Misato Aokigahara's Story

"Aaaaahhhh...." Misato let out a loud yawn after he had thrown the last of the garbage cans into the large incinerator. As part of the school's voluntary cleaning crew, he was required to come to school as early as possible in order to empty out all the garbage cans so the day can start fresh. It was not a very pleasant task but it puts some spare cash in his wallet. This was how he was starting every school day for four years now.

"All right." He turned to face at the large Crescent Academy main building, as he swiped some sweat from his forehead. "All right, what's next?" He ran to a little piece of scrap paper that lists down all the room assignments. "Next is...my room." He shoved the paper down his pocket and went inside the building to drop the bin there first before heading to his classroom. He pushed back the sliding door and saw two students, both female, conversing with each other. From the looks of it, they were so engrossed in what they were talking about that he felt that he no longer needed to alert them of his presence. So he simply walked over to the far side of the door, took the bin there and left without saying anything else. He went back down and did the same thing that he did with the earlier ones.

"Yeah, burn little trash menace..." He laughed to himself as he watched the incinerator take care of everything else. He glanced at his old digital wristwatch and saw that it was almost time for homeroom. "Whoops, better run!" He took off, joining the other students who were starting to flock the main building entrance though, while the others were carrying huge backpacks and handheld bags, he was lunging a giant trash can instead. He managed to get back to his classroom in time to put back the old waste basket and fix his things.

Mikuru blushed at the statement. "I-I'm nothing special r-really... But, th-thank you for the advi-vice, Ciel..." Mikuru smiled warmly. She really did like her new friend. She found a certain happy spark in her that she never even knew she had. Perhaps it might have been enough to convince she was not as worthless as she seemed. She then heard the door open and out popped a boy with black hair and interesting eyes. She blushed at the sight of those eyes, then gasped and hid behind Ciel. She didn't care if she looked childish. It was a new face and he could be dangerous. She needed Ciel to help her.

"What's the matter?" Ciel asked Mikuru as she saw her hide behind her. She looked at the source of her friend's sudden shift. She saw the same boy that had entered the room a while ago. He had just set the waste bin down and was in the middle of preparing his things. "That guy? He's just our classmate who assists the school management. He comes in early to empty the trash cans." Ciel checks out the same guy and greets him "Good morning."

Misato was arranging the books that he usually leaves under his armchair which he keeps padlocked. He leaves them there so he doesn't have to carry too much stuff all day. Just as he was taking out the textbooks for their morning session, he hears a friendly good morning from one of the girls in the room. He turned to their direction and gave them a slight nod, acknowledging the greeting. There was another girl though, hiding behind Ciel, the person who greeted him.

Despite the fact that Misato had studied in Crescent longer than most people, he did not know everyone personally yet, only by their names. Ciel he knew because he had seen her during the scholarship exam but the other one didn't look familiar. Either she was new or she just never really caught his eye. "Good morning." He greeted the two girls. He couldn't help but notice the anxiety of the other girl. He brushed his face with the back of his hand. "What's wrong? Do I have something on my face?"

"No, but you have one there." Ciel pointed at some dirt on the right part of his collar. She watched him brush it off while still wondering hat has gotten into Mikuru.

"Thanks." Misato thanked the two and headed back to his seat. Students were starting to enter here and there, signalling that class is about to start. Back at his seat, he wonders at these developments.

"We better get to class. The number of students are increasing in here and I don't want to bump into any more people." Ai sighed as she watched Kiro walk away without another word. She couldn't help but roll her eyes as she slowly walked to homeroom. Looking down at her phone and the picture of the boy Ai grinned mischievously as she made the picture her wallpaper. Kiro had said she could do whatever she wanted with it. After that was done with, Ai stuffed her phone back in her backpack and turned her head down as she trudged through the crowd of ever growing students.

Opening the door to homeroom, Ai made sure to make eye contact with nobody as she sat down in her usual spot in the back of the classroom. Sitting down Ai did a quick glance around the room to see that besides herself there were three others in the room. Two girls sitting next to each other, a boy with red eyes, and Kiro. Ai couldn't help but roll her eyes yet again at the sight of him, he could have at least walked here with me, she thought. But then again, Kiro didn't exactly seem like the type to walk to class with friends, even less someone he disliked.

