someone who was the best, perfect and idolized to just not caring about anything anymore.
Arlo questions who John is, which she answers is a loser cripple from her class that's been hanging out with Sera a lot. In return, Arlo asks for Elaine to keep an eye on Sera for anything suspicious. He also goes on to state that he will be the one that deals with John.
Elsewhere, John gives off a "someone's talking about me" sneeze. Walking down the street, John goes by a television giving off another news report of another vigilante, ArkRAYgeous, that's been killed by EMBER. In addition, citizens are interviewed about their opinions on the vigilantes, which none appear to be all that high on.
At Wellston, Isen meets up with Blyke to make fun of the injuries he received from the Turf War. Blyke reveals to him that Sera took part in the matches, which surprises Isen. He also agrees to let Isen in on a secret that Sera choose to attack Arlo during his match. Meanwhile, Arlo is seen walking with another student named Holden in the hallway. John walking by accidentally bumps into Arlo while looking at a paper to try to study for an upcoming test, which angers Holden that John would just casually bump the King despite how weak he is. However, Arlo decides to let it go for the time being. Arlo asks Holden how he would react if a weak cripple just casually bumps into a King, which Holden admits that the cripple would be a scared weakling trying not to do it again. However, Arlo notes that John displayed no fear whatsoever when he bumped him, and admits that John might be an interesting guy after all.
Sera is seen hanging out on the school roof where she remembers how she was once someone who had to be perfect. Whether it being the smartest or strongest, she had to live up to the expectations of the people around her as the perfect role model that was always at the peak. That all began to change however when she met John. The story flashes back to the moment when Sera first came across John being by Crail and Lin. The two bullies explain that the reason they're doing this is to make it clear that within Wellston's hierarchy, John is the cripple that has to do everything the stronger students tell him to do. John calls out to Sera for help, but receives no answer. Crail then uses his Strong Punch ability to try to hit John, which the latter avoids. Before Lin could use his Needles ability, John attempts to take him hostage to stop the fight, but Crail charges anyway. John pushes Lin into Crail, and uses the opportunity to run away. He passes by Sera and disappointingly thanks her for nothing, which confuses her.
Another flashback begins as Sera continues to push forward being the perfect Wellston student. Nearby, John overhears that the slice of Triple Chocolate Cake is up for grabs again at the cafeteria, and actually manages to grab it this time around. However, Sera arrives ordering him to hand it over. John refuses and instead of giving it to her, he drops it on the floor, which shocks everyone watching that the school's perfect student got outsmarted by a cripple.
An angered Sera activates her ability, and brutally smashes John into the wall. She then proceeds to yell at him that he's nothing while she worked her butt off to be perfect. However, she breaks down into tears wondering why she continues to follow everyone's expectations instead of being able to do what she wants.
Returning to the present, Sera gets a call from John about having lunch together. On the way out, Sera overhears the students whispering about how she's no longer going to class, and how she attacked her teammate during a Turf War. However, it's clear at this point that Sera doesn't care about living up to the expectations of her fellow classmates anymore. At home, John gets a call from his father checking up on him, and warns his son of the EMBER attacks that have been going on recently.
Meanwhile at Wellston, Sera remains in her room reading the UnOrdinary book she got from John. After reading it, she decides to go for a walk thinking about how the book sparked suck controversy. She concludes that it's a given as to why the upper Authorities banned the book since it introduces themes that challenge the current society they live in, which is that people selfishly use the people for themselves rather than for others. Thus, has resulted in high-tiers trying to become superheroes to try to change said society for the better, which frightened the Authorities. At that same time back at Sera's dorm room, Elaine comes across the UnOrdinary book she left on the bed.
Elaine goes to her computer to look up information on the UnOrdinary book, and is shocked to learn that it's a banned item that challenges the current hierarchy structure of society, which has resulted in people becoming vigilante superheroes to try to change the system, but many ended up dying trying to do so. Worried that Sera might end up becoming a vigilante, Elaine calls up Arlo to inform him about the UnOrdinary book she found in Sera's possession, which catches Arlo's attention.
Later on, Sera and John are seen hanging out on the school roof together. Sera reveals that Elaine found out about the UnOrdinary book, but assures John that she'll make sure that the book isn't traced back to him. John remains worried about Sera, and while she admits that getting in trouble is obvious, she figures that nothing will happen since she's the school's Ace. John asks what Sera thought of the book, which she answers that the ideas in it are absurd, but asks what John thinks of it. John explains that he admires the hero main character since he's someone who found value in everyone no matter how weak they were, and that the weak should be protected rather than being repressed like they are in the society of the real world.
John claims that he would gladly join the people trying to make the world a better place if he was qualified to do so. In return, Elaine apologizes once more for not keeping the UnOrdinary book a secret. However, John doesn't mind since he probably needed a break from it.
Elsewhere at school, Remi is seen having returned to Wellston, and joins up with Blyke at the library to catch up on the studying she's missed. Blyke informs Remi of certain secrets that happened, such as Sera punching Arlo during a Turf War, which Remi already knows since the whole school's been talking about it. Blyke asks why Remi doesn't step in given that Remi's the Queen, which she answers that the only reason she's the Queen is because Sera didn't want it, and that it's pointless to try to force Sera and Arlo to do anything since they're in a different class than them in terms of power. Blyke then asks why Sera had to leave school, which she answers sadly that it's because she was attending the funeral for her murdered brother. Meanwhile in class before receiving his report card, John is remembering back to the painful memory of the green-haired girl that helped him in the past.
In the hallway, Arlo remains wondering if the reason Sera's changed is because she agrees with the themes of the UnOrdinary book, which John ends up bumping him again while looking over his report card grades. Arlo lets John off the hook again and walks away, but it's clear that Arlo has something in store for him.
Later on, Arlo meets up with Isen. Given Isen's intellect and ability to look for information, Arlo asks for him to do a background check on a boy named John. Arlo explains that John comes off suspicious given that despite how he's a cripple, John has shown to be completely ignorant of the current social hierarchy, and how it makes no sense whatsoever that John doesn't care whether someone's a low-tier or a high-tier. Isen doesn't appear convinced at first given how John is just a cripple, but he goes along with it once it's clear that Arlo is intimindating him to do it. Arlo also leaves off with a threat warning Isen to keep his mouth shut knowing that he spread the truth about Sera hitting him during the Turf War.
In the hallway, John notices a dead pool sheet placed on the wall over which vigilante will die next, which he finds disgusting that people are playing a game about whether someone dies or not. He then spots another student, Krolik, going about bullying a weaker student, which disgusts him even more. John steps in to beat up Krolik, and points out how Krolik sucks how people are dying out in the world to make their lives better, yet he wastes his time just bullying another student for being weaker. Krolik doesn't care, and just tries to hit John with his Lazor ability knowing he's just a cripple, which John avoids and continues to beat Krolik up. However, John stops once he remembers back to another student he beat up way in the past seeing Krolik in a similar state. John runs off much to the beat up Krolik's confusion, who just yells back at John to not mess with him. Isen is seen watching from afar. Meanwhile, Remi is seen in another hallway having found the dead pool sheet, and ends up crying. She destroys the sheet with her Lightning ability leaving only the "X-Static" piece, which hints that X-Static was the brother she held a funeral for.
Afterwards, Remi arrives at Sera's dorm to apologize for the trouble she caused knowing that Sera had to take her place for a bit as the Queen, but Sera doesn't mind given that it's Remi that's been doing the job that Sera's supposed to be doing. Thanks to her Lightning ability making it so that she's able to sense electronics, Remi also notices that the teddy bear in Sera's room has a tracker chip in it. The two of them inspect the teddy bear, which Remi destroys the tracker. Sera thinks back to the ability gauge vendor at the mall, and wonders what the owner's purpose was to feel the need to track her. Upon remembering that the teddy bear is rewarded to people who score a 5+ power level, Sera figures that the man must be targeting high-tiers. Remi gives Sera a warning that just because the two of them are high-tiers, they still aren't invincible; implying that they can still die.
By himself, Isen thinks over the stuff he's gathered about John so far. He finds it frustrating that everything he's seen so far confirms that John is nothing more than a cripple. However, he finally notices that something seems off when he recalls John's little skirmish with Krolik just now.
Isen remember how John seemed fully confident in what he was doing against Krolik rather than coming off like a weak cripple, and knowing that he needs to bring something back to Arlo, Isen decides to meet up with John. Isen explains that his planning to write an article in the school newspaper about the life of a low-tier, and desires to have John's input. John agrees, and asks to wait later until his class is done. However, Isen urges that this needs to be done now, and pulls John along.
Sitting down in a room with just the two of them, Isen begins his interview with John. Isen first questions where John transferred from, which John answers that while he's from New Bostin, he was homeschooled, and chose to enter Wellston to finally experience what school is like. Isen next asks about what John thinks of his Wellston experience, which John begins to describe the struggles low-tiers such as him have had to deal with compared to those who have stronger powers. Isen however is shown to not actually be listening, and is instead drawing a picture instead of taking notes. Isen finally gets to what he's after, and begins to aggressively ask questions.
Isen questions how John's been surviving, which John answers that he's been avoiding getting into confrontations. However, Isen could tell that's a lie. Isen next questions why John chose Wellston to study at, which John answers it's because they got the best academic program. However, John begins to catch on at this point that Isen is becoming more aggressive towards him for some reason. Isen next questions why John chose to go to a school consisting of powerful students despite being a cripple, which John answers that he figured the students put academics over fighting. Isen next questions what the opinion of John's father is towards his son's decision, which irritates John not knowing why his dad was brought up.
Isen explains how he found it odd that John's family didn't do a trial run of sending John to a different school closer to New Bostin, and guesses that such a case did happen but something must have gone wrong at that school, which has resulted in John now having to go to Wellston. The explanation pisses off John to the point of him now holding Isen's shirt. An angered John asks why Isen's trying to probe into his past instead of doing the interview about low-tiers, which causes Isen to activate his power. A smug Isen points out that John is lucky to have Sera as a friend, which he breaks John's wrist to force him to let go of Isen's shirt. Isen heads out of the room thanking John for the info, but is also left thinking about how New Bostin appears to be a bad memory for John.
In the library, Isen uses his laptop to look for information on students who went to New Bostin High. Sure enough, he finds a younger John in one of the pictures standing amongst his New Bostin classmates. Isen shows the image to Blyke, who was studying next to him. Blyke remains confused as to why Isen is spying into John's past, which Isen realizes his mistake, and keeps quiet knowing that Arlo would kill him if he told anyone about what they're doing.
Shortly after, Isen meets up with Arlo to reveal what he discovered about John. Isen explains how John comes off like that of a cripple, but the actions he's done towards those stronger than him is contradictory, even to the point of John getting super defensive when Isen tried to ask about his past. Isen also shows the New Bostin High photo of John, which surprises Arlo seeing John look so differently. In the end, Isen concludes that given how John shows no fear towards those stronger than him, even towards Arlo, it can only mean that John is possibly hiding the fact that he's actually got an ability.
Satisfied, Arlo rips up the photo congratulating Isen for a job well done, and states that he will take over from here. For starters, Arlo calls up Elaine. He orders her to tell the Headmaster about the UnOrdinary book she found in Sera's possession.
Some time after, Elaine is seen sitting outside the headmaster's office having informed him about the UnOrdinary book. Angered knowing that Elaine ratted her out, she walks by having been called to the office. Sera is greeted by Headmaster Vaughn, which he introduces his student to Nadia, a worker of the government Authorities that's come to question Sera about her possession of an illegal book. Activating her ability, Nadia explains that her power allows her to detect if Sera is lying, which she begins the questions.
Nadia starts with the basic questions, such as Sera answering that she indeed had possession of a UnOrdinary book, and that she's had it for twelve days. Nadia then asks how Sera came across the book. To hide the fact that she got it from John, Sera lies that her bags suddenly had the book in it after her and her friend were stalked by an invisible attacker coming home from the mall. Nadia's ability, which is shown to be able to see people's memories, admits that this appears to be the truth so far seeing the book in one of Sera's mall bags. She questions Sera if anyone was with Sera knowing that there was a boy in the memory, but Vaughn stops Nadia from probing further, and advises her to stick to the topic at hand. Nadia finishes with questions about the location of the book, if anyone else has read it, and what Sera's thoughts are on it. In return, Sera answers that she destroyed it, that only she's read it, and that the idea of the book is absurd. Seeing the memory of when Sera called the book absurd, Nadia is satisfied with the answers, and allows Sera to leave.
Afterwards, John meets Sera at the school entrance, and is surprised to see that Sera is packed to leave. Sera informs him that because Elaine has ratted her out, she's been suspended for a month by the headmaster and the Authorities, which has resulted in her having to go home. However, she reassures John that she tricked the lie detector to think that the book came from nowhere, meaning that John is safe. John is left displeased claiming that Sera should have just told them the truth about how she got the book rather than just putting herself in danger, but Sera reminds him that it's in the past now, and that things will go back to normal anyway once she's returned after a month. Sera then gets in a car to return home while John heads back towards the school that's been giving him a rough time. Meanwhile, an excited Arlo is seen watching John from one of the school's windows knowing that his plan to break John has begun.
As John walks towards the entrance, he's met by Gavin, who's still seeking revenge. With his Stone Skin ability already active, Gavin chases John to a dead end, and attempts to kick John. However, john easily avoids the kick, which causes Gavin to fall over. John then throws his school supplies at Gavin to distract him long enough to attempt to escape, but Gavin is easily able to catch up to John and throws him to the ground. With John pinned, Gavin proceeds to beat up John out of revenge for the previous embarrassments. Shortly after, John is back in the infirmary. His main injuries from Gavin being a broken arm and a black eye. Doctor Darren remains unsurprised that John ended up injured just 4 hours after Sera's departure. Much to John's annoyance, Darren admits that he just won a 50 dollar bet with Wellston's Head of Security, Keene, over how long it would take for John to get injured with Sera gone.
Some time passes with John resting in the infirmary, which he gets a message from Sera to meet her at the school gates. John checks his injuries, and is left amazed that they're already healed, which Darren jokes that it's because a certain someone getting injured all the time has made it easy to practice. John leaves the infirmary, but he ends up getting noticed by 3 mid-tier students, Tanner, Illena, and Wenqi, who are ready to jump him now that Sera is no longer around to provide John protection. The lead mid-tier, Tanner, claims that John will make some good target practice for him and his friends, but John isn't scared given the scary looking aura being given off nearby. John taunts Tanner and his friends as weaklings not being able to land one hit on him, which angers Tanner. Before Tanner could retaliate, the one giving off the scary aura turns out to be Darren with his Nightmare ability active, who threatens to kill everyone if they make him late for the date he's got later in the day.
As Darren leaves, Tanner leaves off congratulating John for stalling his beatdown. He also calls out John as nothing more than a leach that feeds off others. Tanner and his friends leave while John is left thinking about the green-haired girl that helped him in the past.
Elsewhere, Sera has returned home and is greeted by her mother, Narisa. Instead of a warm welcome however, Narisa uses her power to quickly appear in front of her daughter, and gives Sera a slap to the face as punishment for her continued recklessness. She also warns Sera that continuing to act like this will eventually result in her becoming a failure like her sister, which Narisa leaves the house claiming that she and her father will provide a true punishment for Sera later. Sera is left alone in her house unable to say anything back. She heads to her room and gets a phone call from John checking up on her. Sera asks jokingly if he misses her already, which John happily replies that he's just had a long day. John and Sera spend their time at their homes talking to one another while studying up on their school work. John eventually asks what Sera's home life is like, which she answers that it's the same as usual.
Sera explains that her parents away on business trip; leaving only the house servants around, which she just plays games by herself all day. Sera mentions how she found a new game recently called Angry Pigs, and asks John to play it with her. She explains the rules to John, which leads to the two of them spending the night playing the game. John is left angry that he can't win a game and is ready to go again, but Sera points out that it's now 2am, and that he's got class tomorrow, which results in them calling it a night.
The next day at Wellston, John continues to keep in touch with Sera through phone messages. Using his phone distracts John from realizing that he's about to bump into Arlo again, which Arlo reminds him to watch where he's going. Arlo notices that John's still keeping in touch with Sera, which irritates him knowing that still being in contact with his friend is keeping John from falling apart. As he walks away, Arlo decides that the next thing of John's that needs to go is his phone.
Later on, John gets beat up by two elite-tier students, Meili and Ventus. They're both disappointed that John didn't put up much of a fight, and move on. John returns to the school infirmary with two broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder much to Darren's annoyance that John keeps coming back hurt. John tries to explain that he didn't provoke them, but Darren ignores it, and points out that John should know how to avoid these fights by now.
As Darren returns to his desk, John checks his phone to call Sera only to realize that Meili and Ventus broke his phone. At his desk, Darren is seen on his phone calling up Leilah, the girl he went on a date with, to set up another date. Darren then becomes irritated when he hears a nearby crashing sound, which turned out to be John throwing his broken phone at the ground in anger over the two students who destroyed it. The doctor checks up on John, but angry over the destruction of his phone, John refuses to remain in the infirmary any further and heads for the door. Darren activates his Nightmare ability ordering John to stay put since walking around injured will just make John a bigger target.
