Lê Quý Đôn High did not burn with fire.
It burned with phones.
Screens glowed from windows, stairwells, bike racks, classroom corners. Students who should have gone home lingered behind pillars and fences, hungry for disaster because they had never seen disaster choose them first.
Thuận's people moved quietly.
Tân Thành guided ordinary students toward the west gate with a calm voice and visible shoulders. Tân Phong vanished and reappeared near exits, cutting off Lao's scouts before they could seal paths.
Minh entered last.
Not because he feared being seen.
Because if he entered first, everyone would look at him and forget to run.
Phong walked somewhere behind him, hands in his pockets, as if attending a street performance.
"Remember," he said. "Interesting does not mean uncontrolled."
"You give terrible encouragement."
"I do not encourage."
The first scream came from the old court.
It was not loud enough to be horror yet.
Only enough to make everyone understand that the night had stopped pretending to be a rumor.
Hữu Lực had thrown one of Thuận's boys into the chain-link fence.
"Where's the monster?" Hữu Lực shouted. "Lao said he was coming!"
Minh stepped onto the court.
The crowd shifted.
Fear recognized him before faces did.
Hữu Lực smiled.
"There he is."
Gomboc rose.
"Big one first..."
Minh breathed.
One intent.
Clear the path.
Hữu Lực charged.
Minh did not meet force with force.
One Beat.
He stepped inside, redirected the shoulder, and drove one palm into Hữu Lực's ribs.
Not full power.
Enough.
Hữu Lực hit the ground gasping.
The court went silent.
Minh opened his hand and stepped back.
No follow-up.
No stomp.
No rage.
From the upper walkway, Lao laughed.
"Good," Lao called. "You're learning how to hurt properly."
Minh looked up.
Lao's eyes were bright with delight.
"Don't look so disgusted. That was beautiful."
"This ends tonight," Minh said.
"No." Lao leaned on the railing. "Tonight you finally stop lying."
------
On the east stairs, Khánh appeared with two Ernest Thälmann boys.
He saw Minh and smiled.
"How's your friend's hand?"
The pulse spiked so hard Minh's vision flashed white.
Phong's voice cut from below.
"If you chase, you lose."
Khánh backed away, baiting.
Minh's foot moved.
Then stopped.
Tân Phong appeared behind Khánh and swept his legs out from under him.
"Scout handles scout," Tân Phong said.
Khánh hit the stairs with a curse.
Minh looked away.
It felt like ripping a hook out of his own chest.
------
The conflict spread in controlled pockets.
Tân Thành held the main hallway.
Hữu Lực found him there after crawling back to his feet, rage turning his face red.
"You," Hữu Lực growled. "Big shield."
Tân Thành planted himself between Hữu Lực and a group of students trapped near the stairwell.
"They leave first."
"Make me wait."
Hữu Lực charged like a truck.
Tân Thành took the impact with both feet rooted. The collision drove him back half a step, then no farther. His arms wrapped low around Hữu Lực's waist, not hugging, locking. Hữu Lực hammered elbows into his shoulder and neck.
Tân Thành's face tightened.
He did not let go.
"Move!" he shouted behind him.
The students ran.
Only then did Tân Thành shift. Hip under center. Foot outside. Pull, turn, drop.
Hữu Lực slammed into the floor hard enough to crack tile.
Tân Thành staggered, blood running from his lip.
"Protector type," Hữu Lực coughed.
"Door," Tân Thành corrected, raising his guard again. "And you're not through."
Thuận confronted Hạo Kỳ near the old gym entrance, two strategists speaking softly while everyone around them waited for violence.
Phong watched Minh more than the fight.
And Lao watched everything.
He looked happiest when Minh trembled.
Not when Minh won.
When Minh almost lost control.
Because every almost was proof to him.
The sheep had teeth.
Now Lao only needed to make it bite.
Minh heard laughter somewhere behind him and could not tell whether it came from students, enemies, or the thing waiting under his ribs.