Digging thru her backpack to find everything she needed, Ai pulled out some paper and dug around some more for her pencil. When two minutes passed by and Ai still couldn't find a pencil she started to panic a little. Cursing her disorganization, Ai pulled out a pen from the bottom of her backpack only to find it didn't work. Looking around the room Ai wondered what she was going to do. She could ask Kiro for a pencil but judging by how he'd walked away from her so fast Ai would say it was safe to bet he didn't want to talk to her anymore. Looking at the other boy Ai instantly ruled him out, she just didn't feel comfortable talking to any guys other then Kiro. That only left the two girls. Standing up on shaking legs, Ai slowly made her way over to the two. Not noticing the girl with purple hair's anxiety she lightly tapped the girl with silver hair's shoulder. "Um, e-excuse me..." she murmured. Looking down at the girl's shoes Ai felt her face grow tomato red and she started playing with her bandage before stuttering, "Uh, d-do you have a pencil I could borrow?"

Ciel still couldn't understand what had just happened. She was still making heads and tails of it when she realized that another girl had already walked up to her, asking to borrow her pencil. She looked up at the girl for a while to check her out before taking out her pencil case which she keeps on a different compartment for ease of access. She took out a fairly new and sharpened 2B pencil and handed it to the girl. "Here you go."

Misato, on the other hand, was reading the student handbook. He checked out the seat assignments, where their positions and names were listed. "So her name is Mikuru Takano..." He said as he checked out the name of the person sitting beside Ciel. "Did I offend or frighten her in some way?" He wondered as he scanned the page for more familiar names, at least to him. He glanced at all the other students. It was the usual scene that he always witness for the first day of classes. Ciel was, interestingly enough, conversing with someone else. Kiro was spacing out again, as usual. His thoughts were cut short as he heard the front doors open, and their homeroom teacher walks into view.

Mikuru eventually poked her head out from behind Ciel and sat down in her seat beside Ciel. She then looked around and studied every one of her classmates one by one. She had just met Ciel and she was friendly enough. She then saw the boy Ciel said was the one who helped assist with cleaning. He had short messy hair and didn't dress in the uniform like some of the other students. However, his red eyes were beautiful... Mikuru found herself smiling before shaking her head. She probably made a bad first impression with him already. She made a note to herself to try and talk to him after class to apologize. She then turned to see a man with green hair and red eyes. He was in his seat with his head in his arms. He didn't seem like he would want to be friends with Mikuru. If anything, he'd coldly shut her out. She made a mental note to herself and then saw the last girl. She had curly auburn hair and deep green eyes. Mikuru had wondered if she could be approachable. She decided she would have to find out later.

Elsewhere

The alarm clock rang off in Misato's bedroom. He woke up with a start and shut off the alarm. "Augh, shut up!" he shouted, still tired. He then turned to look at the clock itself. The time was... "6:50?! Crap, I need to get going soon!!" He quickly pulled on his trusty white coat, pants and shoes before getting ready to run out the door. He stopped as he felt he was missing something. Then he remembered. "Right, the phones!" He picked up his headphones, put each in one ear and ran out the door. He approached the gate by 7:00 and by then, no other student was entering the building. "Shoot... I can still make it."

Back with Mikuru

The homeroom teacher walked inside and sweetly smiled at everyone. "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Miss Nanao and I will be your homeroom teacher. Now then, since it's the first day of class and most of you are new, I think it would be great if you could introduce yourselves. Just so you know, we're going in alphabetical order based on last name and I would appreciate you saying one thing you like while saying your name. So first up is... Amane-kun!" Nothing happened. "Amane-kun...?" No one still showed up. Mikuru wondered to herself what could have happened to him. 'Maybe he's sick?' Miss Nanao sighed and said "Well, I guess he's absent-"
"HERE!!!!!!" Misato opened the door as quickly as he could, still breathing heavily from running. He stopped, collected himself and approached the front of the class. Miss Nanao smiled and said "Glad you could finally join us. Now then, why don't you introduce yourself?"
Misato smiled and said "Yeah, sure thing. What's up, guys? I'm Misato Amane and I like sunshine. Nice to meet you all~" Miss Nanao said "Nice to meet you, Misato-kun. Why don't you sit down next to those two girls over there...?" Misato followed where Miss Nanao was pointing and saw two of the most beautiful girls he's ever seen in his life. The first one had silver haired pigtails and was obviously foreign. The second was a local who had short purple hair. He felt a smile creep up as he muttered to himself "With pleasure~" He sat down in the seat next to Ciel, trying not to stare at the two girls.

