Yokai Academy

At times like these, you're supposed to begin with some sort of boring monologue about who you are, what your past is, and how you ended up where you are at. But I'm not one of the cliched, idiotic people who decide to narrate their own life, nor am I the weak little girl who feels the need to gossip about everything that happens to me.

Ahem ... I suppose that maybe just this once I will, because you're probably wondering who I am and how I got here ... But I'm not elaborating on my life. It isn't that I'm embarrassed about it - it merely isn't any of your business.

I suppose I'll be as positively cliche as possible.

Hello! My name is Tresora Knighsing! My grades are phenomenal and I'm probably the best technical engineer you'll ever meet - and not to toot my own horn or anything, but I'm also a pretty good artist. For some reason - I doubt I'll ever understand why - my social worker decided to send me to this school, where I'll be staying both day and night for the next school year, and the only chances I'll have to get away are on holidays and breaks. Not that I really have anywhere to go. And God knows what kind of people attend school at an Academy so far out in no-where's-ville, so I'm pretty much screwed.

I'm currently on some slightly-battered-down old bus with a creepy old driver, and something really stinks. I think it's the guy in front of me.

Alright, that's enough of that. I'm done with this cheesiness ... So I bid you adieu!

---

Her hand wrung together in her lap. What exactly was she supposed to be doing right now? Her cell phone had lost service when they entered a long, dark tunnel that sent an eerie feeling through her body, and she had therefore lost her ability to access most of the games on it. Sora glared out the smudgy window of the transport bus, her teeth grinding together with annoyance. Every two seconds they would hit a bump, which would send her nearly a foot above her seat each time. When she'd land, it would jar her entire body and bruise her bottom.

When the clunker of a bus finally came to a stop outside of the surprisingly long tunnel, directly beside a cliff that met a red sea, her eyes fell on a scarecrow that was undeniably one of the creepiest things that she had ever seen in her entire life.

"Eh, you sure this is where you were headed, girly?"

Sora paused halfway down the steps and tossed a look back at the bus driver, who was seeming less of a creep every few minutes.

She turned her eyes to the sign beside the scarecrow, which clearly read 'Yokai Academy' on it, and was shaped into an arrow. It was pointing in the direction they had been driving in, and suggested that her route would take her through a dense forest and quite some time to reach the school. After a moment, she turned her gaze back to the driver.

"Yokai Academy?" she asked, slipping her hand into her duffle bag and removing a pamphlet that her worker had given her. In large letters across the top, it spelled 'YOKAI ACADEMY; SCHOOL FOR THE ESTRANGED'.

She glanced back up at him. "Well, it appears that that's where I'm headed. Why do you ask?"

He chuckled a bit, a slight glint in his eye, and the darkness of the laugh caused goosebumps to rise on her flesh. "Ah, no reason, girly. Hope you have fun. I'll be back next month ... In case you change your mind." With a slight shove, she went stumbling out of the bus, and rounded back to face it and give him the ass-chewing of his life - but the bus was already gone. Her hand lowered and her brows drew together, before she scowled and turned in the direction of the school.

"Strange driver ..." she mumbled, her brown shoes squishing slightly with each step. Her bag bounced against her thigh as she walked, and the path between the sign and the Academy was nearly as off as the bus driver.

Jeez, if this is what the path to the school is like, I can only imagine what the Academy itself is like ...

As she walked, her hand slipped into her bag. Her suitcases with her belongings, clothes, and necessities had already been delivered to the school and taken to her room ahead of time, due to her transfer being a month after school had begun. It would have been a waste of time for her to bring her suitcases with her. At least since they were delivered ahead of time, she only had to worry about putting away her clothes and other belongings. Her decorations had already been organized - her bed had been made with her blankets and pillows, her computers and technical equipment had been set up in a corner of her room (apparently the staff had been too afraid to fiddle with it, for fear of breaking something - at least, according to the secretary of the Headmaster, they were). Other random things had already been put up, also - such as her hanging beads that she had made for her closet to replace the door there, or her lamps that she had decorated.

Or so she had been told. With the way that things were looking, who was to say that she even had a decent room?

Sora huffed a sigh as she removed a small, portable computer from her bag. It was the size of an iPhone in the human world, but obviously was not of the same design. Flipping a button on the side, a hologram screen shot up above it, while a keypad glowed brightly on the actual screen of the computer. Despite her advanced technology, her computer refused to connect to any type of internet out at this 'school'.

It was like she had entered another universe.

Sighing, she moved her fingers quickly above the keypad, not actually coming into contact with it, but the letters entering despite so. The hologram suddenly snapped to six screens, and using her free hand, she began to quickly move the screens around, sliding her finger across each one and sending it flying to a new spot before her.

The next thing she knew she was hurling towards the ground.

Landing hard, Sora grimaced. Her new school uniform didn't really allow for her to attempt to catch herself - the skirt was far too short for her to do much else other than worry about her underwear flashing - and her one free hand clutched at it. She landed hard on the dirt, jarring her entire body and undoubtedly bruising her tailbone, and she hissed in pain. Her eyes immediately caught the culprit of her falling - an over-grown tree root that jutted up from the ground, directly in the middle of the path.

"Stupid tree," she muttered, flipping the small computer's switch and tucking it into her bag once more. Turning onto her side, she began to push herself up, before she collapsed gain, pain shooting through her ankle. Glancing down at it, she could see through the sock that it was already swelling, and she scowled once more.