However, John points out that it's not John he should be worried about. Despite John's threat, Darren reminds him that his policy exists to keep student injuries to a minimum, and John being in his current state of mind will just result in more trouble. Darren asks once more for John to stay in the infirmary to at least respect the doctor's words, which John finally sits back on the bed despite the obvious tension between the two. The sight of John being a mess leaves Darren confused as to why the boy has been continuing to hurt himself.
Once John's allowed to leave the infirmary, he ends up getting bullied by several students in the hallway like usual, which causes him to drop his school supplies. Elaine and Blyke walk by, which she notices John given that he's Sera's friend. Noticing that John's been roughed up, Elaine offers to help him pick up some of his papers. However, her words causes John to have a bit of a mental breakdown as it causes him to see Remi as the green-haired girl that offered him help in the past. In anger, he slaps her hand that's holding his paper away while calling her a bitch, and orders her to get away from him.
Shortly after, John's state of mind returns, and he quickly realizes his mistake that he was seeing Remi as someone else. Before John could apologize for his error, an enraged Blyke is seen with his power activated. Blyke shoots an Energy Beam at John under the belief that he hurt his friend just now, which John barely avoids. Now standing before John, Blyke threatens to attack him more for hurting Remi, which John tries to explain that he mistook her for someone else. The answer doesn't convince Blyke, but Remi grabs hold of Blyke asking him to let it go, which the two of them walk away. In the end, John is left alone hearing his surrounding classmates gossip about how he was stupid enough to piss off the Jack and Queen of the school. John thinks about what he said about being someone who admired the hero of the UnOrdinary book, and how the hero was someone who could see that everyone had something valuable to offer. However, John now finds such a thought to be bullshit having decided that none of his fellow classmates at Wellston are worth anything.
John returns home to get back in contact with Sera, which he informs her that a recent school fight resulted in his cell phone breaking. Sera notices that John is uncharacteristically in a bad mood, and reassures him that phones can be replaced, which John agrees with. She then asks if John's gotten farther in the Angry Pigs game, which he admits he has despite his refusal to use any in-game resources. Sera laughs at how refreshing John's hopeless attitude is, which brightens up John's mood a bit more.
Some time after at the Seraphina household, Narisa has returned home from her business meeting. She asks the house butler, Fyora, how Sera's been behaving, which Fyora answers that instead of how Sera use to be, she now just remains in her room playing video-games and talking with boys. Still within bedroom, Sera's laptop suddenly begins to experience internet buffering, which she decides to check the router not knowing that her mother turned off the wifi to get Sera's attention.
Sera runs into her mother outside her bedroom, which Narisa orders her daughter to hand over her cell phone for doing nothing but playing video-games and socializing the past week instead of doing what's important. Narisa also calls out Sera for starting to turn into her disgraceful sister, which Sera replies that Leliah did nothing wrong (thus confirming that the woman Doctor Darren is dating is Sera's sister).
In the end, Narisa orders Sera once more to hand over the cell phone, which she finally does. Narisa also informs Sera that she turned off the wifi to keep Sera from being distracted, and hopes that Sera will use the remaining three weeks of her school suspension to correct herself. This leaves Sera distraught that she's been completely cut off from John.
Meanwhile, John has returned to his home after another rough day of school. Checking his laptop, he's surprised to see that Sera's not online for once. He then plays Angry Pigs again, but finally has enough when he can't proceed to advance in the game any further with his strategy to not use in-game resources. Unable to decide what to do next, John is left sitting looking at his laptop wondering what happened to Sera.
The next day at Wellston, John is seen carrying his tray of lunch food in the hallway. He's attacked from behind by a student named Hower, who calls John a loser, and activates his Heat Palm ability ready to destroy John's lunch. However, John easily counters with a left elbow to Hower's face, which leaves Hower with a bloody face, and falls to the floor confused as to what just happened. An angered John points out to Hower that he's not in the mood to deal with anyone's bullshit today as he walks up the stairs to eat on the school roof.
Upon reaching the roof, John is surprised to find Arlo of all people hanging out on his own. Moments beforehand, Arlo is alone on the roof looking down on the students below. He thinks over how order is natural. How it's normal for the weak to cower in fear of the strong, that those of similar status get along, and that the strongest fight to rise to the top. He thinks over that having a hierarchy is natural because everyone has a rightful place in society, and that people will naturally gravitate to where they belong. However, he notes that John's been the exception after meeting him a few times since he's displayed no fear towards those that are stronger than him. Thus, leaving Arlo to question what John's place is in the school hierarchy.
Back to the present the moment John arrives on the school roof, John questions Arlo why he's also here. Seeing John display no fear once more, Arlo confirms that John is indeed someone who's different. He thinks back to John's New Bostin photo, and questions if the current John really is his true form.
At this point, Arlo figures it's finally the right time to get directly involved with John. Arlo questions back why John chose to come up to the roof when everyone knows it's reserved for the school's royal students. He asks for John to leave, but John ignores him, and sits down to eat his lunch. Arlo asks if John even heard him, but John counters that he's always sat here to eat. Overall, Arlo admits to himself that John is someone who throws him off.
Arlo questions if John actually is afraid of anything, which John asks back what he's supposed to be afraid of. Arlo points out that John should be afraid given that he's got the power to crush him in an instant, but John counters that Arlo isn't going to do that anyway. Arlo questions why John thinks that, which John answers that only shitty low-tiers would go so far as to beat up a cripple while the powerful King would gain nothing from it. Arlo quickly answers that what a King would get out of it is satisfaction, but John replies back that there's no satisfaction in beating up a bunch of idiots weaker than you.
John's answer catches Arlo's attention wondering how John as a cripple would know of such a result unless he somehow personally experienced it. Arlo laughs at the idea that John comes off as someone who understands him, and decides to question something else. He points out to John how there's this one person he knows that has no credentials and is absolutely useless, yet he still goes about talking back to him. In addition, this one person has been walking and sitting exactly where Arlo goes, which has angered the King.
With all that in mind, Arlo questions John what he would do with such a person if he had the King's role. John simply answers that the King should be grateful, which confuses Arlo. John explains that Arlo should feel like he's done his job right if all but one person has been out of line, which Arlo is still unable to understand.
John then leaves off saying that a King is nothing if his subjects refuse to follow him, which leaves Arlo silent. John gets up to leave now that he's done with his lunch, but Arlo remains behind wondering why John completely missed the point he was trying to get across. He thinks over how none of his threats affected John, which causes Arlo to think about Sera, and how only those who've stood at the top would have such confidence towards others who are strong. This leaves Arlo questioning what John's place was at his former school.
Meanwhile at Sera's house, Sera remains in her room resting on her bed. Fyora comes in announcing that the break is over, and asks for Sera to return to her work station. The butler also provides Sera with books and a USB drive for Sera's current assignments, which Fyora explains that her parents want her to read them and write a daily report.
Sera complains that she already did this last night, which Fyora reminds her that orders are orders. Some time passes as Sera is about done writing the report, but she finds her current situation annoying as she hasn't had to do extra work like this since about a year ago. Thinking about John, Sera remembers how she put all her energy into trivial things without ever taking the time to understand herself.
The story flashes back to moments after Sera had attacked John in the cafeteria for ruining the slice of Triple Chocolate Cake. The two of them are now back in class where the teacher is heard announcing to the students that they're all going to do a new term project. Sera thinks over the cafeteria incident confused as to why she did that given how out-of-character it was for her, and looks over at John's empty desk wondering why it was him specifically that caused her to act out.
The teacher continues that they all will be taking part in a 3-part assignment with a partner to analyze a set of books. John then returns from the infirmary to take his seat while glaring at Sera for the cafeteria incident. The teacher then wraps up explaining the assignment. She mentions that each of the 3 books they read will come with a pair presentation, and that their final grade will be based on the average of all 3 of their presentations. The teacher then reads of the paired teams, which comes as a shock to everyone when they hear that John and Sera have been forced to work as a pair.
Shortly after, Sera and John are now sitting together after the teacher asked each pair to discuss their projects. Sera remains annoyed that John's keeping his elbow on her desk and begins to threaten him. In return, John replies that she should go for it if she's truly not interested in receiving help with a project that requires a partner.
Sera counters back that to not have John ruin her perfect grade, she will do all the work herself, and that all John will need to do is read the note-cards she provides him. John refuses since reading note-cards isn't much of a learning method, but Sera gets up to leave proclaiming that things have already been decided, even threatening with her ability active to show that she's not taking no for an answer.
Some time passes as Sera is seen working on the pair assignment for the first presentation in the library while John attempts to do so at home, but ended up falling asleep. Eventually, Sera meets John in class to provide him the note-cards, but John chooses to tear them apart much to Sera's anger. John reminds her that he's here to learn and not to freeload off her, but also reassures her that he also did the assignment on his own. He states that they just need to now figure out what each of them will say for the presentation despite Sera still being angry over the situation.
During class, John and Sera begin their first presentation, which is on Speareshake's Hamlot. Sera starts by explaining that the book's three main themes of betrayal, revenge, and insanity, and feels that this might work out since John was at least good enough to get into Wellston despite being a cripple. John's up next to explain the book's plot, which he starts off well explaining the betrayal storyline. However, he ends up going completely off-course, which leaves Sera frustrated wondering if John even read the second half of the book. After their presentation, Sera gets her grade back from the teacher unable to believe the B- score she was given on her paper. John is happy over the fact that a B- is the highest grade he's ever gotten, but Sera gets up out of her seat, and heads off to the school library.
After class, John's seen walking down the hallway, and overhears nearby students gossiping how disappointed they are that Sera, their school's perfect studnet, only got a B- on an assignment. They continue to badmouth her as a failure of a Queen that can't even control her cripple partner, which gets John to realize that he's seen this kind of judging before. That everyone expects greatness from her given that she's got the school's Queen title.
John concludes that this kind of pressure will obviously push anyone over the edge, and then heads off to the library. In the library, Sera is seen reading the second book for the assignment hoping that getting 100s on the next two books will still get her an A on the overall assignment. Shortly after, John arrives asking to work together this time around so that they can do better next time. However, Sera activates her ability, and pins John to the wall saying that's not for him to decide.
She threatens to send John to the infirmary every day from here on out if he refuses to use her notes, which John finds unbelievable that she would go this far just for a perfect grade. John asks if Sera really enjoys all the extra work just to impress her surrounding peers, which Sera refuses to answer. John then threatens to just bullshit his half of the presentation so they'd both fail in the end, which Sera replies that she will make his life a nightmare. John reminds her that he's just a cripple, and asks how she could make his already miserable life any worse, which Sera is unable to say anything back other than asking what is wrong with him.
Sera points out that she gave him the best case scenario to both come away with an A grade, and that they can just go their separate ways afterwards. She asks John why he refuses to go along with it, which he answers that he just doesn't want to, which catches Sera's attention. John explains that he doesn't care what people think of him, or if he has an ability or not. That the moment he arrived at Wellston, he decided that he's going to live the way he wants.
The following night, Sera is seen wide awake in her dorm room unable to sleep. She thinks over the words that John just told her about how Sera is just forcing herself to do extra work to try to impress everyone around her, and that John has decided to do the things he wants without caring what others think of him. In the end, Sera concludes that John is delusional.
The next day at Wellston library, Sera returns to her work on the second presentation, which turns out to be for Speareshake's Mcbetch. To her annoyance, she finds John already sitting at her table ready to his part of the project. Despite her clearly telling him not to work on it, he ignores her once more, which intensifies their thoughts towards one another with Sera finding him annoying and John finding her bossy.
Some time passes as John finishes his notes on Mcbetch's first Act. Refusing to believe John took it seriously, she orders him to hand over his notes out of fairness for her letting him in on the assignment. John refuses, but Sera takes it against his will anyway after activating her time stopping ability. Sera finds it unbelievable that John's notes are so inaccurate to the point of not even understanding the plot, which John replies that it's cause he's having a hard time understanding Speareshake's way of language. In the end, she orders him to just ask her for better understanding rather than just making stuff up.
A week passes as the two of them work together on the project. Along with explaining every detail of Mcbetch to John, Sera even starts to have a bit of fun, such as waking John up by slamming her book on the desk when he's falling asleep. Giving off a smile, she happily calls him a slacker.
In class following their second presentation, Sera is still not satisfied that despite her hard work with John, she ended up with an A- grade. John walks over all excited that all their hard work got the two of them an A, which Sera doesn't agree with at all. John points directly to the A written on his paper ignoring the minus sign, but Sera remains moping. She then gets up pointing to the minus as a sign that they did badly, which leaves John questioning why Sera is so dismissive of everything to the point of never being satisfied. Unable to say anything, Sera orders him not to talk with her anymore, and leaves the classroom.
Shortly after, Sera is seen walking down the hallway only to come across John being bullied by two other students, Misa and Brea. The two are annoyed that John interrupted their conversation, which John points out that they should be worrying about themselves rather than discussing other people. Misa and Brea comment back that they have a right to talk about it since it's only natural to talk about how their precious role model has already screwed up twice, and order the cripple to learn to keep quiet.
To Sera's surprise, John comes to her defense claiming they got no right to judge her since all they do is complain and gossip every day despite everyone already knowing that she's the most dedicated student out of everyone. He orders them not to discredit her effort, which angers Misa and Brea into beating him up some more and calling him a useless loser. Before John could react, Sera appears with her ability active, and slams Misa's head into the wall. Brea runs off in fear while a bloody Misa quickly realizes who just attacked her.
Sera asks what they're doing to her partner, which despite Misa trying to apologize, Sera orders her to get lost, which she does. John thanks Sera for the help, which Sera reminds him that the two of them need to get back to work. Unfortunately, the heavily injured John obviously needs to go to the infirmary first.
Some time after, John and Sera are in the library again working on their third presentation for Speareshake's Julio and Romiette. Unlike before, John decides to ask Sera for help on understanding the third book, which Sera finds surprising that John actually swallowed his pride. Just like John asked, Sera helps him out with the third book, which confuses Sera as to why he's being so diligent at the moment.
Class rolls around as John is prepared to try really hard on the final presentation. Sera asks why he's being so serious, which John answers that it's because he doesn't want to drag her down anymore after hearing what the other students said about her. Sera reminds him that he already dragged her down, which he's unable to reply back.
John tries to apologize for his actions, but Sera reassures him that they just need to focus on the present for now. The teacher calls for Sera and John to give their presentation, which Sera gets up smiling and admits that John is the most presistent partner she ever had. The two of them go through with their Julio and Romiette presentation, which Sera notices that unlike a week ago, John is now presenting well by keeping his information straight, and not talking over his partner.
Following the presentation, Sera gets her paper back, and is shocked to find that her and John as a team actually pulled off an A. Given how he usually gets poor grades, John is obviously excited at the result, and claims that the two of them should go out for drinks to celebrate. Sera isn't convinced due to their overall three-part assignment grade was just an A-, and would rather go to the library to continue studying, but John points out that it's still worth celebrating given how hard the two of them worked. He refuses to take no for an answer claiming that Sera should learn how to relax every once in awhile.
In the end, Sera ends up going along with it, which leaves her questioning why she did so except for perhaps that deep down, she really did want to celebrate. The two of them are next seen having drinks at Woaba Boba, which Sera thinks to herself that it's ironic that the first time she ever celebrates is for an imperfect A- grade. She also thinks over how this may be the first time where she realized that reputation isn't everything. That instead of focusing on how others see her, she should be focusing on living for herself, and what makes herself happy. Thinking about what she's witnessed from John up to this point, Sera admits he's an extraordinary person who can push through other people's prejudice and stand up for himself despite being just a powerless cripple. That he's an inspiration to those at the bottom as someone who can break molds. To herself, Sera thanks John for showing to her that no one is worthless. That even the weakest have something valuable to offer.
Back to present day, Sera is shown to have been sleeping and dreaming about her time with John. Fyora wakes her up to collect the assignments her parents gave their daughter, and also informs Sera that her father has set up a possible internship with one of his business partners at a company called NXGen Research Facility. The butler also points out that the interview will be tomorrow, which catches Sera by surprise since it's so short notice. Fyora notes that Sera has been complaining a lot ever since she returned home asking if she's softened, and then leaves so that Sera can continue working on her parents' assignments.
Elsewhere, John is seen returning home from school having had enough of doing the usual. He wake up, goes to school, gets beat up, and goes home in a bad mood. An angry John questions why he puts up with all of it, and goes over to his punching bag to let off some steam.
With each punch, he calls everyone worthless; the weaklings with no back-bone, those who refuse to stand up for themselves, the people who call themselves elite, the people who use their powers to abuse others, the people who think they can do whatever they want just because they have a little power, the green-haired girl from his past, everyone is worthless. However, his thoughts eventually end at him thinking of Sera, which calms him down knowing that he's the one person he doesn't view as worthless.
John returns to his laptop only to see that Sera has still not come online again despite it being a week since their last chat. Not knowing what to do, John sees that his dad is online for once, and decides to give him a call. John's dad is surprised to hear John calling from a laptop, which John answers with a lie that it's because he broke it falling down the stairs.