"Aokigahara Misato but you can just call me Misato." Misato calmly introduced himself. "I transferred here from Hokkaido around four years ago, so if there's any problem feel free to consult me. I'll see what I can do." He took a simple bow and went back to his seat. "Thank you Aokigahara-kun. Okay, who's next?" Their homeroom teacher went over the list of names.

"Ciel Khulaz le Faye, from England, nice to meet you all." Ciel gave a simple and quick introduction when she was called before heading back to her seat beside Mikuru. She seemed a little emotionless when she introduced herself but this didn't bother her one bit. "I don't really intend to give an excellent first impression so that's okay." She thought to herself.

(OOC: This takes place after Kiro and Ai make their introductions.)
Mikuru then shivered a bit as she stood up. She started to speak but no words would come out. She noticed that she was starting to tremble and started to calm herself down. Mikuru cleared her throat and finally spoke. "U-Um... My na-name is Mikuru Takan-no... I-I... I love bo-books..." She sat down quickly after that. She felt very nervous.
Misato looked over at Mikuru and silently cheered in his head. 'Must have taken a lot for her to stand up. I'll talk to her after school.'
Miss Nanao smiled and said "Well, you all seem very likeable in your own way. If that's everyone, let's get started on your first assignment. Open your English books to page 15."
Misato groaned but opened his book. 'Dammit... why'd it have to be English? I can barely get every Japanese thing down, why do I have to learn about English?!'
Mikuru opened up her book diligently and looked through the pages.
Miss Nanao explained "Well, for this, I want to put you in groups of two and analyze the following proverb and translate it back into Japanese. Let's see... Amane-kun, you'll be paired up with Faye-chan. Kanato-kun will be with Mochizuki-chan and Aokigahara-kun, you can get Takano-chan. Work hard you guys~"
Misato did a happy dance inside his head. 'Score! I get to work with one of the hot chicks!!' He put on his best looking smile and walked over to Ciel. "Hey there~ So, which part of England did you come from?"
Mikuru on the other hand started to tremble. She slowly stood up and walked over to the other Misato. She sat down across from his table. They at first worked silently but Mikuru decided to break the ice. "U-Um... I'm so-sorry about this morni-ning... I-I was just n-not familiar with y-you and... I got bu-bullied a lot in mi-middle school so I'm aprehen-hensive towards men... and women... b-but you seem nice... So... I'm so sorry!" Mikuru finished her awkward apology with as deep of a bow as she could make while still sitting in her chair.

The teacher had instructed them to do a paired activity that requires students to translate some proverbs into native Japanese. Ciel was paired with the guy who came in late: Misato Amane. Before starting, he asked her what part of England did she come from.

"I'm from the city of Carlisle, around Northwest." She replied without looking up from her textbook as she continued working on the given set of exercises. It's not like she found him annoying, it's just that she hasn't interacted much with other people let alone boys in real life before.

"Don't mind it too much, I'm quite used to people having that impression. Haha." Misato cheers Mikuru up. He glanced at all the other pairs who were either working silently or chatting with their partner. "Do I really seem like a bad guy?" He wondered at this realization. He turned back to his partner who still had her head bowed down. "It's all right, really. Plus there's also my last name to consider...so I can completely understand why." Misato leans his head back by his chair. "God, why must I be named after that place?"

Misato nodded. "I see. Well then, we'd better get started then. Hm... It's mentioning something about cherry blossoms and wind... That much I know for sure..." Misato seemed lost in thought and confused.
Mikuru blushed at his laugh. She looked up, praying to god that he didn't see. He seemed to be fine but she noticed he seemed sad because of his last name. Mikuru was saddened so she looked Misato in his eyes and said "Y-Your last name isn't bad... Even if it's after a b-bad place... You aren't a b-bad person... U-Um..." Mikuru could tell that he was either not listening or didn't understand her speech... She sighed and muttered to herself "Besides, I-I'm the worthless one..." with a hint of bitterness in her voice. Thinking he hadn't heard her, she pulled out her pencil and began to translate. The cherry blossoms flow deeply in the wind, gone are the petals along with the man's sin... 'So, it's a rhyme, huh?' Mikuru was still a little down from Misato not listening so she continued to work.

"Translations, huh." Kiro absentmindedly spun a ballpen in his hand with ease. He sighed. "Well, at least I'm paired with Ai, probably the only one who can see me in the place. Oh well." He had noticed then that people had come in- Aokigahara, a voluntary cleaner, their homeroom teacher, and another student named Misato.

