[Third Person Pov]
Clark looked back and forth between Itsuki, who was straddling his waist, and the three girls standing frozen in the classroom doorway staring at them. For a long moment, the air felt thick with awkward silence. Then, with a heavy sigh, he plopped his head back onto the cool floor, staring up at the ceiling tiles as if they might offer some escape. He wasn't typically a religious person, but in situations like this, he couldn't help but turn to a higher power. "Great Rao…" he muttered under his breath, the ancient Kryptonian words slipping out like a quiet prayer.
"I-It's not what you think!" Itsuki stammered, waving her hands frantically toward the girls in a desperate attempt to explain. Her voice cracked with embarrassment. "Something happened to Clark! I tripped and we just… ended up like this!"
"Something happened to Clark?" Haruna asked, her voice laced with genuine concern as she stepped slightly forward. Beside her, Komi looked equally worried, her usual composure momentarily forgotten as she stared wide-eyed at the scene before her.
"Nothing happened to me," Clark grumbled, sitting up slowly while keeping one hand gently but protectively on Itsuki's back. The subtle gesture didn't escape the girls' notice, their eyes narrowing with curiosity. "I was just startled by the sound of the bell, that's all."
Itsuki's face burned a deep shade of crimson as she remained pressed against his broad chest, her brain short-circuiting for a few precious seconds. The warmth of his body, the steady rhythm of his heartbeat—it was all too much. She let out a small, involuntary "Eep!" when he effortlessly lifted both her and himself off the floor in one smooth motion, as if she weighed nothing at all. He carefully set her down on the edge of a nearby desk, his movements gentle yet strong.
Lala's sharp eyes darted from Itsuki's flushed expression to Clark's composed face, then to the strange mix of concern and suspicion playing across Haruna and Komi's features. A slow, knowing smile spread across her lips, but she wisely kept quiet, clearly enjoying the unfolding drama.
"Are you three going to just stand there in the doorway all day, or are you actually going to come in?" Clark asked, adjusting his glasses with a casual push of his finger before grabbing the fallen broom and dustpan and stowing them neatly in the supply locker at the back of the classroom.
"Right, sorry about that," Haruna said sheepishly as the trio finally entered the room, closing the door behind them. "It was just… strange, finding you two in such a position."
"Ughhh," Itsuki groaned, burying her face in her hands for a moment before hopping down from the desk with a frustrated huff, she shyly started to fix her hair, making sure it wasn't chaotic. Her eyes shifted from Clark towards the girls by the door and didn't know what to say.
Sensing the growing awkwardness thickening the air between Clark and Itsuki, Lala decided to step in and save them. She quickly changed the subject with her usual bubbly energy. "Itsuki, right? Why didn't you come to Clark's birthday party yesterday? Your sisters showed up and had a great time!"
'Lala, I promise to pamper you lots later,' Clark thought inwardly, a wave of gratitude washing over him as he celebrated her timely intervention, 'Although I heavily thought they really had a great time…'
"I just didn't feel like going…" Itsuki replied, glancing away for a brief moment before snapping her gaze back to Clark. "Oh, right—thanks for the cake, by the way. It was really good."
Clark scoffed lightly, his smile turning more amicable and teasing as he leaned against the desk behind her. "Feeling any regret for not showing up?" he asked, crossing his arms.
"Nope!" Itsuki shot back proudly, plopping down into her seat with dramatic flair. "Because I still got to eat the cake without having to attend and see your stupid face the whole time."
The group started to chuckle, the tension easing as more classmates began filtering into the room. The embarrassing moment was soon forgotten amid the growing chatter and shuffling of chairs, blending into the normal morning bustle of the classroom.
As class began, Clark rested his head down on his folded arms, half-listening to the teacher's voice droning on. In front of him, Itsuki squinted hard at the blackboard, struggling to make out the distant writing before she reached into her bag and pulled out her signature red-framed glasses, sliding them onto her face with a small sigh of relief.
By the second period, Clark felt a crumpled paper ball bounce lightly off his shoulder. He glanced sideways and spotted Komi as the obvious culprit, her expression a mix of curiosity and lingering worry. Unfolding the note, he read the simple question: *Are you okay?*
Clark responded with a reassuring thumbs-up and quickly scribbled in his notebook: *I'm good. Just a long night.* He held it up briefly for her to see.
Komi tilted her head, responding with a small, puzzled question mark sketched in the corner of her own notebook before lifting it up slightly to show to Clark.
Not seeing a reason to really hide it, Clark flipped to the back of his notebook and began drawing a deliberate storyboard. Panel by panel, he sketched an epic tale: himself launching off-world, freeing an entire planet from the grip of a tyrannical dictator, and finally stopping a massive moon from crashing into a populated world. He lifted the notebook over to Komi with a subtle grin.
Komi blinked several times, staring at the drawings in disbelief. She flipped to an empty page, drew an enormous question mark, and circled it repeatedly with increasing emphasis before holding it up. Her face wore a perfectly perplexed and slightly startled expression.
Clark looked away, stifling a quiet laugh behind his hand, then wrote another quick note: *I'll explain later.* He offered her a small, conspiratorial wink as the lesson continued around them.