Saying he'll send more money for a new phone, John's dad asks what the purpose of the call is, which John answers that he'd like another copy of UnOrdinary. John's dad remains silent at first, but then reminds John that his editor destroyed all copies to keep the author safe. He asks what happened to John's current copy and begins to worry if something's wrong, but John quickly answers that he's fine, and hangs up. John's dad attempts to recall John knowing that something is wrong, but John closes his laptop to silence it completely.
The next day at Wellston, Isen is seen hanging out with some classmates in the hallway. He spots John walking down the hallway, which he sees John with unkempt hair and having an annoyed expression. As a result, Isen admits to himself that whatever Arlo is currently doing is working as it's starting to show John's true colors. Meanwhile, Wellston's Head of Security, Keene, is seen paying a visit to Headmaster Vaughn.
Keene and Vaughn watch a newscast reporting the death of another well-known superhero named Shatterstack that was killed by EMBER. Vaughn asks of Keene's opinion on the matter, which Keene answers that he can't understand EMBER's motives other than to possibly send a message that they can destroy any opposition, and that he's confused as to how EMBER is capable of defeating high-tier superheroes. The headmaster asks if Keene remembers Rei, a student who graduated from Wellston three years ago. Keene of course knows given how Rei was the school's King before Arlo, which Vaughn reveals that Rei was killed by EMBER a month ago. This shocks Keene realizing that EMBER has powerful enough backers to help them defeat people as strong as Rei. Vaughn explains that it was a result of Rei getting his hands on the UnOrdinary book, but he also notes how odd it is that EMBER's vigilante murder victims are all people with high-tier powers.
As a result, Vaughn asks for Keene, as well as informing the other teachers, to carefully monitor Wellston given that said school has the highest concentration of high-tier students in the area who could all possibly be in danger. Vaughn last brings up the current issue with Sera, and points out that the Authorities will most likely aim to keep close watch on Wellston now that two cases of UnOrdinary have ended up in the hands of their students (Rei and Sera). The headmaster orders Keene to sniff out any possible spies since he doesn't want the Authorities messing with his business.
Meanwhile in the school hallway, Holden spots Isen at the window watching John outside getting bullied again by four other Wellston students. The bullied being Tanner with his three friends, Illena, Wenqi and Rouker. Finding their actions disgusting, John orders them not to touch him, which they all find funny.
Tanner makes fun of John's new unkempt hair-style while also reminding him that they're the stronger ones here. He then aims to punch John in the face, but John easily counters by grabbing Tanner's arm, and locks him to the ground aiming next to break said arm. Screaming out in pain, Tanner calls for his friends to help him out, which angers Illena, Wenqi and Rouker into activating their abilities to attack John. Seeing the three bullies ready to attack him, John's eyes begin to give off a glow. Thus, revealing that John has had an ability this whole time.
However, the sight of the bullies attacking John causes him to remember back to the green-haired girl. Only this time, it's a memory of the green-haired girl standing against him while many others helping her are seen charging at John. The memory jumps forward to after all of the green-haired girl's allies are beaten and defeated by John with only her remaining conscious and on her knees. Covered in blood, a smug John finds it funny that the green-haired girl, who turns out to be named Claire, actually thought rallying everyone would be enough to take him down. John jokes that Claire should have had the foresight to know that he wouldn't be defeated given that she always knew he would be the King when the two met, but Claire remains silent and just glares back at him.
Unable to understand her actions, John reminds her that she was the one who chose to help him in the first place since she had her own agenda to further herself. He asks what more could she want given that he played right into her hands, but Claire remains silent, which angers him to the point of grabbing her, and ordering her to answer why she betrayed him by turning everyone against him.
At this point, Claire finally speaks by yelling back by asking if John has seen what has become of himself, and gives him a slap to the face. She continues to yell that all John has done is look for reasons to hurt others, and that he cares about no one except himself. She then proceeds to lambaste John as a tyrant and a hypocrite who doesn't deserve all the strength he has, and that she wishes she never chose to help him.
John orders her to shut up, but she refuses to, and orders back to make her by beaten her up like he did everyone else. John finally grabs her again ordering her one last time to shut up, which a tearful Claire replies by simply calling him a monster. In the end, John finally throws the punch to knock her out. With the memory over, John is back to watching the bullies, Illena, Wenqi and Rouker about to attack him for injuring Tanner. However, John deactivates his ability remembering once more the moment that Claire called him a monster.
John blocks Illena's Strength enhanced punch, and is able to counter her with a punch to the stomach, but he's forced to back away before being hit by Rouker's Missile attacks. Wenqi then quickly appears behind him utilizing her Speed ability, and hits him in the back. Now that he's rescued, Tanner then gives John a punch to the face, which John finds surprising that Tanner's arm is perfectly fine. He is then given the final blow when Illena gives John a Strength enhanced punch to the back.
John remains on the ground defeated, which Tanner laughs while holding his own arm to heal it; showing that his ability is self Regeneration. Tanner gloats over John's weakness, and orders the cripple to stop embarrassing himself and just give in to those stronger than him. John is unable to answer back since he's about to fall unconscious from his injuries, which Illena begins to throw another Strength punch to make John talk.
However, her punch is suddenly blocked by a yellow Barrier covering John, which destroys her arm. The sight of the Barrier power covering John causes Tanner, Illena, Wenqi and Rouker to begin feeling fear upon realizing that Arlo was watching them. Arlo walks up to John lying on the ground, and is annoyed by the state of how things went down. Tanner tries to defend himself that they decided to teach the cripple a lesson and put him in his place for annoying them, but Arlo replies by trapping Tanner in a Barrier, and shrinking it to the point of forcing Tanner to the ground into submission. Arlo stands on Tanner asking who gave him the right to speak, which he then helps John up so the two of them can walk away. Looking at John, Arlo thinks to himself that he definitely saw John's eyes glowing, and remains confused as to why John would choose to let himself get beaten rather than fight back. In the infirmary, John is seen asleep on the bed with Arlo sitting nearby watching over him until John wakes up.
John ends up having a dream of a memory at New Bostin where one of his classmates, Adrion, meets him on the roof. Nervous to speak due to being scared of John, Adrion reveals that he overheard Claire talking to the school's Jack, and how Claire mentioned that the only reason she helped John was because she saw a vision of John climbing to the top of the school's ranks. And that she decided to get to the weak and isolated John first before anyone else in order to have him trust and rely on her. John refuses to believe it and begins to beat up Adrion for saying such mockful words as if he's being played by Claire.
Adrion begs John to listen to him, and warns John that Claire saw a vision that the Jack will overthrow John to become the school's new King. He adds that they've even begun to gather people against John as they speak, but John beats him up some more still unable to believe what he's saying. Adrion reminds John that he's been loyal to him since day one, which he warns John that he's become blinded by his own ego to the point of not seeing what's going on around him, and will reach a point where he will finally lose everything. Despite Adrion's warnings, John remains smug, and points out that he's the strongest while everyone else is trash.
John finally orders Adrion to get out of his sight, which the memory jumps toward, and John remembers Adrion's words once more to open his eyes to see what's going on around him, or else he will lose anything. Sure enough, he remembers the moment when Claire and her allies attacked him, and John retaliating by beating everyone up and knocking out Claire the moment she called him a monster.
At this point, John finally wakes up only to see Arlo by his bedside. John gives Arlo a punch to the face under the belief that the only reason Arlo helped him was because he has something else planned for John. In return, Arlo calls John delusional, and scolds him that not everything revolves around John. Arlo reminds John of whom he just hit, but also points out that unlike the bullies, he's patient enough to not act on impulse. Getting up, Arlo acts serious this time, and threatens John that he despises people who don't learn their place, and that he won't be so lenient to John next time if he puts his hands on him again.
Arlo then exit the infirmary, leaving John in a state of self-confusion as to what he should be doing. Outside the infirmary, Arlo gets a phone message that Isen saw everything. In another part of the school, Isen is seen thinking over what he saw watching John take on Tanner's group of bullies, and concludes that John definitely has an ability since he saw his eyes glow for a brief moment. He also figures that Arlo must have also saw John's eye glow given that Arlo saved John shortly after, but before he could think any further, Arlo pops up around the corner to greet Isen.
Arlo questions why Isen has still been spying on John, which a nervous Isen tries to deny it. In return, Arlo claims that he knows Isen is obviously looking for a top story to put in the school newspaper, which he offers to make a deal with him. Arlo informs Isen that Sera is returning to school in two weeks, which he asks for Isen to continue providing him information on John during that time, and in return, Isen will get the front page for his newspaper article, which Isen agrees to despite his confusion.
Isen returns to Wellston boy's dormitory common room, which he uses his laptop to look up information on John. He manages to uncover John's old high school transcript from New Bostin, which makes him excited to see what John's hiding. Blyke walks by congratulating Isen for the top spot in the newspaper, which shocks Isen reminding Blyke if he's ever heard of privacy.
Blyke then notices that Isen is looking up information on John, which he informs Isen of how much of an ass John is for slapping away Remi's hand when she was trying to help him. Blyke then brings up how Isen should think about spending more time with Remi since she hasn't been herself ever since Rei died. Despite Isen wanting to focus on his John investigation, Isen comes up with the suggestion that they should take her out somewhere next weekend, which the two of them agree on Kovoro Mall. After Blyke leaves, Isen brings his focus back to his laptop showing John's New Bostin transcript.
It comes as a huge shock to him when he sees just how high John's true power level is, which explains how John got into Wellston, as well as his confidence when he's around other high-tier students. Isen also sees that John was expelled as a second-year two years ago, which confuses Isen as to what John was doing for a year since he transferred into Wellston this year still as a second-year student. Isen is left wondering why New Bostin would expel a student as powerful as John, which he sees that the reason was due to excessive violence. He decides to flip the transcript page to see more of the description, which he's left stunned in disbelief that John apparently took down half his class single-handedly for some unexplained reason. Upon uncovering the truth, Isen concludes that John is not someone they should be messing with. That exposing his real identity will lead to something bad.
On the school roof, Arlo is seen once more looking down on the students below. John arrives shortly after, which Arlo admits that John has balls to come up to the roof again. In return, John asks Arlo to spare a few moments for a quick talk, which Arlo decides to go along with. Seeing John take a seat near him, Arlo orders him to get to the point.
John thanks him for the rescue earlier, and apologizes for the punch admitting it was an overreaction due to not being in a good place after waking up. Arlo remains annoyed that a corny speech is all John is wasting his time for, which John explains that he really does appreciate Arlo sticking up for him against the bullies as there aren't that many people willing to do that. Arlo informs John that he didn't do it out of desire to be friends with John, but because he dislikes disruption within the hierarchy.
Arlo further explains that order to put someone in their place doesn't work when its four people gaining up on one person. That it should be a fair 1-on-1 fight. He claims that John would have probably won if he took on the four bullies in single 1-on-1 matches one after the other, which John backs away while pointing out that Arlo is giving a cripple way too much credit. John then states that it doesn't matter what he does as he will always end up at the bottom. Having said what he wanted to, John says his goodbye, and leaves the roof to go home.
Watching John leave, Arlo is left thinking that John is nothing but a liar who's over-selling his act as a cripple. He also remains confused as to why John is denying his place in the hierarchy. Arlo concludes that the only logical explanation is that John must be convincing himself that he truly is completely powerless.
In the hallway, a shaken Isen remains thinking about what he read on John's New Bostin transcript. Isen thinks over how a school record having an expulsion is a serious matter as it means that the expelled student refused to comply to authoritative figures, and that it looks worse the higher the rank of the student is. Isen also notes that based on what he read, he realized that John wasn't expelled for beating up the students, but because it got to a point where even the school could no longer control him. Isen concludes that the school only had one answer when it turned out a high-tier student was running around rampant. The answer being that they had to get rid of him.
Nervously looking around for John, Isen figures that things will remain fine as long as John continues to happily mind his own business. However, he also realizes the issue that it will be hard to avoid Arlo, who's hoping that Isen provides him more information on John. Unfortunately, Isen freaks out due to Arlo suddenly popping up behind him.
Isen tries to leave claiming that he's too busy to talk, but Arlo quickly traps the both of them within a Barrier. Arlo asks why Isen's been avoiding him the past few days, which scares Isen when he sees that Arlo isn't happy. Isen tries to lie that he hasn't discovered any intel yet, which Arlo could easily see through knowing that Isen is smart enough to analyze the attack patterns of shadow organizations like EMBER. Arlo orders Isen to reveal what the latter discovered, which Isen comes to the decision to drop the story, much to Arlo's surprise. Isen explains that their best course of action is to wait for Sera's return, and to act like this investigation never happened.
Isen asks Arlo why it's necessary to provoke John when it's clear that the latter must have a reason for why he's choosing to hide his ability, and that everything is currently fine the way it is. Arlo doesn't agree claiming that John isn't in his rightful place in the hierarchy, which Isen replies that Arlo isn't someone to decide that. Isen suddenly realizes he screwed up saying a disagreement with the King out loud, which Arlo proceeds to smash Isen against his Barrier. Arlo reminds Isen that the former's the one who decides everything, and orders Isen once again to reveal what he discovered. However, Isen yells out that he can't because he knows Arlo will go after John, and that he's afraid of what will come afterwards. Seeing Isen's resolve to not talk, Arlo finally drops it, and lets Isen out of his Barrier. Arlo admits to Isen that he can't force the latter to go along with exposing John, but he also makes it clear that he's not going to give up after everything that's happened so far. Arlo walks away while claiming that he will get to the bottom of this, which Isen calls out begging him to stop since Arlo doesn't know what he's getting everyone into.
John is next seen walking down the hallway thinking about what Arlo just told him, which just reminds John of a hierarchy, and how he wants nothing to do with it since it just brings about more anger and pain. John thinks of a different memory where he's seen sitting at a table with his hands bound together by some silver block as if he's handcuffed, and makes it clear to himself that he will never go back to experiencing that again. John being lost in thought distracts him to the point of bumping into Arlo again, which Arlo isn't bothered to complain at this point. Seeing John looking pathetic on the ground picking up his papers leaves Arlo annoyed that John is refusing to act out his real roll as a higher tier student. To keep John from embarrassing himself further, Arlo provides him with a binder so that John isn't always carrying his papers around. Wanting to repay him for the binder, John asks if Arlo is free after school, which Arlo goes along with.
John takes Arlo to Woaba Boba in order to buy him a drick of tea. He advises Arlo to try out the mango flavor, which Arlo accepts. Their server, Aria, arrives to take their order, which despite John's suggestion, Arlo asks for a large coffee. John tries to make it clear that he's buying two mango teas for them, but Arlo eventually gets his way when he just orders the large coffee on his own tab.
A television at Woaba Boba is seen currently showing a newscast on the NXGen Research Facility. The news reports that the facility has been researching the roots of one's ability, and that they've been working on a top secret project alongside the Authorities. However, the project was put on hold two months ago after research data and equipment turned out to be stolen or destroyed. Seeing Arlo enjoying the large coffee he bought for himself, John points out that Arlo is acting a lot like Sera the first time they met, which catches Arlo's attention.
John goes on to describe Sera as someone who was once strict and refused to try anything new, which Arlo asks how John managed to get so close to her. In return, John answers that them becoming friends was just an accident since they started off hating each other, but when they were forced to work on a school project together, Sera decided to save him from bullies, and that they just started hanging out together afterwards. Arlo next asks how John learned to fight given that he noticed John was winning against the bullies with basic fighting before they started using their abilities, which John answers that he learned self-defense from his dad. Arlo continues the questions asking if this means John's dad is also a cripple, which John answers is indeed the case. John goes on to say that he's proud of his dad because he's a hard-worker that isn't bothered by people who look down and ridicule him. That he's just a guy who does his best with what he has, and never holds a grudge or gets angry with anyone.
John asks a question this time around asking if Arlo has anyone he looks up to, which Arlo remains unable to answer. John asks if it's Sera, but Arlo quickly answers no. After thinking about it, Arlo eventually answers that he looks up to his predecessor, Rei. Arlo describes Rei as someone he never agreed with when it came to how he ran the school, but was still someone who was difficult to dislike, and that he had a knack for recognizing other people's talents. He also calls Ray powerful, which Arlo remembers to a moment where he clearly lost a duel against Rei, but Rei still chose to reach out to him afterwards. Arlo states that he wonders if he could beat Rei at this point if he was still alive, which confuses John. No longer interested after thinking about Rei, Arlo gets up to head out leaving money for his drink. However, John still orders him to take the mango drink he bought for him earlier, which leaves Arlo annoyed.
Meanwhile at Sera's home, Sera is seen still in her room doing the work her parents left for her to study. Annoyed by the constant work, Sera eventually throws the book she's currently studying across the room, which Fyora arrives to inform her that Sera's application to NXGen has been turned down. Thus, her father is disappointed by the result and asks that Sera study harder for next time. Despite Sera obviously not being in the mood, Fyora asks for Sera to return to her work.
At Wellston, Isen and Blyke are seen outside ready to take Remi out for a fun time, which Isen shows that he bought three romance movie tickets for the Kovoro Mall movie theater. Blyke complains that he should have got tickets for an action film, but Isen points out that chicks dig romance these days. Eventually, Remi joins them outside, and the three head off to the mall.
