An emergency meeting is held after the day's classes in my dorm room which I share with Izumi, Ririka, Anna, and Natsumi. It is ordered by Shun. He's got the magnetic type of personality; he can just snap his fingers and people will come running. Me, I don't think I can get people to listen even if I yell until I'm hoarse and get on the horse.

Lame, I know.

Most of my classmates are here, which aren't a lot since we're kind of a small class- our mindhackers academy is pretty exclusive, we have standards, so not many who had taken the entrance exam got in.

The only one who's not here is Anna, which is ironic because this room is hers too, but Anna never participates in things like this. She's too busy studying her heart out in the library. I have a feeling that Anna doesn't like me; in fact I'm pretty sure she's pissed at me today because she was one of the people who shrieked at me to put up shields during our mock-mission and I obviously did not do as I was told.

I tried, of course, but I don't think Anna will find it a valid excuse. She has very little patience for people who aren't useful, like me. I can see her now, flicking her long hair behind her shoulders, lifting her wire-rimmed glasses, and glaring intensely at me with her bug eyes, coming so close I can see her oily forehead, growling damn you Tomomi you have messed up yet again-

But less about annoying Anna and more about Shun.

Shun is perched on Natsumi's bed, the top bunk above Ririka's. I share a bunk with Izumi and Anna has a bed all to herself because she thinks she's cool and better than everyone else and all that jazz.

But again, less about annoying Anna and more about Shun.

He clears his throat. "So, guys, we know that Tomomi's been to the principal's office today, and she's got bad news. I think we can help."

I can see from the corner of my vision Izumi eyeing me in surprise. How does he know? She mouths. I've never told her about the pencil code.

But it's not the time to answer her question now because all eyes in the room are on me. I choke on my words awkwardly.

"Uh, um, you guys know how shit I am at mock-missions right?" I say, and am immediately countered by a chorus of "nah"s and "oi you're great don't be down on yourself"s. Really encouraging, my classmates are.

I thank them with a slight smile and continue. "So um, Mr. Yamada told me this afternoon that I have only the rest of the school year to make myself actually useful in a mission, or else I will get expelled, basically."

Everyone starts protesting and shouting all at once. We may not be many people but this is also not a big dorm room and I almost have to cover my ears. I'm overly sensitive to sound and loud noises make me dizzy.

"But you're doing just fine in class, right? Like last week you got a 100 percent full score in history," Izumi points out from her bed, where she is seated. Izumi sits on her hair a lot because it's way too long. Back when I first met her here at school it was waist-length, and we don't have barbers here in our academy and she doesn't want to cut it with normal scissors and it's already been almost one year so you can imagine how long it is now.

"I know, but we're mindhackers, right? Like if I can't mindhack properly, it doesn't matter how I do in other classes," I explain. "I'll be a burden to any team on a mission with me."

"Well who cares how much of a burden you are? We're willing to carry you through the missions, we can tell Yamada-" Natsumi begins hotly. Natsumi may do ice-related stuff and have a wonderfully chiseled face of an ice princess, but inside she's full of burning fiery passion. However, she falters when she sees the look on my face.

"You can't carry me forever, Natsumi," I whisper. "You guys are so good. I don't want to hold you back."

And I mean it. I'm a burden to any team I'm on. I'll probably be better off becoming a nurse or something. Maybe open my own nail art studio.

"Yes, we can't carry you forever," Shun agrees solemnly. "That's why we're going to help you find a weapon that you can actually use before the end of the school year!"

Everyone cheers. Shun has that effect on people, sometimes it's scary.

"And the end of the school year is like one month away, so we'd better hurry," Katsuki, a dude with shoulder-length hair and magnificent eyebrows, states. Katsuki is the brains of our class. He's always inventing nifty little gadgets-hovering skateboards, super elastic yoyos, spiked hula-hoops that make crazy good weapons for mindhacking missions.

You guessed it, Katsuki's got a thing for toys.