"And Tadakatsu's still not here." He sighed to himself. "Where could that guy be anyway?" Then he stopped spinning his pen, sighing again. Lazily flipping through his book with a hand he just began translating mentally, gathering what knowledge he had of English and translating.

Running around clumsily trying to put on his clothes while also preparing for the rest of the day, Tadakatsu was only slowing himself down. “Okay, okay.” Tadakatsu spoke to himself. “This was yesterday's assignment. And this was... Actually, I have no clue what this is.” Shrugging his shoulders, the boy crumpled up the paper and threw it toward the trash bin without looking up. The paper didn't even come close to the trash bin and instead hit a pile of books stacked next to the boy's television. The books fell and scattered all over his room. “N-no way.” Tadakatsu began to lament as he reluctantly picked up the fallen books.

If you knew Tadakatsu, these books would seem like a strange thing for the idiotic boy to have. They're way too scientific that even I, the intelligent narrator, would have a hard time understanding a lot of them. They're books on different science theories ranging from common ones you probably know to things I'd never heard of. I guess it makes sense when you think about it. Oh, you don't think it does? Well I guess you'd have to know Tadakatsu a bit better to understand, so you'll probably learn later. Unlike that kid, I'm not really into spilling my guts on the tip of a hat. But anyway, let's get back to this idiot being late.

“All right. That should do it.” Tadakatsu concluded with a smile on his face. He looked around the floor for any more books that might have gotten away from him, but instead found a Polaroid picture face down on the floor. He bent down to pick up the picture, turning it around while getting back up from the ground. A strew of emotions could be seen on his face looking at the picture. Sadness, regret, and a bit of anger. Toward whom? Probably himself. All of these things kept Tadakatsu from really connecting with anyone.

Tadakatsu is a popular guy nowadays, but he doesn't think anything of it. He treats his relationships with others as nothing more than routine. And he's completely fine with that, unfortunately. Tadakatsu treats all his relationships as “face-value friendships”. What this means is that he is fine with hanging out with these people and is even happier to help them out, but that's just it. These relationships are just one-sided. Tadakatsu only gives, but never takes. So people think he is a great friend, which he might be and would be happy to hear anyone call him as such, but that's all it is. Tadakatsu may be a great friend to others, but he doesn't have anyone he can truly call a great friend. That's why these friendships are “face-value friendships”; they never reach beyond the surface.

“Okay, time to get to school, I suppose.” Shaking off the lingering emotions he had held a few moments ago, the boy moves forward. Tadakatsu picks up his bag from beside his bed and walks out into the living room. “Oi, Kei! Are you ready to go?” The only response Tadakatsu received was silence. “Um... Kei? Uh-oh.

You probably understand what happened, but this poor fool is still trying to piece it together. So the boy runs to the doorway to see a pair of shoes missing with a pair of slippers replacing them. Sighing to himself, Tadakatsu spoke. “So she left me behind, huh? How late am I, anywa-” Blankly staring at his watch, this boy began to feel his legs shake. “N-no waaayyyy!” Screaming at the top of his lungs, Tadakatsu jumped into this shoes and sprinted through the front door.

Keep it down you idiot! The neighbors are going to watch us closely again. Remember last time the neighbors avoided you to even the point of taking their garbage out at different times than you? We can't trouble Kei to mediate things for us everyday, you idiot!

Running down the stairs of the apartment building, Tadakatsu made it to the bike rack outside at a speed that would put the track team to shame. But there were visibly no bikes to be found. “Wait, don't tell me that Kei...” Tadakatsu shoved his hand into his pants pocket quickly, but couldn't find the key to his bike's padlock. “Kei!!!” The idiot screamed toward the sky.

“I guess there's no way around it,” Tadakatsu concluded while rolling up his sleeves, “Time to put my nickname, Mach-Speed-Machine to the test!” No one actually calls him that, by the way.

At School

Footsteps echoed throughout the halls as Tadakatsu approached the classroom. Sliding to a halt in front of the classroom door, the boy brashly pulls the door to the side. “Yo Teach', what's-,” Tadakatsu stopped mid-sentence seeing all the students working in pairs quietly, “Up?" He finished his sentence meekly. “Bad timing, huh?”