At the mall, the three of them spend time at the U-Mart, which Isen struggles to decide on what new pen to get while Remi grabs a ball, and throws it at Blyke as if she's shooting an Energy Beam. The two of them continue to play around with the ball getting impatient over Isen's pen dilemma since they're running out of time until the movie starts.
Hours later, Remi, Isen and Blyke are in the theater watching the end of the romance film; all shown to have broken down into tears after the two main characters confess their love. Afterwards, the group talk about the film they just saw, which Blyke notices a mall vendor claiming to have the ability to gauge a person's level. The same vendor where Sera was rewarded with a teddy bear that had a tracker chip in it. Blyke and Isen spot the banner showing the prize reward to those who score a level of 5 or higher, which they happily agree to get Remi to do it.
Isen grabs Remi to drag her along while Blyke pays the money for her. Remi disagrees going through with it since she already knows her level, but Isen gives her the thumbs up since their goal is to get the easy prize. The owner of the vendor holds Remi's hand, activates his ability, and proceeds to read Remi's power level.
He congratulates Remi for scoring a power level as high as 5, which excites Isen and Blyke knowing their plan worked. The man provides Remi with a teddy bear as the reward for her power level, which disappoints Isen and Blyke realizing that all they get is a toy. Having seen such a toy before in Sera's possession, Remi decides to investigate the stuffed bear, and finds the same tracker chip that she destroyed in Sera's bear.
The reveal comes as a shock to the owner realizing that his plan has been discovered, which Isen and Blyke activate their abilities ready to threaten him. Remi orders him to explain his actions, which Isen grabs hold of him asking the same. The owner tries to deny that he knew about it claiming that he thought his boss was just providing him prizes to hand out, but Isen could tell he's lying thanks to his Hunter ability allowing him to read the owner's heartbeat. Showing as a target symbol on the ability reader's heart, Isen can read through the man's body that it's beating irregularly.
Before they could investigate him further however, a smoke bomb is suddenly dropped near them, which explodes and covers up the mall vendor in smoke. Isen ends up letting go of the man due to reacting to the sudden smoke bomb, which the owner in question is suddenly grabbed by an invisible person who threw the bomb aiming to help the owner escape. The helper then puts his Invisibility power onto the owner, which the two of them begin to make their invisible escape from the mall.
Remi orders Blyke to use Energy Beam to blow the smoke away, which he goes about doing only to realize once the smoke's cleared that the vendor owner is already gone. Remi asks Isen if he still has a lock on the guy, which Isen looks around, and sees that his Hunter ability's target symbol is still on the ability reader, who's currently running towards the mall's exit. Informing Remi and Blyke, all three of them begin the chase after the man.
At the mall exit, the security guard, Payton, notices the commotion, and calls for back-up to catch the three kids that he believes to have set off the smoke bomb. Remi, Isen and Blyke reach the parking lot, which Isen points towards a motorcycle leaving the area that looks like it's moving on it's own due to the driver being invisible. Isen figures that the owner must have an accomplice providing him invisibility.
He begins to chase after the motorcycle, but Isen's attention is brought to protect himself from being hit by a civilian truck due to not watching where he's going. Remi activates her Lightning ability to quickly catch up to the motorcycle while Blyke jumps on top of the truck to provide Energy Beam support. However, Blyke and Isen are forced to stop what they're doing when they realize that they've been spotted by security guard Payton. On the road, Remi continues the chase after the motorcycle confused as to why Blyke hasn't shot a beam at them yet. She then decides to do it herself, and casts out a lightning bolt that strikes the motorcycle.
The owner and his accomplice end up crashing the motorcycle. Thus, leaving them injured, and the Invisibility power wears off. Remi orders them once more to answer why they planted tracker chips in the teddy bears, but she's suddenly Charged into and grabbed by a blue-haired security guard named Merin that chased down Remi. Remi tries to warn Merin that grabbing her while her Lightning ability is active will just electrocute her, which results in the guard being shocked to the point of falling unconscious. Remi looks back towards the motorcycle only to realize that the ability reader and his accomplice have escaped. Remi prepares her Lightning ability hoping that she could sense other possible electronics they might be holding, but she's grabbed by an injured Merin, who's still trying to do her job. Not wanting to get into further trouble, Remi is forced to give up the chase.
Shortly after, Merin is shown bringing Remi in block handcuffs back to the mall's security office where Isen and Blyke are already there having also been caught and in block handcuffs. Isen tries to explain the situation to Payton that they caught the guy running the ability reading vendor doing something shady, and that before they could investigate any further, they had a smoke bomb dropped upon them. Over time, Payton hears that the three kids are actually students of Headmaster Vaughn, which causes him to start to come around since he respects Wellston. Blyke suggests for security to look at the camera footage to prove their innocence, which Payton admits that the ability reader always seemed like a snake. Payton then leaves to check the security footage, which Isen and Blyke make fun of him behind his back.
Now alone, Isen finds it hilarious that they think block handcuffs are capable of holding them when all it will take is to activate his ability to destroy them. Remi replies that it's because said cuffs weren't designed for them, which leaves Isen and Blyke confused. To explain, she asks why Blyke and Isen chose to surrender to security despite having the stronger powers.
The two of them admit that it's because they don't want to get in trouble with the Authorities, which Remi points out that the cuffs are no different. That the cuffs are strong enough to hold mid-tiers, but for high-tiers, it serves as a reminder that if someone crosses the line, the Authorities will always be there to stop them. In return, Isen and Blyke agree that what Remi said is deep.
In the next room, Payton is seen with a colleague going over the security tapes. They watch the footage of the three kids trying to interrogate the owner of the ability gauge vendor, and admit that the story they told lines up. They also agree that the smoke bomb was not caused by either side, but are unable to see anything else due to the smoke. The colleague then shows the footage of the three kids chasing after the target, and jokes that Payton ruined their catch, which Payton tells him to shut up. Payton than notices back at the vendor footage that someone returned to pick up the teddy bears that were left behind. He orders the colleague to follow the person, but is told that said unknown person was somehow not caught on any other camera, which confuses Payton.
Returning to the security office, Remi finishes telling the funny story of how she had to cuff and return herself for Merin due to the latter shocking herself. Proud of herself, Remi questions how far she could have gone, and how many security guards it would have taken to stop her. Near the end though, she cuts off the final words unable to finish her sentence.
Isen and Blyke could tell something's bothering Remi, which she explains that she's been thinking about things lately, such as wondering what the Authorities would do if someone as powerful as Arlo or Sera decided to challenge them. She points out that the Authorities wouldn't let people that strong roam around free without a catch since Arlo and Sera are capable of causing serious damage if they went down that path. Overall, Remi concludes that the only answer is that Arlo and Sera may not actually be as free as they think.
Blyke finds Remi's deduction confusing since Arlo and Sera appear to be free to do whatever they want at Wellston, which Remi admits is true, but she also points out how obsessive they are. That Sera was always someone who worked to be perfect, and that Arlo is so focused on keeping the school in order. She explains that the two of them have been so focused on these responsibilities that it keeps them distracted from ever questioning the system they're part of, and as a result, has basically left them crippled. The thought of Remi's cripple theory causes Isen to think back to John, and how the latter has forced himself to play cripple despite Isen knowing he has an ability. Isen decides to speak next agreeing that Remi's theory is quite realistic since the Authorities must have a method to keep people with stronger abilities in line in order to continue remaining at the top.
Blyke remains unconvinced questioning how the Authorities can be in complete power if there's a bunch of high-tier Superheroes running around they have no control over, which Isen scolds Blyke for not seeing the obvious. That a mysterious organization called EMBER just so happens to show up to kill a Superhero when it turns out that the Authorities came across one they've lost control over. The revelation that EMBER and the Authorities might be in cohoots surprises Blyke to the point of refusing to believe it, which Isen states it has to be the case since it's a given to get rid of an insane threat if it can't be controlled. Isen suddenly remembers that Remi once asked him to write a school article about EMBER, which Remi admits to be the case because she wants Wellston to be wary of their existence, and that EMBER and the Authorities are one in the same. Payton then returns to the office to tell the three kids they've been cleared, but he also states that he told the Authorities of the incident, which means they all have to provide an official statement.
Returning to Sera's house, Sera remains in her room provided with more work from Fyora to complete for her father. After the butler leaves, Sera shoves all the work off her table having had enough of the non-stop work. She thinks about John, and how unlike her, he's capable of getting himself out of anything through fighting, bluffing, or even just running away. As a result, she struggles to understand why she can't do the same. The next day, Fyora returns to pick up Sera's assignments, which Sera informs her that she didn't do them. The butler asks why, which Sera answers that she simply didn't want to.
Fyora reminds Sera that it's not about what she wants, and that it's her duty to complete the work her parents provided her. She warns Sera of what her mother, Narisa, will do if she finds out, but Sera replies that she will be the one that talks to her mother directly, so Fyora doesn't have to do send the message for her. As Sera moves to leave, Fyora grabs hold of her asking to be the one that sends Sera's message to Narisa. At this point, Sera activates her power to stop time in the area, which a shocked and frozen Fyora is forced to watch Sera walk to her mother. Arriving at her mother's room, Sera thinks over the memories of when John refused to go along with Sera's orders, and assures herself that she can do the same.
Sera enters the room, which Narisa questions why her daughter's not in her room doing her assigned work, and also scolds Sera once more for her pointless hair extensions and disarranged clothing. Sera makes it clear that she's not doing the work anymore, and would rather be free to do whatever she wants, which Narisa scolds her for being selfish. Narisa reminds her daughter how she was born in a privileged life to have her path to success already laid out for her, and that she shouldn't be abandoning her responsibilities like Sera's older sister, Leilah.
Despite her mother's orders, Sera claims that she finally understands why Leilah ran away. She calls out her mother for making their home so cold, lifeless, and objective-driven that it's obvious the reason she keeps calling Leilah a failure is because Narisa refuses to admit her own actions are to blame for what happened. The criticism angers Narisa to the point of activating her own Time Manipulation ability to slap her daughter's face. To Narisa's surprise however, Sera is able to activate her Time Manipulation despite being frozen by her mother, and grabs Narisa's hand before being struck.
Narisa is unable to understand how her daughter stopped her, which Sera gloats that it's obvious she's just faster. Her mother orders her daughter to unfreeze her, but Sera refuses to do so until Narisa hears what she has to say. Sera states that she's had enough of living here, and orders Narisa to buy her a plane ticket to Wellston in order to go back early. She also asks to have her phone and credit cards restored.
Narisa refuses to go along with it, but Sera makes it clear that she will be leaving no matter what. She also warns her mother that Narisa will definitely be considered a joke and the one at fault to others if people find out that both her daughters ran away from home. Narisa continues to refuse not believing that Sera would last a week on her own, but Sera still refuses to back down. She decides to leave Narisa on her own to think about it, but also reminds her mother to give her a first class flight ticket. Exiting her mother's room, Sera remains with a big smile on her face while thinking about John. She's happy that she's finally free from the life her mother forced on her.
Back at Wellston, Isen and Blyke look over the Wellston newsletter. Isen is disappointed that his article wasn't chosen to be the front page, but rather an article about the Kovoro Mall smoke bomb incident. They're then stopped in their tracks when they, along with Remi, are called to the Headmaster's office.
The three students are now in Headmaster Vaughn's office, which he asks if everything written in the article is true. Remi explains that it left out the parts of how they tried to catch the culprit who set off the bomb only to end up in a situation where they had to clear up a misunderstanding with mall security, which Vaughn is satisfied with the answer. The Headmaster reminds them that they're free to do what they want at Wellston, but outside of school, they don't have that luxury, which puts the reputation and safety of everyone at Wellston on the line.
Vaughn explains that given how Remi, Isen and Blyke are three of his strongest students, they have the influence to impact those that surround them, which he asks them not to act impulsively if other special situations were to occur in the future. He leaves off asking them to think about the consequences of whatever actions they choose to take from here on out, which they accept.
Exiting Vaughn's office, Isen and Blyke find it funny that the Headmaster actually reads the school paper. However, Remi is left thinking about how odd it is that an article about the Kovoro Mall smoke bomb incident somehow made it into the Wellston newsletter when it was a story that happened just two days ago on a weekend. She wonders how someone at school got hold of that story so fast, and concludes that someone must be watching them.
Meanwhile on the school roof, Arlo is once more looking down towards the students below only to be annoyed by John's usual arrival. John tries to be friendly to him asking if he liked the mango tea, but Arlo quickly answers no and asks why John is here. John answers that he's just taking a breather, but Arlo reminds him once more that the roof is off-limits. John however points out that he's got nothing to worry about since Arlo would have thrown him off the roof ages ago if it truly bothered him, which Arlo remains silent admitting that to be the case. John notes that he's seen Arlo come up to the roof a lot, which Arlo states that the quietness lets him clear his mind, and not have to be bothered by those below. John thinks back to his life at New Bostin and how he's usually alone on the roof, which he admits that he knows what that's like.
The two of them remain silent thinking things over until John remembers that he has to get to class. John asks if Arlo has plans after class, which Arlo answers he's got some errands. John then asks if Arlo minds him tagging along, which despite Arlo answering he would, John figures that it would be worse for Arlo to do those errands alone. Heading back to class, John leaves off stating that they will meet at the school gate after class; leaving Arlo alone wondering how Sera ever puts up with him.
At the school gate after school, John is surprised to find that Arlo actually waited. The two of them then leave Wellston to do whatever errands Arlo has. Some time after, Arlo and John are seen sitting in a train going somewhere far away from Wellston. John asks what kind of errands requires going this far away, which Arlo answers that John will see when they get there. Meanwhile, Sera is seen having gotten off the plane. She tries to call John's phone, but is still unable to contact him since he doesn't have a new phone yet. Getting into a taxi, she asks the driver to take her to Wellston.
John and Arlo get off at a train station, which John asks where they are. Arlo answers that they've arrived at Wellston's Turf War location, which shocks John having to remind Arlo that he's not exactly built for fighting. In return, Arlo tells him to relax since he's just meeting up with some people here, and assures John that just him being around someone as strong as Arlo will cause no one to mess with a cripple. Eventually, the two of them arrive in an open landscape where John is left stunned in disbelief to see that the two people they're meeting is Meili and Ventus; the two people who attacked him and broke his phone. John questions what the meaning of this is, but Arlo ignores him to speak with his two lackeys. Giving Meili and Ventus the nod, Arlo orders them to lock John down. Meili and Ventus activate their abilities and charge towards John with Arlo watching on. The sight of Arlo, Meli and Ventus causes John to remember how this current situation is no different than what happened at New Bostin where Claire stood in the back while her allies attacked John. All John could think is that in both instances, he trusted them.
Meili is the first to appear in front of John, and uses her Demon Claw ability to slash at his right arm; leaving it a bloody mess. Before John could ask what's going on, Ventus is the next to attack using his Whirlwind ability to fire a powerful gust at John that knocks the latter back. With John on the ground, Meili puts her Demon Claw up to his neck threatening to attack if he moves. John looks at Arlo unable to believe this is happening, which Arlo simply says surprise back at him. Shortly after, Ventus and Meili bring John before Arlo, and keep him locked to the ground and face in the dirt. Arlo smugly apologizes for never properly introducing Meili and Ventus to John since they're the two who broke his phone originally. John questions how Arlo knows about them breaking his phone, which Arlo answers that he was the one who ordered them to do it. John remains in disbelief unable to say anything, which Arlo asks why John ever thought he would ever associate or befriend someone who's a cripple. Arlo adds that other than tolerating John's recent actions, Arlo actually despises him; leaving John wondering why this is happening.
John thinks back to a New Bostin memory where he receives a note from Claire asking him to meet her in the fields, which John blushes thinking it's a love note. Current John thinks over how he just wanted to be ordinary and get along with others. He remembers how all the note did was lead him to the fight where Claire sends all his classmates against him, and questions why everything turns out to be fake the moment he finally gets what he wants. Overall, he's left confused as to what it is he's doing wrong.
Back to the present, Arlo reveals to John that the main reason for bringing John out here was to finally put him down. Ventus adds that John's been nothing but an eyesore trying to act more than a peasant, which John orders him to stay out of the conversation. Ventus hits John in the back of the head in return, which Arlo wonders how much longer it will take to break John. Arlo gloats that they're at a location where no one's around for miles, so they have all the time in the world to finally ingrain the lesson into John's head. He also adds that all the bad things that John's experienced over the past few weeks have been by his well. These being Sera's suspension, breaking his phone, and every encounter that came afterwards. Overall, Arlo claims that John had control over nothing.
John once more thinks back to his first day transferring into Wellston, and how his main goal was to just turn over a new leaf. He remember how he didn't choose to be selfish, boast about his power to anyone, or even choose to hurt others. Yet in the end, he's confused as to how he ended up in such a disgusting situation again. John remembers Claire once more calling him a monster, but upon remembering all the Wellston students who have treated him badly up to this point, he's come to the realization that it's not him that's the monster, but everyone else.