As the third period bell rang, Clark kept his face buried in his arms at his desk, secretly wincing in pain. His hand tightened into a white-knuckled fist beneath the table as a flash of raw irritation crossed his features. Each time the bell rang to indicate the next period felt like torture personally designed just for him, his abilities were getting more and more out control.
In the middle of class, his breathing grew heavy and labored. A sheen of sweat glistened across his forehead while his feet tapped an anxious, rhythmic pattern against the floor, betraying the storm raging within.
"Kal-El," Sol's voice echoed urgently in his mind, filled with concern. "Your body temperature is increasing exponentially. It is not safe for everyone if you remain here. Your abilities are unstable—you're putting everyone in danger—"
"I know," Clark whispered back through gritted teeth, his voice a low, frustrated growl. "I don't need you stating the fucking obvious."
Clark abruptly stood up, his chair scraping loudly against the floor and startling the entire classroom. Without another word, he began moving quickly toward the exit.
"Where do you think you're going?" the teacher called out, attempting to stop him.
"Bathroom. I'll ask for your permission when I get back," Clark replied curtly as he slammed the door behind him, shutting his eyes as he felt a sudden pressure spike behind them, and sped-walked down the hallway, one hand pressed firmly over his eyes beneath his glasses.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," he cursed repeatedly under his breath, feeling the intense heat behind his eyes rapidly building. He pushed open the bathroom door with his shoulder and rushed straight to the sink, gripping the edges of the porcelain as much as he could without shattering it.
Clark hunched over, panting heavily, desperately trying to use every mental technique he knew to control his powers. But they were escalating far faster than he could suppress them.
"Ahhh!" He grunted and the moment he looked up into the mirror and opened his eyes, two blazing golden-red orbs stared back at him—twin suns trapped within his sockets, pulsing with uncontrollable energy.
"I can't… lose… control… urghh!" Clark gritted his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut as hard as he could. Even then, the searing light still bled through his closed eyelids, casting an eerie glow across his face as he fought to contain the destructive force threatening to break free.
"Kal-El, you need to release it!" Sol exclaimed worriedly inside his head. "It's too dangerous for you to contain such uncontrollable power. It could create a catastrophic backlash—"
"Are you crazy?! I can't do that here—it'll kill everyone!" Clark growled as fiery energy began leaking from the corners of his tightly shut eyes. "It's too much power… too much heat…It'll vaporize the entire school"
"I don't mean here!" Sol instructed sharply. "You need to fly as far away from here as possible and release it! Do it quickly!!"
"Fuck!" Clark exclaimed. In a burst of super speed, he exited the bathroom with a powerful gust of wind that slammed the door shut behind him on its own.
"..."
A minute later, Joichirou cautiously peeked his head out from one of the bathroom stalls, wide-eyed as he looked around. "I don't think I was supposed to hear any of that…"
Clark moved at blinding super speed, spiraling up the stairs and bursting through the rooftop access door without hesitation. He launched himself into the sky, releasing powerful shockwaves in his wake as his flight path became increasingly erratic. He flew while clutching his eyes, doing everything he could to suppress the growing inferno within.
"Here—" Sol began to say, Clark took a sharp nose-dive at the first indication, crash-landing violently in the middle of a vast, frozen arctic wasteland.
A massive pillar of snow and ice erupted into the air from the impact site. Clark rolled across the snow-covered ground, when he finally stopped he was on his hands and knees, his fingers curling desperately into the white powder as he tried to ground himself.
"Release it! Now!!" Sol's voice rang urgently in his mind.
Clark let out a deep, primal growl as chunks of ice and snow began levitating around him from the sheer pressure radiating from his body. His eyes snapped open wide, and he unleashed a deafening roar.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
Two colossal plasma beams of golden-red energy erupted outward from his eyes in an uncontrollable, cataclysmic burst. The intense heat instantly vaporized the snow in a wide radius around him, turning it into superheated steam that exploded upward in a roaring column. The ground beneath him cracked and melted, carving deep, glowing trenches into the ancient ice shelf as the beams carved across the arctic landscape for miles, melting glaciers and sending torrents of boiling water cascading in every direction.
The raw power continued pouring out of him for several long, terrifying seconds, reshaping the frozen terrain in a blinding display of destructive force. Mountains of ice hissed and collapsed into liquid, and the air shimmered with heat distortion as the beams finally began to weaken and fade.
As the last remnants of the massive laser blast dissipated, a giant wave of newly melted water—formed from the rapid thawing of countless tons of ice—rose up like a surging tsunami. The enormous wave crashed violently over Clark, slamming into him with tremendous force and nearly knocking him off his feet. The icy-cold flood engulfed his body completely, drenching him from head to toe and washing away the residual heat still radiating from his skin.
Left panting heavily on his knees in the newly formed shallow lake of churning water, Clark gasped for air, his chest rising and falling rapidly as his hair clung to his face. The aftermath of the blast was now fully revealed around him: a massive, steaming crater of melted ice stretched outward for hundreds of meters, with rivers of water flowing through newly carved channels across the arctic plain. Smoke and vapor still rose into the cold air as the frozen wilderness had been violently transformed into a temporary inland sea.
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