Miss Nanao jumped a bit at the sound of Tadakatsu's voice. "O-Oh, you surprised me..." She briefly looked through her list and then pointed him out. "Isogai-kun... Well, everyone's in pairs already but since some students are absent, I suppose group work is more than welcome. Why not get paired with... Aokigahara-kun and Takano-chan?" She then dragged Tadakatsu towards Mikuru's group. "Takano-chan, Aokigahara-kun, this is Tadakatsu Isogai-kun. He's going to be paired up with you two, okay?"
Mikuru looked up in surprise and saw yet another unfamiliar face. He too had wonderful eyes, she blushed and hid her face behind her hands, not wanting to be bullied outright. 'Please don't hate me, please don't hate me...' Mikuru thought over and over again in her mind.
Misato looked behind him and saw Mikuru hiding. 'That girl... What's wrong?' He then continued to work. 'Crap, I'm totally lost... Why did it have to be English?!'

"All right, Sensei!" Tadakatsu pulled up a chair enthusiastically and set it next to the two students he was now working with. "So it's Takano and Aokigahara, right? Nice to meet you. Well, formally meet, anyway. I'm Tadakatsu Isogai, by the way. Try not to be intimidated by my mad academic skills and hip slang." Joking, Tadakatsu pulled out his notebook to begin working. "Actually, what subject are we in right now?" He looked over onto Takano's paper to see English words translated to Japanese. Damn, I suck at English! Why did I have to come in this period?! Scratching his head nervously, Tadakatsu began to think to himself. It's fine, all you have to do is make it so you don't look like an idiot. Easy enough, right? Now translate the next one to show your worth to this group!

"Don't worry guys, I got this one!" Tadakatsu spoke hastily and began before either of them could argue. Skimming over the phrase multiple times, the boy spoke up. "Yes, right here! I have the answer. Speaking as if he were on a game show, Tadakatsu cleared his throat to answer. "Yes, we're going with, He that slips of many farts, thinks of buns." This saying then traveled through Tadakatsu's brain after he had already said it aloud. “Wait! Let me contract that statement! I meant to say... uh...” Tadakatsu began to reread the English statement. “I got it! It says, He that sips of many arts, drinks of none. And that's our final answer!” Satisfied with himself, Tadakatsu spoke. “I think I'm starting to get the hang of this.”

Ciel was startled a bit by the sudden appearance of a student. He had just arrived to this class while everyone was in the middle of working already. She was used to seeing latecomers but 30 minutes late for the first subject seems a bit too much, at least for her. She shrugged it off and continued working. She turned to her partner Amane. "I'm nearly done with the first five questions. If you want, you can already start with the other half of the activity." She suggested this to him. It is a group effort after all.

"I'm spacing out again like Kiro..." Misato realized as his partner suddenly fell silent. He glanced back at her and muttered a quick apology. "Oh, I'm sorry. I kind of lost it for a second." He glanced over at her progress so far, they were pretty good. "I guess, I'll start working on this part then." Misato settled down to work, his pen rapidly jotting down answers as fast as he could. He only stopped for a moment to rub his forehead. Truth be told, he was feeling a little sleepy due to having spent more time working than usual. He took out a pack of peppermints from his pocket and ate one. He felt less sleepy when he has something in his mouth. He raised it up and offered one to Mikuru but saw that her attention is somewhere else. She had her hands raised to her face like she was avoiding eye contact with somebody. He turned around and saw another male student, assigned to their group. "Whoah, I was feeling so sleepy, I didn't hear him come in." His eyes darted back and forth from Mikuru to Tadakatsu, the other student assigned to their group. "What's up?" He greeted.

Apparently lunch wasn't for another hour. So the staff felt it good to let Billie-Jean go to class. Not trusting BJ to go alone they had the dean escorted her to the English classroom fourth minutes into the lesson. The dean kept a firm grip on her arm. As they neared the classroom the dean stopped her in front of the door, turning to look at Billie-Jean. He spoke in a cold voice.



"Now you listen to me and listen to me good. Our school has maintained a good reputation for fifth-teen long years. We don't need some rebel American teen destroying that for us! Got it! You are only in this school because you were recommended to us. For whatever reason the Shi international dancing company would back up a upstart like you I don't know, and frankly I don't care. My job is to keep this school safe, so you will act like a proper student of this school and follow the rules or you won't go here anymore." The message was delivered with a hard grip on her arm and a mean glare.

"I understand sir." Billie-Jean replied in accented Japanese.

The dean nodded at her then opening the door to the classroom. Everyone in the English class gave her weird looks. The dean let go of her arm to shove her in a nearby seat. He then went to speak to the instructor in hushed tones. The instructor gave her wide eyes.