Seeing John remain silent, Arlo asks if the former's got anything else to say. Arlo orders Meili to help him out, but as she's about to strike him with another Demon Claw, John yells out Arlo's name in complete rage. Activating his power, John whips up a large black tornado that spins all around him, which knocks Ventus and Meili away. Meili and Ventus remain confused as to what's going on, as John with his ability active stands before Arlo ready for a fight. In return, Arlo remains excited that he finally made John reveal himself. Ventus remains unable to understand what's going on since he's been under the assumption that John's been a powerless cripple.
Looking over at Arlo smiling, Ventus feels reassured that this is obviously still going as Arlo planned. Ventus is then stunned by what he's seeing when he witnesses John turn his hand into a Demon Claw similar to Meili's. John charges at Arlo ready to strike him with his Demon Claw, which Meili gets in the way trying to block him with her own Demon Claws. Meili can't believe that John has the same ability has her, which John yells at her to get out of his way, and is easily able to slash her across the chest with his Demon Claw. John stands over a bloodied Meili ready to strike her again for interfering, but she's rescued at the last second by Ventus using his Whirlwind to push John away from her.
Ventus believes he's got John trapped in the Whirlwind. However, John uses a Whirlwind of his own to break himself out much to Ventus' confusion seeing John using his ability as well. This makes it pretty clear that a part of what makes up John's ability is copying the powers of others.
John stands ready to continue, which Meili and Ventus agree that they should combine their abilities against him. Meili charges forward with her Demon Claws ready while Ventus creates a Whirlwind to follow-up behind her. John simply calls them trash, and counters the attack by firing wind-blade projectiles towards them. Ventus is caught by surprise seeing John use a special wind attack that even Ventus hasn't learned yet, and while she manages to avoid it, the wind-blades continue past her and end up striking Ventus; leaving him a bloody mess.
Meili gets in close to John and attempts to strike him with the Demon Claw, but John dodges it, and creates a Whirlwind that blows Meili into the sky. Ventus becomes scared seeing Meili defenseless in the sky, and prepares to help her down with his Whirlwind, but John appears behind him, and stabs Ventus' arm with his Demon Claw to keep him from casting Whirlwind. Ventus admits defeat that John is stronger than them, and continuously begs John to stop before Meili gets seriously injured from the fall. However, John orders him to shut up, and stabs Ventus in the back to knock him unconscious. Meanwhile, Meili crashes into the ground, which results in her going unconscious as well. John looks toward Arlo as his next oppoent, who's simply been watching the fight go down. After witnessing Meili and Ventus get defeated, Arlo remains wondering to himself if what he's seeing is the true John that's been in hiding this entire time.
Starting their duel, John opens with the same wind-blade attack he hit Ventus with, which Arlo easily knocks away. John then casts a normal Whirlwind that he encases Arlo within to keep him from being able to see outside of it. Activating his Demon Claws next, John uses Whirlwind to propel himself forward to strike at Arlo up close. Arlo could guess John's plan hoping that Arlo casts Barrier to get rid of the Whirlwind, but Arlo ends up not going along with it, and manages to block John's Demon Claw strike. The two stand opposite one another again, which Arlo thinks to himself that John has to do better than that if he's aiming to win. John next casts Whirlwind underneath him to fly up into the sky, and charges down at Arlo using the same propel technique to attempt a Demon Claw air-assault. Arlo figures that John will probably have Barrier copied once he's seen it, which he deduces that he will only have one shot to finish John off.
Activating his power, Arlo casts Barrier over himself to block John's Demon Claw. John's left arm is all but destroyed due to the recoil from hitting the Barrier, but Arlo ends up coughing up blood as well due to John's attack cracking the Barrier. As it turns out, the Barrier being damaged results in recoil damage to the user. Despite his Barrier recoil, Arlo manages to land a punch on John, who was still reacting in pain over his left arm being heavily damaged.
John manages to keep himself standing, which Arlo casts out his Barrier upon John aiming to bubble shrink him into submission. Arlo begins to shrink the Barrier upon John, and as Arlo had already guessed, John copied Barrier and casts it upon himself to keep Arlo's Barrier from crushing him. To Arlo's surprise however, John's Barrier is strong enough to stop Arlo's Barrier in its tracks. John then starts to punch at Arlo's Barrier while not having to worry about recoil damage since his own Barrier is completely absorbing the enemy Barrier's recoil. Eventually, John successfully breaks his way out of Arlo's Barrier, which Arlo ends up holding his chest in pain having taken a heavy dose of recoil damage. John uses the Whirlwind propel technique once more to charge towards Arlo, which John is able to land a devastating right punch to Arlo's gut.
The force of the punch knocks Arlo back, but he's unable to reestablish himself due to slamming into John's copied Barrier that he cast up behind Arlo. John then pummels a trapped Arlo in the face and body with Whirlwind-enhanced right punches and kicks. In a last ditch effort, Arlo manages to catch John's right arm during the beating, but John dishes out the final blow by bashing his head into Arlo's head, which Arlo finally falls to the ground in defeat. John then proceeds to step on the head of the defeated King, and threatens to dethrone Arlo if anyone ever finds out about this incident.
Some time after, Elaine is seen arriving at the Turf War location having been contacted by Arlo. Elaine is left stunned in disbelief when she sees Meili and Ventus hurt and unconscious and Arlo as a bloody mess. She asks what happened, but Arlo refuses to answer, and orders her to just heal Meili and Ventus so that he can take them back to Wellston. Shortly after, Elaine is seen casting Healing upon Meili and Ventus.
Elaine remains confused as to how such a powerful duo that so few people can match up against ended up in a state where their wounds look as if they fought against each other or against mirror images. She then looks towards the heavily injured Arlo, and is confused as to how the best at Turf Wars in the region was somehow damaged to such an extent. Overall, she's unable to come up with a guess as to who could have done this.
Arlo begins to cough up more blood due to his injuries, but he orders Elaine to continue to just worry about getting Meili and Ventus fixed up since they're in worse shape. Elaine then asks if Arlo could at least tell her what led up to them being hurt, but Arlo answers that it's best she doesn't know. She still remains unconvinced, but Arlo asks for her to promise to keep this incident a secret, which she blushes over the idea of being a secret keeper with Arlo, and agrees to it. However, Elaine still thinks to herself that something about Arlo is off looking as if he's been shaken by something. She's left worrying that when someone as powerful as Arlo shows weakness, it frightens everyone else.
At that same time, a heavily injured John is seen making his way home angered at how Arlo is now the second person to betray him after Claire. He throws his backpack at the ground asking where all the worth is in the world, which is seen by Sera having been sitting at the doorstep of John's home waiting for him to return home. Sera calls out to John, which leaves him stunned speechless.
John drops to his knees unable to go any further, which he's helped up by Sera asking how he ended up in such a mess. John is left thinking about the entire fight that went down against Arlo, Meili and Ventus, and just asks Sera not to look at him in his current state. John ends up breaking down into tears thinking that he's so pathetic, which leaves Sera confused seeing him in such a broken state since the John she knows is usually strong and confident. Sera helps John get into his house, which she's left wondering what had gone down while she was suspended. John is then put on the couch to get some rest, which Sera then calls up Elaine knowing that her Healing ability can fix up John's injuries.
Back at the Turf War location, Elaine is seen receiving the phone call from Sera, which catches Arlo's attention since she's still supposed to be gone for another week. Elaine tells Sera that she will be right over, which she tells Arlo she has to go. She asks Arlo if he will be fine on his own, which he does. Elaine starts to leave, but Arlo grabs hold of her to give her one last reminder of the promise not to tell anyone of what she saw here.
Returning to John's home, Sera is seen providing John with a glass of water, which he forces him to wake up by touching the cold glass against his skin. Sera informs him that Elaine will be here soon enough to heal his injuries, which she asks him to tell what happened. John tries to explain that him getting messed up was obvious given the school's Ace disappearing made it easy for her weak friend to get bullied, but Sera replies that what she was referring to was why he looked so broken just now to the point of claiming that she shouldn't be looking at him. He tries once more to ignore the subject claiming that he's fine now that Sera is already back.
John attempts to ask how Sera's been doing, but she refuses to back down. John counters claiming that he was just as worried about her after he lost contact, which Sera explains that her parents cut her off, but since she was able to convince them to allow her to return to Wellston early, she's decided next to crash at John's place until the suspension is up. She orders John once more to tell what happened, which John finally gives up seeing Sera refusing to drop it. He explains that it finally reached the point where he had enough of the bullying, and just didn't want Sera to come back and see him look so defeated.
The answer comes as a surprise to Sera, which he also adds that things can go back to the way they were now that Sera's back. At this point, the door bell rings, which Sera figures must be Elaine. Sera greets Elaine at the door, who tries to apologize for everything bad that recently happened to Sera due to revealing her UnOrdinary book. Sera admits that Elaine did nothing wrong and shouldn't be stressing over it. Elaine is then brought into the house, which shocks her when she sees the cripple she hates due to not knowing that the house she's been brought to is John's home.
Sera heads off to another room to unpack while Elaine sits with John on the couch to use Healing on his injuries starting with his right arm. Elaine is left annoyed that she's only choosing to waste her ability's energy on him because he's friends with Sera, and tells him to get a clue to stop getting into fights he can't win. John on the other hand remains silent using his power to sense that Elaine's ability aura's been weakened, which makes it obvious to him that she already used a lot of energy to heal someone beforehand.
After the right arm is completely healed, Elaine orders him to give her the left, but John rejects it claiming that he can just visit Doctor Darren. Elaine refuses since she doesn't want to leave a job given by Sera unfinished, which she forcibly takes John's left arm to begin Healing it. The state of John's left arm being completely shattered leaves Elaine confused as to who it was that John could have pissed off.
Continuing her Healing, Elaine starts to questioning why John's injuries look so familiar only to be shocked in disbelief when she starts to piece together that his right arm injury looks like Meili's Demon Claw, and the left arm being from the recoil of Arlo's Barrier. Elaine remembers back to what she saw at the Turf War location as well as Arlo making her promise not to tell what she saw, which she refuses to believe that a cripple is capable of doing this. John could tell Elaine's starting to worry and piece together what happened, and the moment she's about to yell out what she's thinking is impossible, John quickly grabs her mouth to keep her quiet.
An enraged John whispers to the stunned and confused Elaine to shut up, which she nods. He then orders her to listen to his next words very carefully. Shortly after unpacking, Sera returns to John's couch only to see that Elaine had already left. She asks where Elaine went, which John answers she had to leave due to something urgent coming up. Thus, leaving Sera to wonder why Elaine left without even saying good-bye.
The next day at Wellston, an injured Arlo is seen early in the day walking down the hallway towards the infirmary. He's clearly still shaken about his last fight still remembering how John threatened to dethrone him if anyone finds out. As Arlo continues to walk, Terrence can be seen spying on him down the hallway having noticed the odd state that Arlo's currently in.
At the infirmary, Keene is seen paying a visit to Darren to take a break from the investigation he's currently working on. Darren asks if he found out anything, which Keene explains that he's found no connections to the Authorities amongst Wellston's current faculty or any of the guests that have visited the school the last few months. Keene points out that things have been a mess due to all eyes being focused on a school as prestigious as Wellston as a result of the UnOrdinary copies floating around along with high-tier superheroes being murdered. Thus, this ends up being an issue for Vaughn since the Headmaster likes his privacy.
Keene also adds that their reputation is on the line since he hasn't been able to figure out how to scan check Wellston's students without them being alerted. As a result, this could spell disaster if one of their students is doing something shady. Keene admits that he's just here for stress relief, and changes the subject to asking why Darren seems so angry all the time despite recently getting a girlfriend, which he doesn't know is Sera's older sister Leilah. Darren makes it clear that he is indeed happy having been on three dates so far despite Keene poking fun at him, which Darren reveals that she apparently has something important to tell him during next week's date. Darren describes her as a beautiful high-tier, but is also really smart as she has been working as a manager on some project. At this point, Arlo arrives at the infirmary and greets the two of them.
Darren asks how much he heard only to be annoyed at Arlo congratulating him for getting a hot girlfriend. Darren and Keene are surprised to see Arlo beat up asking the boy what happened, but Arlo refuses to answer and states that he's just here to get healed before the school freaks out over the sight of their King looking injured. Darren leaves the room to get the medicine, which leaves Keene alone to question Arlo if everything's alright. Keene points out that it's obvious Arlo isn't someone who comes to the infirmary often, which Arlo admits is the case. Keene asks if someone at Wellston did this to him, but Arlo refuses to answer and assures that he has the situation under control. Darren returns with the glass of medicine claiming that it will clean up Arlo's surface wounds, but will be slow to fix up the inner injuries. Thanking the doctor, Arlo takes the medicine and then leaves the infirmary.
Darren admits to Keene that Arlo is behaving as a strong kid, which questions who could have injured him to such an extent. Keene guesses that it had to have been John, which Darren finds hard to believe given that John has been so set on playing cripple. In return, Keene asks who else is there given that John is the only one capable of even touching Arlo. Darren ends up thinking thinks over, which he admits to himself that John's been coming off a lot more irritable lately. Having thought it over, Darren questions Keene if they should inform the Headmaster about this.
Switching over to Isen and Blyke, the two of them are seen in the hallway just getting out of class. They end up overhearing other students gossiping that someone saw Arlo enter the infirmary all beat up. This obviously catches Isen's attention given the secret he knows about John.
The gossip turns into a rumor that Wellston's King must have somehow been beaten by someone, which Isen thinks of Arlo as an idiot assuming that he went through with breaking John despite all the warning signs. Thinking that this is a result of Arlo's obsession over needing to have order, Isen is left wondering how Arlo will go about resolving this now that he's been dethroned. Seeing Isen lost in thought, Blyke tries to tell him not to buy into the rumors since there's no way Arlo would lose, but Isen still remains unconvinced.
Meanwhile, Remi is seen in a different part of the school arriving at Wellston's press room. She greets Cecile, the student working as the head of the Wellston newsletter, Wellston Weekly, and asks her to provide the name of the anonymous writer who wrote the article about the recent Kovoro Mall incident. However, Cecile rejects the order to respect the writer's wish to remain private.
Remi trys to explain that the anonymous writer is up to no good based on the content of the Kovoro Mall article, which Cecile asks what she's basing that off of. Unfortunately, all Remi could add is that it's based on a feeling. Cecile remains unconvinced to not give away confidential information without a proper reason. In return, Remi tries to get Cecile to understand that there are bigger things going on that she just hasn't been able to figure out yet.
Having enough of Remi's pestering, Cecile orders Remi to leave claiming this isn't worth losing her reputation over. Remi then reminds Cecile that she's the school's Queen, and orders Cecile once more to hand over the writer's name. Cecile finds it funny that Remi's pulling the Queen card on her, and while Remi tries to explain that it's a Royal's job to create a safe-place for everyone, Cecile finds this to be a joke. Activating her ability, Cecile stands before Remi, and orders the Queen to make her provide the name. Remi struggles to reply back, which Cecile takes as a sign that Remi is too pathetic to have any authority, which simply makes Remi the Queen in name.
Cecile points out to Remi that it requires domination over someone to make them give what you want, and that Remi needs to learn to make people know their place so that they don't step out of line. Continuing to berate Remi, Cecile adds her disappointment that Remi chooses to hang out with Blyke and Isen even though it's clear that Remi is on a different level than them. Cecile also brings up how Remi chose to stoop down to helping the cripple, John, in the hallway, and even allowed him to hit a high-tier without any repercussions. She asks Remi how this is a great way to set an example by making it look like the weak can treat their superiors, no matter how much more powerful they are, however they want, which Remi is unable to answer. Calling Remi an embarrassment, Cecile calls her just as delusional as her brother, which strikes a nerve in Remi. Cecile doesn't back down not convinced that Remi actually knew how her brother acted as a King, which Cecile explains that Rei was someone who ignored the hierarchy and tried to put everyone on equal footing. As a result, Rei gave low-tiers false hope that they could actually compete in life, and burdened the high-tiers with unnecessary responsibilities.
Cecile continues that the biggest problem with Rei's plan was that neglecting the hierarchy caused confusion, which resulted in fights breaking out where the weak who thought they stood a chance ended up getting hurt. Overall, Cecile blames Rei for the school ending up in complete chaos, but she's also a bit glad that Arlo and Sera managed to clean up some of the mess after he left. After hearing everything Cecile said, Remi tries to defend her brother stating that Rei just wanted to help everyone, and for everyone to get along. Cecile still remains unconvinced asking what princess Remi actually knows about the world other than thinking that everything is unicorns and rainbows. She states to Remi that no matter how much charity, sincerity, and kindness is provided by someone, it's not going to inspire others to do the same, and in the end is all just a wasted effort. Cecile points out that as someone who's experienced before, Rei was indeed an idealist, but he was also a weak King. And as a result, Remi should step up and learn from his mistakes.
Unable to convince Cecile, Remi is forced to leave the room in tears due to her dead brother being brought up. She thinks over Cecile's words of how Rei's kind actions were all a wasted effort due to leaving an impact on no one, which leaves Remi wondering if Rei dying to help others was truly worth it. Seeing the superhero death pool paper back on the wall, she questions what difference Rei's efforts did. Nearby, Arlo is seen walking with Holden in the hallway, which he gets a phone call from Remi asking if he's busy later.