Mindhacking is just the right job for a guy like him. I mean, the basic concept we are all taught to remember is that once you're in someone else's mind, real world laws don't apply, so as long as you believe you can, you can make anything happen. It's easier said than done, of course, because you need to completely focus on believing in the one thing, to the point that you forget that real world physics has ever existed, to the point that you can smell and hear and touch and visualize whatever you want to make happen. Most people can only do one thing at a time because focusing on two is just too mentally taxing, which is why most of my classmates have only one specialized weapon-it's the one object they're best at focusing on and can conjure up the easiest.

In short, you need to have an inventive mind to be a good mindhacker, and Katsuki clearly has an inventive mind. And a good imagination too.

I feel a bit offended sometimes. I have a good imagination too, I think, but I just can't conjure up gadgets like Katsuki. In fact I can't conjure up anything.

Katsuki turns to me, spinning a pen-whiteout hybrid that he had constructed himself. "We'd better start from something you're good at. The better you're at it, the easier you'll be able to conjure it. Think Yukiya and fire."

I nod. Yukiya is another one of our classmates, and he's reportedly been playing with matches since he was two. After becoming a mindhacker, he has rapidly improved to throwing gigantic fireballs and conjuring up explosives and fireworks as his weapons.

Frankly it's probably a good thing he got into our school and became a mindhacker, because now that he can throw fireballs in people's heads he doesn't get the urge to play with fire as much in real life, which automatically makes people around him safer. I swear if Yukiya hadn't joined our school he would probably become an arsonist. He has this dangerous glint in his eyes-quite the daredevil.

The daredevil himself grins at me. "Tomomi, think deep inside you and tell us what you really enjoy doing, what you're really good at. Tell us something that you like as much as I like fire."

I mull over Yukiya's words. What am I good at? What do I like? Eating ramen, that I am good at. I also like zenzai, which is a kind of shaved ice.

"I like ramen and zenzai," I tell the room sheepishly. "But those can't be weapons can they?"

"'Course they can be weapons," Katsuki argues. "If Ririka can turn her clothes into flying carpets why can't ramen and zenzai be weapons?"

He has a point there. But then, Ririka is really good, quite possibly the best mindhacker of us all, because she had mastered flying, the ultimate form of defying physics, and that's something most of our teachers can't even do. It takes a lot to believe that you can throw fireballs, but it takes a lot lot more to really, wholeheartedly believe that you can fly.

I envy Ririka sometimes. She had taken me flying before on a larger shawl in a couple of mock missions, and it was the most amazing feeling ever known to man. She is a tiny and slender fluffball of a girl, very quick and very optimistic. She is built to fly.

On the other hand, I wonder if I'm built to fight with ramen.

"How do I even fight with ramen?" I whine.

"You can, uh, imagine that the noodles stretch out really far and are flexible and use them as sort of whips?" Katsuki suggests. He's the guy with all the ideas.

"But won't the soup drip down and scorch me?" I whine harder.

"Okay, maybe not ramen," Katsuki concludes.

Shun has been sitting there, legs dangling over the top bunk, just thinking. And then he speaks. "Tomomi, aren't you good at that thing-what's it called-the elega?"

Everyone begins speaking all at once again.

"Elega?"

"You play the elega?"

"You play the freaking elega?"

"What's an elega?"

The last question came from Hiroki, Katsuki's boyfriend. Hiroki has cute puppy eyes and always looks like he's cold and needs cuddles. He's very easily confused.

"Why don't you show him?" Shun says to me, with a subtle wink, which is cheesy but he's cheesy like that.

I acutely feel the eyes of the whole room on me, and suddenly become very nervous. I expected this to be a gathering for me to kind of tell everyone I'm probably leaving and maybe I'll hug my classmates and say how much I love them. I did not expect to be holding a solo elega concert.

But Hiroki is looking at me with pleading puppy eyes and Shun is beaming all damn proud like he knows my best kept secret and I just can't say no to that.

So I pull out my elega from my closet and begin to play.