The dean left but not before glaring at her one last time. Billie-Jean rubbed her bruising arm while sulking. The instructor introduced her to the class.

"Class this another one of your classmates Billie-Jean a transfer from America."

Mikuru stared at Tadakatsu. She put her hands down from her face after deciding he was a nice guy. Upon hearing him correct himself, Mikuru felt herself giggle and then laugh. She then stopped herself. "I-I'm sorry... I-It's just... that fi-first expression..." She giggled again before shaking her head and writing down his statement. The poem became The cherry blossoms flow deeply in the wind, gone are the petals along with the man's sin... He that sips of many arts, drinks from none... Mikuru stared at the paper "L-Let's see..." After reviewing through the poem, she could already decode the whole thing. There were 8 lines in total But she wanted it to be a team effort. "I-Isogai-san...?" When he turned to look at her, she flinched a bit and blushed. "U-Um... I-I think you sh-should take over the nex-xt line too... I-I think you're s-smart and would be g-good at it..." She smiled warmly at Tadakatsu, wanting to make a good first impression.
Misato looked at Ciel and said "Um, sure..." He looked over at the first half of the poem. "Damn, this is amazing! I guess it's no surprise that you were able to translate it this quickly. Uh, I got some of it done already. Mind checking to see if I'm on track?" He shakily laughed and handed Ciel his paperwork, hoping that he was somewhat close. Though he didn't seem to think so.

Miss Nanao said "Well, you and Isogai-kun are the two late students. So I'm going to have to assign you to an already existing pair... You can have Amane-kun and Faye-chan. I hope you get along~" Miss Nanao put Billie-Jean alongside Misato and Ciel. Misato waved hello at her. "Did you nearly get lost too?" he asked.
Mikuru was curious about Billie-Jean. 'I wonder how many other students will show up late...?' Mikuru sighed and looked at Tadakatsu, still waiting for his answer on doing the next line.

"You're on the right track, it's just that monkey translates to saru, in this case, the proverb 'Even monkeys fall from trees' is translated as Saru mo ki kara ochiru." Ciel guides her assigned partner in his part. She assists him as much as he could but even Ciel, a foreigner, is still unfamiliar with much of the proverbs she encounters in this class. Another student was assigned to their little group and judging by her looks, she was also a foreigner.

"And I'm done." Misato stretched his arms after that declaration. He handed his part to Mikuru. "Here, I translated the second part. The translation read "Kisetsu wa meguri hana wa saite from the flowers bloomed and seasons changed. "I hope I got it correctly." Misato implored as he laid his head on his crossed arms by the desk.

(OOC: Sorry I haven't been writing much, I have like two projects going on right now at school...)

"Here you go." Ai gave the girl a relief filled smile as she handed her a pencil. Taking it and mumbling a thanks Ai scurried to her seat just in time to see the teacher come in. When Ai realized that they'd have to give introductions a nervous shivering began. Holding her hand in front of her face Ai wasn't surprised to find that she was shaking like a mad person, she wasn't much of a public speaker, not to mention her stage fright. When it came time for her to introduce herself she stood up and shakily said, "Uh, h-hi, my name's Ai Mochizuki. I moved here when I was 7 and I've been going to Crescent ever since I started high school..."

Quickly sitting back down Ai sighed with relief that the spotlight was off her. She could tell her cheeks were still red and clasping her hands together she tried to stop the shaking. The girl had been dozing off when she heard the teacher announce that she'd be assigning the students into pairs to work. Ai instantly felt dread pool at the bottom of her stomach, whenever she got put in a group it was always filled with snobs who made her do all the work. She'd pretty much excepted her horrible fate of doing a whole assignment by herself when she heard the teacher say, "Kanato-kun will be with Mochizuki-chan and Aokigahara-kun, you can get Takano-chan. Work hard you guys~" Ai couldn't believe it, had she really gotten lucky? Grinning, Ai grabbed her things and walked over to the desk next to Kiro. Sitting down Ai smiled happily up at the boy and said, "Well, looks like you're stuck with me." Looking down at her paper Ai frowned and once again looked up at the boy, "Wait, what exactly are we doing?" Turning red yet again Ai hoped that Kiro had been paying attention when the teacher was talking.

Ai jumped about five feet in the air when a boy came running in the room yelling, “Yo Teach', what's up?" The sudden noise had startled the girl and once again her shaking started. Sighing and holding one of her hands up for Kiro to see, Ai smiled sheepishly, "I'm such a scaredy cat."