In another part of the school, Isen is seen keeping a watchful eye on John. He ends up seeing John around the corner getting bullied by Skrev and another student. Both of them make fun of John, which Skrev pokes fun at how John should watch where he walks to not make the bully's shirt dirty.
John replies by calling them garbage, which enrages Skrev to grab John by the shirt ready to attack him. John once more calls him garbage, but before Skrev could attack, he's kicked from the side by Isen ordering them to break it up. A surprised Skrev quickly realizes that he's dealing with one of Wellston's Royals, which Isen orders him and the other bully to get to class, which they do. Isen offers to help John pick up his papers, but John orders him to leave him alone given that he already knows what Isen's like. Watching John walk away, Isen figures that he just needs to keep John calm until Sera gets back.
Elsewhere, Arlo is seen sitting on a park bench where Remi is seen meeting up with him. The two greet one another calling each other nicknames, which Arlo asks Remi about the mall incident. Remi informs him that it was just a smoke bomb, but Arlo reminds her that it was still serious enough to get her called to the Headmaster's office. Arlo also reminds her that she has to be careful for the sake of Wellston's reputation, which Remi admits she's already been scolded for. Remi brings up how scary accurate the mall article written by the anonymous writer was given that it had all the details from the moment they approached the ability read vendor to being caught by mall security, which she guesses that it's as if the anonymous writer was watching their every move.
Changing the subject, Remi brings up how she heard the rumors of Arlo being spotted going to the infirmary, which surprises Arlo that someone managed to catch sight of him when he went early in the morning to avoid being noticed. Remi states that she's not surprised Arlo went to the infirmary given everything that's happened lately, which Arlo is left wondering if along with Remi, he's been followed by someone as well. Remi continues to talk stating that Arlo is the strongest amongst everyone at Wellston, which allows him to brush problems away, but that's not the case for everyone else who would end up in trouble if they end up dealing with something that even Arlo can't protect himself against. She asks Arlo once more if something happened, but Arlo changes the subject to ask her what happened at the mall, and more specifically, what led up to the smoke bomb.
Remi explains how she noticed the tracker chip inside a teddy bear prize that's rewarded to people who score a 5 or higher power level, and that it was the same chipped teddy bear that she discovered to be in Sera's possession. Arlo sees what Remi is getting at that she believes the anonymous writer is the same one that tailed her at the mall, and that given they're both high-tiers, said writer working under Cecile, who's also a high-tier, could mean that she's being watched as well. Arlo deduces that these people watching them seem to have intel on all of Wellston's high-tiers, which leaves him wondering how long this has been going on for, and what their main goal for doing this is. Remi finds it hard to believe they have intel on Arlo, but she ends up remembering the infirmary rumors, which not only tells her that he's indeed being watched, and that he was indeed injured by someone.
Remi begins to cry realizing she had been lied to asking why Arlo didn't tell the truth, which Arlo tries to answer that there's nothing wrong. Remi yells back at him that that is clearly not the case, especially after what happened to Rei, which proved to her that nobody's invincible. She goes about complaining that Arlo and Rei are just the same people who go to such lengths to hide things from her, and that she ends up not knowing anything despite everyone around her getting hurt. Worried that something might happen to Arlo like it did Rei, Remi starts to cry more feeling like she's useless, which Arlo pulls her in to comfort her with a hug. Arlo asks her not to worry, and that everything will be ok since he's strong. However, Remi reminds him that Rei was also strong, which leaves them both silent knowing what she's getting at.
Remi then finally goes back to asking Arlo who it was that hurt him. However, Arlo finally provides an answer that he can't. She asks if it was EMBER, which surprises Arlo that that was the answer she came up with.
Arlo gives her another answer that he's not in any real danger since his injuries were just from a personal business, but also states that he will eventually give her a proper answer once his thoughts are straightened out. Arlo then admits that Remi's suspicion of the high-tiers being followed has merit, which he figures that the one with the answers is somewhere within Wellston. He leaves off making it clear to Remi that they will get to the bottom of this. Meanwhile at the airport, a man with an address to John's home is seen getting off the plane.
Some time after, Arlo is seen walking with Holden in the school hallway. Arlo remains lost in thought not listening to anything Holden is saying to him, which Holden claims that he's noticed Arlo's been spacing out the past week. Suddenly, John bumps into Arlo like usual.
Unlike before though, John looks at the King menacingly, which Arlo is unable to say anything back given what happened. Holden takes over for Arlo to berate John for not learning his lesson last time, but before Holden could go any further, Arlo grabs Holden's arm and orders him to stop, which confuses Holden and all the nearby students watching. Staring at Holden, Arlo reminds him that as one of the stronger students, Holden should be doing something more productive rather than waste time on a useless human like John.
As John walks away, Holden remains confused as to what's going on since he's never seen Arlo act like this before. Arlo meanwhile thinks about how John disgusts him; being someone with all that power and strength, yet he acts selfish keeping it to himself and acting like a low cripple rather than using it to influence others. Continuing his thought, Arlo sees John as useless for abandoning his role, and even corrupted Sera with his ideology.
In the end, he sees them both as cowards for running away and leaving all the burdon on him. Near Arlo, Isen is seen having witnessed the whole hallway encounter with John unfold, which excites his reporter self knowing that a battle between two Kings is a story with potential drama that's too good to pass up. However, he begins to cry knowing that keeping John calm is the bigger priority.
Back to John's home, Sera remains on the couch using her phone since she has nothing else to do. The man from the airport comes through the front door, which he and Sera are surprised to see that neither one of them is John. The man hopes that he somehow didn't end up at the wrong house, but Sera could tell based on his appearance that he's John's dad, William H. Doe. In return, William remembers how John's friend, Sera, has purple hair, which he realizes is the girl currently in front of him. The two of them properly introduce themselves to one another, which William is embarrassed to hear that John talks about him a lot.
Sera informs him that John should be returning from school soon and that the reason she's not there is due to suspension. William asks how she got suspended, which Sera reveals that people found out she read his UnOrdinary book much to William's dismay. He also realizes that the reason John wanted another UnOrdinary book was due to it getting confiscated after giving the book to his friend. Sera assures William that he's got nothing to worry about since she'll be back in the school dorms next Friday, which William realizes he has a lot to talk about with John regarding keeping a girl at his place this whole time.
William apologizes for his UnOrdinary book getting her in trouble while claiming that John doesn't usually give away the book so easily. However, Sera assures John's father that it was her fault for getting caught. William then points out how surprising it is that Wellston didn't kick her out after the book was discovered, which a confident Sera claims they would never get rid of her.
Sera's answer leaves William to think over how the kids of today think they're so great and strong, which resulted in John getting himself expelled from New Bostin. William admits that Sera is indeed powerful given everything John told him about her, which he asks Sera which of the two she thinks is stronger. However, he's surprised to see Sera laugh and not being able to give an answer. At this point, John finally comes through the door, which he's left confused as to why his dad is here.
William questions why John thinks its wrong for his father to visit his son, which John replies that he could have at the very least told him ahead of time. However, William scolds his son that it was John who hung up on him and ignored his calls afterwards to begin with, which John is unable to say anything back. John asks Sera if she wouldn't mind if he had some private talk with his dad, which Sera admits that it's clear this needs to happen.
William is left annoyed that he hasn't even unpacked first, but John drags him outside anyway much to Sera's amusement. Outside the house, William scolds his son that checking up on him is a given when John doesn't answer back. John apologizes while trying to convince him that he's doing fine, which William remains unconvinced given that he didn't know about Sera living at their home.
John tries to explain that he wasn't going to leave her stranded for the remaining week of her suspension given that she can't go back to her real home, which William could tell that John likes her. William admits that Sera seems like a nice girl given their earlier chat, which John asks what she talked about. He proudly reveals that John got her suspended and that his son talks about him a lot, which embarrasses John. William also reveals that he asked her who is stronger between her and John, which shocks John that his dad would even ask that.
John asks what her answer was, which William answers that there was no answer since it appeared that Sera didn't take the question seriously. The answer calms John down, but William could tell that something about his son feels off. Seeing his son refuse to answer, he goes off claiming that he will ask Sera what's up, which John finally agrees that he will talk.
John tells his story, which William finds shocking that his son has decided to be treated like a cripple. William reminds his son that people who can't defend themselves are torn apart, which he questions why John thought this was a good idea. The question causes John to remember back to what happened at New Bostin, which he answers that it's just better this way. John explains that back at New Bostin, it didn't matter where he went. He would always overhear all the students constantly gossiping about him regarding how he was a terrible person and King who abuses his power, and that he would constantly beat the people down who badmouthed him. That no matter how much he tried to make them shut up, the badmouthing only got worse. As a result, John has come to the decision that he's weak, and doesn't deserve to have the power he has. After hearing John's story, William reminds his son that he can't just ignore a power that's part of him.
John claims that he's not, and that his current cripple life-style just suits him better. He further explains that he has Sera at his side. Someone who doesn't judge him based on how strong or weak he is, and that they go about doing school work and having fun together as a result. However, William remains unconvinced thinking that John can't just depend on one person. He asks his son if he's truly ok with the way things currently are, which John answers he is. William continues on stating that he wants to support John's choices, but his current path doesn't make any sense when it revolves around lying to Sera. A revelation that stuns John. William asks how long his son plans to keep lying to Sera, which John is unable to give an answer. His father then begins to say he can't hide this forever, but John quickly yells back that he already knows that, and tries to make it clear that he just doesn't have a reason to tell her yet. Seeing his son remain silent and lost in thought, William is left to wonder if John is worried that Sera will leave him once she finds out.
Later that night at John's home, William takes the couch to sleep on while John stays up at the table trying to finish his homework. Sera is also at the table helping John since she's already done with her homework, which William wakes up shocked to see that his son is still struggling to finish. John tries to defend himself that the work is difficult, but William makes it clear that he didn't come visit just to watch John do his homework. Ordering his son to hold off on the homework until morning, William announces that they're going to play Poker for the night, which Sera admits that this is making John's dad look pretty awesome. Shortly after, John, Sera and William are now together at the table with their cards and Poker chips set up to play Texas Hold 'em. Sera thinks over the rules that the purpose of the game is to make the highest ranking 5-card combination using the two cards in hand with the five cards on the table that are used by everyone.
Sera then thinks over the ten 5-card combination rankings with single high-card being at the lowest up to the royal flush being the best. Sera than thinks over how the Poker chips are involved where players take turns betting chips based on how high their hand is, and that the highest hand wins said chips at the end of each round until all the chips end up in the possession of one player; declaring him/her as the game's winner. Overall, Sera finds the game simple enough to understand.
Starting their first round, the first 3 table cards are revealed, which Sera bets 80 believing that her pair of Jacks is enough. Both John and William call, which comes as a surprise to her that neither flinched at her bet. Her hand remains as only a pair of Jacks once the 4th table card is revealed, which she decides to just check to the next person. John on the other hand confidently puts in a high 240 raise, which confuses Sera as to what hand John could possibly have since he would need to be extremely lucky to pull off a Straight using the current cards on the table. She concludes that he must be bluffing, but admits to being unable to read John's face.
William ends up calling the 240 raise, which confuses her even further wondering if her Jack pair is enough to beat a Two-Pair or Three-of-a-Kind they might be hiding. In the end, she decides to fold and let the two men duke it out. The 5th table card is revealed, which both John and William decide to just check to finish the round. They show their hands, but both reveal that they just have single pairs; a pair of 7s for John and a pair of 9s for William. John is unable to believe that his father blindly called his bet, which William proudly admits that he could tell John's 240 bet was a bluff. Sera however slams the table in anger claiming that she had the best hand with a pair of Jacks, and doesn't understand how they both somehow bluffed her into folding.
However, William reassures her that that she'll learn quickly since one of the greatest things about Poker is that you can come out the winner despite not being dealt a good hand. He explains that one of the larger parts of Poker is how one presents itself to change how other players perceive you, such as looking like someone confident enough who believes they have the best hand to make others back out. However, he also points out the disaster of being completely screwed if someone catches you bluffing.
In the end, Sera admits that the game is more complicated than it looks. Some time after, the Poker game comes to a round where after the first 3 table cards are revealed, Sera winds up with an Ace-high Straight that is 100% guaranteed to be the best hand so far. John and William both start with small 20 bets, which Sera raises 100 confident that John can't bluff her this round. Both John and William decide to call, but when the 4th table card is revealed, they're surprised to see it come up as the Joker card.
William jokes that they gotta start over claiming that John forgot to take the Joker cards out, which he asks them not to take it seriously, and they continue playing. The real 4th table card is shown, which Sera is still confident that her Ace-high Straight is the best. John and William both bet 20 again, which she guesses that their hands must not be good if they keep doing small bets. Sera decides to go for it making a raise as high as 350, which John smiles and decides to make the call while a stunned William folds.
The 5th table card is then shown, which John confidently decides to go all-in, which would force Sera to bet the remainder of her chips. Sera finds it unbelievable that John would simply go for splitting the pot if it turns out that his two cards share the same Ace-high Striaght as her. However, said hand is no longer a guaranteed win now that there's 3 Hearts on the table, which could mean that John could beat her with a flush if it turns out that his hand consists of 2 Heart cards. Sera admits that he still can't read John's Poker face, but also figures she can't back down having already put so many chips in the pot. She decides to make the call, but sure enough, John reveals his 2 Heart cards; leaving Sera stunned that John made his flush at the last second. John excitedly grabs all the chips in the pot, which a salty Sera admits that John tricked her by betting low at first to make it look like he was weak only to come back and bite her once she already invested all her chips. However, John reassures her that she played the hand really well, and was just a victim to John getting lucky at the end. John asks if she wants to go again, but Sera replies that she just wants to go to bed.
That night, Sera had been provided John's bed while he and William sleep in the room with the couch. However, Sera remains wide awake thinking over the moment during the Poker game where William explained how one needs to presents itself in such a way to change how others perceive you. She thinks over how everything about the way John has presented himself with a strong attitude at school has now started to make sense. That it's possible he's applied Poker to real life to act confident towards those around him. However, she thinks over how John was acting today, and finds it off that unlike how she could see through his expressions in the past, today was a day where she couldn't see through him at all. Finally ready to doze off into sleep, Sera leaves off finding it strange that for once, she was the one being read like a book.
The next morning, John finishes up his homework, but his excitement ends up waking up his dad. John informs William about food in the fridge and a nearby place he can get more food, which John then heads off to Wellston. Shortly after, Sera exits from the bedroom wondering what all the noise is, which William informs her that John just left for school. William claims that he's going to go for a morning run, which surprises Sera. He explains that given how he's a cripple, he's got to stay in shape since his current body's all he's got. William offers if Sera would like to run with him, but she quickly declines.
At Wellston, Arlo is seen arriving at the press room. He greets Cecile, and claims that he's looking for some information. Cecile goes along with it, which Arlo states that he wants to know the name of anonymous writer who wrote the article on the recent Korovo Mall smoke bomb incident. The answer leaves Cecile disappointed knowing that he talked to Remi.
Cecile advises him to stop spoiling her since once he finally graduates, she believes Remi and the school's Jack, Blyke, will end up running the school to the ground just like Rei did during his term. The badmouthing of Rei annoys Arlo, which he gets close to her in a threatening manner to remind her of why she's no longer a Royal. Seeing a brief flashback of an injured but triumphant Remi standing over and reaching out to the defeated Cecile, Arlo reminds her that it was Remi who defeated Cecile in the past, and dethroned her as Wellston's Queen. As a result, Arlo claims that Cecile should be showing her respect, and that she's lucky enough to have not been destroyed by Remi a second time. Arlo activates his power in a threatening way claiming that he definitely would have, which frightens Cecile. He asks once more for the anonymous writer's name, which she finally reveals is Terrence. Satisfied that he got what he came for, Arlo gets up to leave while joking how easy this should have been for Cecile right in her face.
Elsewhere, John's father and Sera are seen exiting a restaurant with sandwiches; showing that Sera offered to show William around town. William admits that the sandwich place Sera suggested turned out to be legit, which Sera infroms him that there's a drink place called Woaba Boba selling drinks just as good they should try out some time. Sera then changes the subject asking William what inspired him to write UnOrdinary; explaining that it was difficult to read compared to other books. Finding the question surprising, William explains that as someone completely powerless, the world will feel unfair. That he got picked on a lot when he was young, which made for a bad experience. As a result, it left him to wonder what the world would be like if everyone was on equal footing. He questioned what the structure of society would be like if everyone was powerless, and if it turned out that there was one person who was all-powerful who could see the strengths and weakness of everyone. Someone who could potentially guide others to reduce the suffering.
William explains that if he was in the shoes of this all-powerful person, he would build a world that's open to everyone. Not one that just benefits the powerful. William admits that it was a bit childish to base a protagonist on himself, but also claims that it came as a shock to him that his book blew up after publication to the point of resonating with a lot of people. Some of which ended up becoming superheroes. Sera remains confused about why the book is dedicated to John if it's a story about William, which he answers that it's because John was a troubled kid back in the day. William explains that there was a time where John had a hard time dealing with certain realities, and that the only way he was finally able to properly communicate with John was by writing the UnOrdinary book. Sera remains lost in thought at the idea that John was once a troubled boy, which she listens to William claim that he feels relieved seeing how John appears to be ok after transferring to Wellston. He thanks Sera for looking out for his son, but Sera smiles back stating there's no need since John's been taking care of himself just fine.
Later in the day at John's home, William is about to get into a taxi to head back to work as John and Sera are with him to see him off. John is surprised to find that William chose to only visit for the one night, which William explains that he can't leave his editor alone for too long when they got so many projects being worked on at the moment. William also asks for his son to not do anything crazy, which John takes as a sign that his father still doesn't fully trust him. He then switches to appreciating meeting Sera as someone he can count on, which leaves John confused as to how they've already become friends after just one day.
Sera returns the appreciation of meeting William, and claims that along with UnOrdinary being an inspiring story, it shows that William is a strong person despite his situation as a cripple. She wishes for him to take care of himself, which a tearful William gives John and Sera a big hug goodbye. However, William pulls John off to the side to remind his son about what they talked about earlier. That the longer he keeps his secret hidden from Sera, the worse it all will get. John remains unable to answer for a bit, but then claims that he will eventually figure it out, and asks his father not to worry about him. He asks William to just worry about returning back safely, which his father, still clearly worrying, goes along with his son's words.
William waves goodbye and begins walking to the taxi. However, he thinks back to a memory of when William was visited by Claire holding her face in tears. While thinking about what went down between John and Claire, William is left hoping that John is making his choices carefully so that he doesn't go down the path of ruining himself again.
Following William's departure, John and Sera head inside the house. John complains about how tough the homework was, but he refuses to accept Sera's help on it. He also points out that it's the last day of Sera's suspension, but Sera isn't excited to go back. John remains surprised that Sera doesn't seem to thrilled about it, which Sera explains that it will be just like the old days where her fellow students do nothing but gossip about her for the next month talking about her suspension. She adds that she'd probably have been better off if she just got expelled, but John disagrees claiming that nothing good would come from having a fault on her record given how strong she is. Sera remains silent not knowing what to say, but starts to playfully foot tap him asking why he's so serious.
Sera then answers that she's just going to miss not having to deal with family and school, as well as her being nagged all the time. She admits that the talk with John's dad allowed her to clear her head and relax again, and that going back to school after all the fun she's had the past week is going to suck. In return, John smiles back claiming that she's going to be alright.
Meanwhile at Sera's home, Fyora is greeted at the door by two gentlemen from the Authorities, Keon and Zander. Fyora remains confused as to why the Authorities have stopped by, which she informs the two Authority workers that the Mr. and Mrs. of the house are not available until next week. Fyora asks them to return then, but as she's about to close the door, Keon forcibly keeps it open, and informs the butler that they're here to question Seraphina to see if she's truly ready to return to school following her suspension. He shows Fyora the authorization letter to allow them to question Sera, but the butler refuses their entry by informing them that Sera had already returned to Wellston a week ago.
Keon questions why they weren't informed of this, and asks for Sera's current location given that she's not allowed onto the Wellston campus until the suspension is up. In return, Fyora informs him that she's only provided information on a need-to-know basis; meaning that Sera obviously wouldn't tell her. She advises Keon to just question Sera the moment she returns to Wellston given that her location will be obvious to them by then, which Keon agrees they will do just that. The two Authority members leave, which Fyora closes the door, and breathes a sigh of relief.
The next day at Wellston, Keene is seen visiting Darren at the infirmary again, much to the former's annoyance. Keene questions if Darren's bad mood is because Leilah dumped him, which the doctor answers that there was no date due to it being cancelled on her side. Keene figures there's nothing to worry about claiming there must be a good reason for the cancellation, which Darren answers that it was due to her getting an urgent call from her employer that has resulted in her being sent away for two weeks. Keene notes that that's pretty short notice for a two week trip, which Darren agrees, and hopes it works out. Meanwhile in the school hallway, Elaine runs into Arlo. Elaine tries to avoid him, which Arlo quickly notices and asks her why she's giving him the cold shoulder. She claims to have not seen him, but Arlo could tell that's a lie, and asks if something's bothering her.
Elaine tries to explain that she just has a lot of stuff on her mind, and tries to leave, but Arlo grabs hold of her, and asks if she let it slip out what she saw at the Turf War location. She tries to deny she didn't blab to anyone, but Arlo remains unconvinced seeing Elaine in a state of nervousness. She remains unable to say anything, which the memory of John's threatening look when she was at his house causes her to stumble over. Arlo manages to catch her before she falls, and orders her once more to tell him what's going on since it's obvious to him at this point that she's hiding something.
Accepting that he has to tell him, Elaine first apologizes that despite Arlo wanting to hide what happened to him, she ended up unintentionally finding out what happened on her own, and is still in the process of understanding it all. The answer catches Arlo's attention, which Elaine reveals that she knows that the one who injured Arlo, Meili, and Ventus at the Turf War location was none other than John. Nearby, Terrence can be seen around the corner using his Invisibility to spy on the conversation between Elaine and Arlo; having overheard that John defeated Arlo and his lackeys.
Arlo asks her how she found out, which Elaine explains how Sera called her up shortly after she healed Meili and Ventus, and has actually been staying at John's place during the rest of her suspension. Elaine continues to explain that Sera tasked her to stop by John's house to heal him up, but during the Healing process, she could tell that he had received injuries from Meili's Demon Claw and Arlo's Barrier. She also notes that John caught on she found out, which Arlo orders her to explain what happened next fearing that John may have done something.
Shivering in fear, Elaine remembers the moment when John grabbed her face, and claims that he looked at her with nothing but a malicious glare, and as a result, she was afraid for her life. Arlo continues to remain silent listening to Elaine talk, which she states that there's something about John that's terrifying, which she came to the decision that it's better to not get involved with whatever's going on between Arlo and him. She also points out that unlike Arlo, she's unable to properly defend herself.
Elaine leaves off stating that she's now stuck not knowing what to do since she figures John will come after her at any time now that he knows her secret. After hearing everything, Arlo tries to reassure her that nothing will happen as long as John's secret doesn't get out and he continues to keep to himself. He advises Elaine to continue pretending that she didn't see anything, which Elaine asks if this is what Arlo's chosen to do as if he's now afraid of John. The revelation that he might be afraid of John comes as a shock to Arlo, but his attention is drawn to the nearby hallway corner sensing someone nearby. At this point, Terrence realizes he may have been noticed, and runs away.
Back at John's house, Sera has finished up packing for her eventual return to Wellston. After checking her phone for the time, Sera sees that she's still got two hours to kill. She decides to go for a walk, which she first stops by Woaba Boba for a drink.
Upon exiting the drink store, a blonde woman is seen keeping an eye on Sera from the outdoor table. Sera than continues her walk down the street, which the blonde woman is seen coming up behind her. Despite looking like she could be a threat, the blonde lady simply calls out to Sera, and asks for the time claiming that she left her phone at home. Sera goes along with it taking out her phone to provide the time, but from a distance, a gun vision is seen targeting Sera's location, which has Sera marked as Target 93. Unbeknownst to Sera, she ends up getting shot by some unknown ability, which causes her to drop her phone. The blonde lady apologizes to Sera seeing that the girl's phone broke from hitting the ground, and then leaves needing to be elsewhere; heavily implying that she was the distraction to make sure that Sera gets hit by the unknown ability.
Meanwhile, Sera remains confused as to what just shot her, and attempts to continue her walk. Her body is visibly shaking as a result of whatever the ability was she was shot by, but before she could think of anything else, a white work van suddenly appears behind her to try to run her over. Sera activates her Time Manipulation ability to dodge out of the way of being hit, but she's surprised to find her reaction time slower than usual. Her body is still visibly shaking while her ability is active, which shows that whatever she was mysteriously shot by is having an affect on her ability. Three strangers get out of the white work van to try to apologize for almost hitting her with their vehicle, which Sera replies that she's fine and advises them to drive safer next time. One of them tries to pull Sera along claiming they should take her to the hospital, but Sera starts to find the situation odd, and attempts to pull back from being taken with them.
Unbeknownst to Sera, a man who appears to have some sort of portal creating ability pops out of a portal hole in the ground behind her. Sera continues to try to convince the other strangers that she's fine, but one with a threatening looking smile assures her that they're just trying to make sure Sera is fine. At this point, Sera gets struck from behind by the portal guy; stabbing a syringe with a mysterious liquid into her neck to put some sort of substance into Sera. Realizing she's in danger, Sera activates Time Manipulation to quickly strike and knock down the four strangers that are a threat to her. However, she remains confused as to why she can't rewind time to heal the syringe injury on her neck. Sera approaches one her attackers ordering him to answer why they're attacking her, but the man replies that she's in no position to make demands, and should just come along with them if she doesn't want to be hurt further. Sera finds the threat to be a joke, but one of the attackers managed to get themselves back up, and stabs Sera in the right side of her back with a knife much to the latter's shock.
Quickly thinking over the recent attempts against her life just now, Sera remains unable to believe that there's people trying to kill her at the moment. Sera manages to use her ability to slam the stranger who stabbed her against the wall only to see that the other remaining two have now gotten back up, and have knives out as well ready to attack her. She then pulls out the knife from her body, but like before, is unable to rewind the wound on her body, which she deduces that whatever substance was in the syringe is affecting her ability. Her injuries are starting to affect Sera's consciousness, which she decides to time freeze her open back wound to keep it from bleeding further. She then uses the knife she now has, time jumps towards the two remaining attackers, and slices both of them across the chest. With her three knife attackers knocked out, Sera looks back at the first attacker she tried to question only to witness him escaping through a newly created portal in the wall. Sera attempts to chase after him, but is unable to due to the time stop keeping her back injury in check wearing off, which leaves her questioning if the injection did serious damage to her.
Sera remains lost in thought with so many questions as to who these people are, how many they are, how they're capable of affecting other people's abilities, and what their goal is to the point of trying to kill her. Realizing that she's still on the verge of losing focus, Sera begins to run away knowing that she won't survive another ambush in her current state. Shortly after, a struggling Sera is seen walking down the street being noticed by nearby citizens that she's injured.
Sera figures that her best bet is to get Elaine to heal her once she's returned to Wellston. She also remains watchful of the nearby citizens knowing that she could be attacked by unknown van group at any time, and might be hiding amongst the citizens. One of such citizens comes up to Sera claiming he could help her out, but Sera pulls out the knife she got got from the van attackers, and orders him to get away. Her knife action ends up drawing the attention of the nearby citizens now being afraid of her, but given that she's about to lose focus again, Sera chooses to run off.
Elsewhere, John is seen making his way home from school thinking over his next plan to help Sera move back into Wellston. He makes it home, but before entering, he notices the blood left behind on the door handle. John cautiously opens his door only to be left stunned at the sight of a bloody and injured Sera lying unconscious on the floor. John goes to grab Sera and tries to wake her up, which he notices her back injury, and is left confused as to someone as powerful as her ended up seriously hurt. He uses her phone to call Elaine knowing that his Healing can fix Sera. Doing homework in her Wellston dorm room, Elaine picks up thinking the call's from Sera, but she quickly hangs up hearing John's voice before he's able to fully explain to her what happened. John is left angry that Elaine hung up on him claiming that he will get her back for this while a scared Elaine wishes for him to leave her alone given that she knows he's secret.
John notices that Sera also has Arlo's phone number, which he sucks it up to attempt to call him despite what happened between the two of them. Like Elaine, Arlo picks up thinking that it's a call from Sera, but ends up surprised to hear John's voice quickly ordering him to bring Elaine to his home, which John then quickly hangs up before Arlo could question what's going on. Shortly after, Arlo is seen having gone along with John's order, and is now seen with Elaine inside John's home, which both of them are left stunned in disbelief at the sight of the powerful Sera in such an awful state.
Elaine quickly goes to Sera to heal her, but refusing to believe that someone could beat her other than John, she accuses him of doing this to her, and asks why she deserved it. Her accusation enrages John to the point of ordering her to shut up while slapping her across the face; a reaction that shocks both Elaine and Arlo. John yells at Elaine that he didn't call her over to hear her complaints, and orders her to heal Sera already. As Elaine goes about healing Sera's injuries, John remains silently watching while Arlo thinks over this odd turn of events. He finds it impossible that someone overpowered Sera or got the jump on her given her abilities.
Arlo concludes that the only possibilities of Sera losing is that she was either tricked somehow, or she just didn't use her abilitiy at all. Eventually, Elaine finishes Healing up Sera's injuries, but John remains unconvinced since Sera hasn't awoken. Elaine remains scared of John, which she notes that something about Sera seems off despite now being in a perfectly healthy state. The answer ends up enraging John again yelling at Elaine that she needs to be more specific instead of just stating the obvious, which a frightened Elaine claims she doesn't know since whatever's wrong with Sera is beyond her power. John gets ready to hit her again yelling that she's useless for someone who's a healer, but has his arm grabbed by Arlo telling him to stop. He points out that John has done nothing until now, and orders John to figure it out for himself since he's the one who wants to know the cause. In return, John orders Arlo to get his hand off him. Arlo remains silent for a bit continuing to hold John's arm, but he eventually lets go having left a mark on John's arm given Arlo's strength.
John looks back at Elaine, who's still frightened of him. A sight that causes John to remember back to Adrion being scared of him back at New Bostin. John finally decides to calm down, and activates his ability to copy Elaine's Healing ability. He uses Healing to scan around Sera's body for further injuries, surprising Elaine given that this is her first time seeing John's ability. His attention is finally brought to her neck having found the small hole left behind by the syringe, which shocks Elaine since it's an injury that even she couldn't sense. John remains confused as to what the injury is, but Arlo quickly deduces that it's from a needle. He adds that reason as to why Sera's not waking up is probably due to her being drugged. However, he's unable to understand how Sera was caught. John uses his copied Healing to heal the syringe hole, but he also replies back that he only wants to know who did this to her, and not how she got caught. He then picks up the unconscious Sera, and takes her back to his room for her to rest. Elaine attempts to stop him, but Arlo grabs hold of her to let John and Sera be alone for the time being.
Shortly after, John remains at Sera's side while she rests on his bed. He remains thinking over how he will get revenge on the people who did this to her. Meanwhile, Arlo remains in the next room sitting on John's couch thinking over how unsettling it is that he's never seen Sera need medical attention in the three years he's known her, yet she ends up injured and unconscious the first time seeing her after the suspension. He realizes that there's someone in the city that was capable of overpowering an ability as strong as Sera's Time Manipulation, which could end up posing a huge threat. He remains questioning what this person's motive is, why Sera was the target, and if Sera will be attacked again. At this point, Elaine returns offering him a glass of water, which he ends up rejecting. Arlo and Elaine sit together on the couch in silence until Elaine asks if everything's alright. He remains confused by the question, which Elaine explains how she's noticed that Arlo was once an assertive person in the past, but has now become someone who looks passive and afraid whenever John's involved.
Elaine then asks about what happened in his fight with John, and if him losing means that is John stronger. Thus, John's the true King of Wellston, but Arlo and John have agreed to keep this a secret. She figures that this is the reason why Arlo's been listening to whatever John says, but all Arlo does is glare back at Elaine, which frightens her. Elaine apologizes for her confusion possibly insulting Arlo, but all he states back to her is a reminder that nothing about the status quo changes as long as no one pisses John off, which she accepts.
As the night continues to go by, John has fallen asleep remaining seated next to Sera resting on his bed. Arlo and Elaine have also fallen asleep on the couch, but outside, the white work van that attacked Sera is seen arriving at John's house. Like before, the target vision is seen aiming at Target 93 (Sera) inside the house, and the same power that hit Sera in the first attack goes off to strike everyone currently within the house.
Shortly after, one of the van killers uses an unknown ability to suddenly appear within John's house, and prepares to stab the sleeping Arlo with a knife. However, Elaine wakes up at that exact moment, and calls out to Arlo to warn him. Elaine manages to shield Arlo by taking the knife to her arm while Arlo wakes up and grabs hold of the attacker's neck. Arlo then slams the attacker onto the floor, traps the both of them within his Barrier, and orders his attacker to reveal his purpose for being here.
Meanwhile, Elaine removes the knife from her arm, but she remains confused as to why her Healing is working slowly to fix up her wound. Elaine also notices that the attacker's knife looks just like the one that Sera had with her, which she calls out to Arlo to tell him that the attacker is the same one who got Sera. Before Arlo could question the attacker further, John comes barging into the room angry that the commotion woke up him. However, the sight of Elaine being injured and Arlo holding down an unknown attacker within his Barrier leaves him confused as to what's going on. Arlo explains that they've captured Sera's attacker who appears to have the balls to come back for her. However, John continues to remain confused wondering why he wasn't able to sense Arlo despite his Barrier being active.
John next stands with Arlo, who goes back to questioning his attacker. Arlo asks who he is and what he gains by doing this while John asks what he did to Sera, but the attacker refuses to answer, which angers John. Arlo notes the oddity that this all feels too easy due to the attacker choosing to not put up a fight, which he orders the attacker to answer how someone so weak was able to lay a hand on someone as powerful as Sera. At that moment, a crashing sound is heard in the next room, which grabs everyone's attention. John quickly realizes that the sound came from his room, and runs back to check on her fearing for the worst.
Elaine follows after him, which Arlo figures that this can only mean that there's more than one attacker, and that the one he's currently got trapped is just a decoy. Angry that he had been played, Arlo punches his attacker in the head to knock him out, and then moves to join back up with Elaine and John. Upon returning to his room, John finds a second attacker now holding an unconscious Sera, and is about to escape through the window he broke through.
John activates his power ordering the attacker not take another step, but his power ends up not working. He is forced to watch the attacker holding Sera use some sort of teleporting ability to safely land from the 2nd floor to the ground. The white van arrives to pick the attacker carrying Sera up, which an annoyed John follows after them through the window unable to understand why he was unable to summon up Arlo's copied Barrier just now.
John quickly lands onto the ground on his own strength, and races to move towards the van, which comes as a surprise to the attacker carrying Sera. Said attacker quickly tries to make it to the white van before John catches him, but he's forced to stop due to Arlo trapping him inside a Barrier with John. Arlo remains at the broken window with Elaine next to him watching down on what's unfolding within his Barrier. With nowhere left to run, the attacker pulls out his knife, and puts it up to Sera's neck; threating to kill her if John doesn't de-activate, and Arlo doesn't drop his Barrier.
John of course stops running towards the attacker due to Sera's life being threatened, but John acts confident claiming that what the attacker is saying is untrue given that he knows that the attacker isn't getting out of this alive if Sera actually dies since it's clear that they need her for something. John slowly approaches the attacker, but said attacker threatens that what he's saying isn't a joke. Making a cut on Sera's neck, the attacker claims that he doesn't care what happens to him since he's disposable while she's not given that she's more valuable than he is. He orders John to not get cocky, but John simply yells at him to let her go. The two remain at a standoff with the attacker ordering them once more to de-activate their powers. Eventually, John decides to give-in, and yells back to Arlo to drop his barrier. Arlo is unable to understand John's decision given that they will simply escape once the Barrier goes down, but John gives him a wink, which Arlo finds to be pure cringe.
John continues the act claiming that they got no choice since Sera has a knife to her throat, and that his power is messed up at the moment, which Arlo gives Elaine the order to go outside and remain on standby. Elaine heads off to leave the house, which John keeps up the yelling act that he will beat up Arlo afterwards if he doesn't drop the Barrier. However, Arlo finally notices what's up seeing John continuously look back at the attacker, which he deduces is John's been stalling to search for a possible opening to attack. Arlo goes along with the act reminding John that he's within his Barrier, and orders John to break out of it himself since he's not the one making the calls right now. Meanwhile, Elaine remains outside behind a corner of the house confused at the shouting match going on between Arlo and John.
Sick of watching the two shout at one another, the attacker holding Sera hostage orders them once more to de-activate their powers. However, John finally sees the opening when said attacker drops his guard a little by lowering the knife from Sera's neck, which John sees as the chance to go for it. Having copied the attacker's teleportation skill, John uses it to quickly appear in front of the attacker, and grabs hold of the knife before he could attempt to use it. John then drops a one-liner claiming he's dead, and gives the attacker a powerful knee to the gut, which slams him against Arlo's Barrier, and forces him to drop Sera. John then gives him a devastating punch to the face, which results in the attacker falling to the ground, and then John jumps upon him to keep the attacker pinned. Elaine sees this as her chance, and begins running towards Sera, which Arlo allows her to enter his Barrier.
Making it to Sera, Elaine is surprised to find Sera having slept through all that's happened; leaving her questioning what it was that they did to her. John remains on top of the attacker that was holding Sera hostage claiming that he's not done with him yet. The attacker is barely able to remain conscious, but is suddenly shocked at the sight of John stabbing him in the shoulder; reminding the attacker that he told him not to touch Sera. Scared for his life, the attacker yells out to the white work van to get John off him, which the van starts moving again to charge directly at Arlo's Barrier.
The Barrier ends up shattering due to the impact of the van, resulting in serious recoil damage upon Arlo. The van received some damage to its front upon hitting the Barrier, but it's still drivable to the point of slamming into John and knocking him away from the attacker he had pinned to the ground. John winds up getting knocked back to Elaine and Sera's location, and is unable to move due to his injuries. Meanwhile, Arlo is unable to believe that a simple van was able to break through his Barrier.
A new attacker is seen having gotten out of the white van, and is now using some sort of healing ability to fix the injury John gave to his partner's shoulder. The one who had Sera hostage claims that they need to get Sera and run, which Elaine reacts by picking up a knife to protect her friend, and yells at the attackers to leave them alone. However, John slowly gets back up despite his injuries from being hit by the van, which leaves the attackers stunned in disbelief. The attacker who took Sera hostage claims that they can just run him over again, but the healer attacker advises not to since they're running out of time before what they struck them with at the start wears off, which they're done for once it does. John glares towards them ordering the two attackers to explain what they're talking about, but they quickly get back in the van to begin their escape from the area.
Refusing to let them get away, John is able to summon up Arlo's copied Barrier this time, and traps the van within it. However, like before, the van proves itself to be powerful enough to smash through the Barrier even though John's copied Barrier is stronger than Arlo's; resulting in recoil damage to John. In the end, John is forced to watch the white van drive away and escape their grasp.
Shortly after, John, Arlo and Elaine are seen sitting at the table within John's house while the unconscious Sera remains resting on the couch. In addition, Elaine is currently Healing up the damage Arlo received from the fight. Arlo notices John still being in a bad mood, which he asks what the deal is. In return, John blames Arlo for failing his one job to keep his Barrier up so that John could finish off the guy who was holding Sera hostage. He also blames Arlo for letting the decoy who entered the house escape as well. The failures result in John calling Arlo useless, which finally angers Arlo to the point of yelling back.
Arlo calls John useless for leaving Sera alone in the first place, and that John lost focus by going after the attacker instead of focusing on getting Sera out of danger so that they can easily focus on capturing them later. He leaves off ordering John to evaluate himself before throwing the blame on others, which enrages John to the point of giving Arlo a punch to the face.
John orders him to watch his mouth, which Arlo grabs John's shirt ready for a fight. However, Elaine interrupts by begging them to stop despite knowing that they're both still angry over their loss. She explains that their best option at the moment is to figure out what's going on now that the threat is gone and Sera is safe again, which Arlo calms down having finally heard something sensible. John also goes along with dropping it, but the two remain glaring at one another. Shortly after, Arlo and Elaine remain at the table and John sits near the couch to be near Sera; all of them thinking over the battle they just had.
Arlo eventually talks first finding it ridiculous that two high-tiers were overpowered by a knife and a van, which causes John to look at the unconscious Sera knowing that the same thing happened to her. Continuing to talk, Arlo points out how the break-in was obviously premeditated since the attackers knew exactly what to do, and that it was no coincidence that they were having trouble controlling their abilities while it all went down. Elaine adds in that she was having trouble using Healing, which she questions what the attackers had that they managed to weaken everyone at once.
Listening to them talk, John thinks to himself that his lack of being able to sense Arlo's aura now makes sense since it's become clear that the attackers used something to weaken him beforehand. Arlo continues on that the one thing he finds odd is why the attackers decided to drive off when it looked like they were on the verge of getting everything they wanted, which Elaine answers that the attackers were talking to one another before they left, but she was unable to hear it.
John finally chimes into the conversation answering that he heard them say that the moment something wears off, they were done for, which makes it clear that the attackers were on some kind of timer. Hearing John speak for the first time, Arlo sarcastically welcomes him to the conversation, which irritates John. After hearing John's answer, Elaine admits that something wearing off could be the case given that her Healing started to properly work again after the attackers left, but she ignored it at first thinking that just the attackers leaving brought her back to normal.
Having heard enough, Arlo pieces it together that whatever dampening ability they used beforehand to weaken them was on a limited time, and that they had to quickly run away before the effect wore off. As a result, Arlo states that it's pretty clear what happened to Sera at this point: the van attackers used a dampening ability to weaken and catch her, she managed to escape to John's house, they traced her back to John's home, and whatever they injected her with has left her unconscious. Despite knowing that, Arlo is left to wonder how they managed to find her. The only two answers he could think of being that they either followed her, or that they already knew where she was going to go.
The latter answer shocks Arlo to think back to the talk he had with Remi on the park bench regarding the smoke bomb incident at Kovoro Mall. Arlo remembers how the reason the incident happened to begin with was due to Remi finding the tracker chips within the stuffed bear rewards, and remembers Remi mentioning that the same chip was found within Sera's stuffed bear. Arlo calls over to John, and asks about that time he and Sera visited the booth that took ability measurements at Kovoro Mall. John asks how Arlo knows about that, which Arlo answers that Remi approached the same booth a week later and found a tracker in the teddy bear reward that she also found within Sera's.
When John asks about the tracker, Arlo begins to answer what a tracker does, which irritates John given that's not what he meant. Arlo next asks if Sera stopped by John's home with the teddy bear before returning to the Wellston dorms, which John answers she did. This causes John and Elaine to realize what Arlo's getting at that John's home has been under surveillance ever since the day Sera stayed over with the tracked teddy bear. John refuses to believe it, and even calls out Arlo for spreading lies, which Arlo asks why this is something he would choose to lie about. John explains that such logic is hard to believe that a group of mall dudes have been watching him for a month-and-a-half just to kidnap someone who doesn't even live at his home, and that John would have surely noticed something was off during that time.
John concludes that this is just a case of Sera being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but Arlo finds said answer ridiculous that John believes a group of random people could managed to stab, drug, find, and launch a calculated attack upon someone as powerful as Sera all within 12 hours. John still refuses to believe it bringing up that Sera never mentioned to him the bear tracker, which gets Arlo even more irritated that John is changing the subject. He tries once more to get it through to John that the people who just attacked them have been planning Sera's abduction for over the past month. However, said reply ends up annoying John even further.
John points out to Arlo that not everyone spends a month planning the downfall of a single person. This catches Arlo off-guard knowing what John is referring to remembering back to trying to force out John's power at the Turf War location. From then on, John and Arlo stay silent to one another while Elaine, knowing they're in a bad mood, remains afraid of bothering either of them.
Eventually, John finally speaks again to Arlo asking what he thinks the attackers want with Sera if it turns out that everything Arlo said just now is true. In return, Arlo asks how he would know something like that. Afterwards, Elaine reminds them that Sera's still unconscious, and that she's been worried about her. She asks if they should perhaps take her to a hospital, or even the Authorities, which Arlo agrees is the best course of action. However, John simply answers no to the idea of bringing her to the Authorities. He states that they should call Doctor Darren in the morning, and tell what happened to Headmaster Vaughn. Hearing John's rejection to the Authorities leaves Arlo in silence not knowing what to say.
Hours later at John's house, morning of the next day arrives, and Sera is seen finally waking up from her unconsciousness on the couch. Sera feels her head due to a bad headache, which she sees that John had fallen asleep sitting near her against the couch, and Arlo and Elaine had fallen asleep at the table. The sight of Arlo being at John's home leaves Sera confused as to what's going on.
Sera suddenly remembers back to everything that happened the moment the van killers tried to kill her. The memory causes Sera to begin to feel nauseous, which she grabs her mouth, and gets up to run for John's bathroom. John wakes up seeing Sera run for the bathroom and goes after her. Sure enough, he watches Sera throw-up into the toilet. John goes over to check on her asking if she's alright, but Sera is unable to answer still feeling that something's off. Trying to ask her once more if she's alright since John states that it's clear to him that she's acting strange, which gets Sera to finally focus.
Sera claims that there's something she wants to check, which she heads over to John's bedroom and John follows after her. She grabs his electronic desk cloak, but upon looking at it for a few moments, she's left stunned in disbelief at the sight of it being unchanged. Unable to believe what's going on, Sera reveals to John that she's unable to activate her ability. John remains confused by the statement, which Sera explains that nothing about her feels different despite trying to activate her Time Manipulation this whole time. A shocked Sera is unable to believe that this happened, and questions what her attackers did to her, and what she's supposed to do from now on. Before her breakdown could go any further, John tries to reassure her that it's still too early to jump to conclusions given that Sera had just woken up from being unconscious for almost a whole day.
John adds that the syringe drug affecting her is probably still in her body, and that they can still talk to Doctor Darren about it. Thinking it over, Sera ends up agreeing with John's logic. Moments after, Arlo and Elaine enter the room, which the two of them give Sera a greeting. Given her earlier confusion, Sera asks why Arlo is here. However, John steps in telling a lie that Arlo tagged along after he called up Elaine. John also explains the event that happened last night that they fought off the attackers who drugged her, but they were unable to catch them due to the attackers having some sort of dampening effect ability. The last detail being something that catches Sera's attention. John also lies that it was Arlo specifically who fought them off, which Arlo thinks to himself that John is such a fake person. Finishing up the story, John points out that everything is alright now given that Sera is safe, which he playfully points back at Arlo asking his buddy if he's right.
In return, Arlo is left cringing at the sight of the obvious fake person that John is acting as, and just orders John not to call him his buddy. John then brings up that he still has to make the call to Doctor Darren, and asks if he could borrow Arlo's phone. He then uses his true persona to remind Arlo that a group of jerks broke his phone, which Arlo is forced to go along with, and hands over his phone to John. Arlo finds it odd that John actually has Darren's phone number, which John explains that the doctor providing him his number due to Darren not trusting John to take care of himself. As John begins to make the call, Sera remains silent still trying to get a handle of her current situation.
Darren picks up the phone on his end, which John gives his hello. However, Darren instantly hangs up, which leaves Arlo amused at John's struggles. John attempts to call Darren again, which the doctor yells in anger that it's a Saturday morning. The doctor is about to hang up again wanting to go to sleep, but John quickly explains to him that the problem isn't about him, but rather about Sera. Darren asks what John means by that, but John is unable to answer since they don't know either.
John states that he hopes the doctor can meet them at the Wellston infirmary about this. Darren goes along with it, but yells in anger before hanging up due to not wanting to work on a Saturday. Meanwhile, John informs the group that they're good to go despite Arlo thinking otherwise given Darren's rage.
Some time after, John and Sera are seen in the Wellston infirmary. Sera is about finished getting a check up from Doctor Darren, who informs her that everything from heart rate to blood pressure appears normal, but also admits that he's never heard about a drug that surppresses abilities before. Having Sera's blood sample, he states that he'll inform her of the test results once they get back, and reassures her that if it's like any other drug, it will wear off after about four days.
Finally, he asks Sera to return to him if it turns out that her ability hasn't recovered beyond that timeframe. Darren asks if they told Headmaster Vaughn about this incident, which John answers that Arlo and Elaine are doing it for them. The doctor then gives the two of them a warning to keep Sera's depowering a secret since the other students will definitely try to take advantage of the situation if they find out. He also glares at John to not give him any further trouble given how busy he always is as the school's doctor. With everything done, Darren states that the two are free to go, which John gives the doctor an apology for bothering him on a weekend. In return, Darren leaves yelling in annoyance at himself that becoming a school nurse was supposed to bring low stress. Shortly after, John and Sera are seen walking in the school hallway.
Sera admits that she's still having trouble processing how surreal her current situation is, which John assures her that she's got nothing to worry about. He points out that he's been playing cripple his whole life, and that as long as they keep this a secret, four days will be a piece of cake. In return, Sera tries to reassure herself that this will indeed be the case that there's no need to worry; believing that her power will return soon enough.
Meanwhile in the Headmaster's office, Vaughn thanks Arlo and Elaine for informing him about everything that went down revolving around Sera. Vaughn states that he will be sure to tell Keene of this, which he asks if they have anything else to tell him about. Arlo states they don't, which Vaughn allows him and Elaine to leave.
As the two of them leave Vaughn's office, Elaine tells Arlo how she's still unable to wrap her head around the thought that the three strongest Wellston students, John, Arlo, and Sera, ended up letting their attackers get away. She's left questioning what else the attackers got up their sleeve, but Arlo reassures her that they're protected by the Headmaster and Keene now that they've informed them of what happened.
As they continue their walk through the school, Arlo can tell from Elaine's visible fear that something is still bothering her. Elaine replies that she's just been thinking about John, and how she never expected someone like him to be such a high ranker. She states that the very thought of him has made her feel uneasy, but Arlo reassures her that there's nothing to worry about since it's clear that John has always been a strong person. Thus, nothing will change, and that the only difference now is that they know more information about him than before.
Given that they had to stay up all night, Arlo gives off a yawn claiming that his next action is to get some sleep. He also advises Elaine to do the same given that she had to use her Healing a lot last night. As Arlo walks away, Elaine is left to think about how what Arlo said just now is the truth. That everything is still in its place despite knowing the past week how strong John truly is. She thinks over how despite everything that's happened, Arlo and Remi are still the school's King and Queen, John still acts like a cripple, and Sera is still someone who keeps to herself. In the end, Elaine feels reassured that nothing at Wellston has changed. Meanwhile, John and Sera are seen exiting Wellston, and giving smiles to one another.