"Just what I needed to top everything else off - a twisted ankle," she muttered dryly. She once again pushed herself to her feet - more slowly this time - and gingerly tested her weight on it. Pain immediately shot through her leg, and with a grimace, she began at a slow limp towards the school - which she had tripped directly in front of. The large gates were open and welcoming - which was odd. In fact, the entire school was odd. Several things contrasted with each other - the beautiful foliage inside of the gates battled with the Gothic design of the school's outside, while the bright sunlight warred against the darkness it emanated.

An overly-perky girl was the first person that she found herself across.

"Hi! Welcome to Yokai! My name is Oslin, and I'm a part of the Welcoming Committee!" she squealed, her hands grabbing Sora's and shaking them quickly up and down. Her entire arms were moving and her head nearly bobbed from the movement.

"I have to say, when I found out that we were getting a new student at this time of the year I was more than just surprised. But I was also excited!" she exclaimed.

Sora tore her hands back, taking a couple of steps away from the girl, grinding her teeth together due to the pain of her ankle.

"Two words: Don't. Touch." Her eyes were hard, her hand up in order to separate them. "I'll be perfectly fine on my own, thank you. I don't need an overly-perky, annoying little girl bothering me on my first day," she snapped. Adjusting her bag, she pushed around the girl, stalking - or as well as she could with her ankle - around a corner.

And directly into another body.

The force of the impact sent her stumbling backwards, and before she could catch herself on anything, she had landed on her bottom - again.

"Dammit ... Now the bruise is going to be even worse," she grimaced, rubbing at her bottom. She turned a glare up to the person who she had bumped into. "Hey! Watch where you're going, bub!" she seethed.

---

---

The boy sighed, raising a hand to adjust his hood as the sun shone down harshly from above, searing his face with its unwelcome light. Granted, he wasn't the type of monster who was actually weak against sunlight - unless you could call a partial hikkikomori a type of monster - but at the same time, he just didn't like it. Fortunately, the hood of his trademark duster served its secondary purpose admirably, which at least meant he could see fine, his enchanting emerald eyes tracing and retracing the path before him as, with a whirr, the motor of his beaten up vespa started again, carrying him down the dusty, unused road towards Yokai Academy. He smirked, glancing down at the small shopping bag hanging from his wrist. The nearest convenience store was miles away, but seriously, did they expect him to live without a least a little good, old-fashioned human junk food? Nonsense.

"With these rations, I can fight for another ten years," The Incubus murmured to himself with a smirk, his voice drowned out by the breeze kicked up by his own passage. Pulling up in the side-yard of the school, he parked his motorscooter - a slightly used birthday present from his adoptive family which he'd taken with him on his little exodus - around the back corner of the main building, locking it to a rather large pipe coming out of an air conditioning unit before strolling back around the other side. Nobody but the groundskeeper ever really came back there, and as it turned out, that old ghoul was actually a major otaku, which meant that the insomniac Incubus and he had hit it off fairly quickly. He never minded Akatsuya's little parking spot.

Slinging his snack bag over his shoulder, he was just coming around the corner of the main building when he thought he heard something. Was that... a girl crying? He stopped in his tracks, and listened more closely. It certainly sounded like it. Granted, it was none of his business, and if he stayed out in the sun much longer, the chocolate bar in his snack bag would probably melt down to a gooey, unappetizing paste, but... oh, damnit. He just had to see what was the matter, didn't he? So, taking an unanticipated turn to his right, he strolled through the partially open door, glancing around to see what the trouble was. Oslin, the rather upbeat member of the welcoming committee, was looking on with a sort of detached resignation at a most unusual scenario. One girl was sitting rather awkwardly on the floor, glaring up at another, who was bawling her eyes out and apologizing profusely. Judging by the dropped baggage and the general situation, Akatsuya supposed that this was one of those scenarios that you saw all the time in fiction, but very rarely in real life. A new student, out of place, hadn't been looking where she was going and had crashed right into somebody.

Normally, he'd probably try to help the girl on the floor up, considering that if she was still sitting there, she was probably hurt somehow. He had a really good line for it, too. Something like, "You know, the whole crashing into someone on your first day thing only really works if you do it to a guy. You could try again on me, if you'd like." Her reaction would probably be priceless. But, sadly, the girl on the floor was probably ashamed enough already by her accident. Rubbing salt in that wound just wasn't really his style, least of all when somebody was crying right next to him.

Turning to the pink haired girl, he strolled up as casually as he could. It would probably be easy enough to calm her down just by making eye contact. A slight charm and she'd become temporarily caught up in impressing him, making her want to relax. But that, too, just wasn't his style. No, he'd do this himself, or he wouldn't do it at all. Still, that was going to be a little difficult...

"Oi, oi," He said somewhat uneasily, scratching his cheek slightly underneath his hood. Crying women always made him nervous. "I'm sure this isn't that big a deal. Everybody has accidents sometimes." Giving his best smile, he turned to the girl on the floor. "Isn't that right?" He asked, grinning as he extended a hand in turn to help her up. Turning back the crying girl, he glanced around uneasily, fishing around in one of his coat's many pockets before withdrawing a featureless white handkerchief. "Here." He grinned sheepishly, offering it to her. "Use this." It was a good thing he carried around so many seemingly useless objects on the off chance that he might encounter a scenario where he'd need them to win over the heart of a girl, or he'd have been woefully unprepared for this situation. A gentleman always had to be ready to be suave, no matter what the time, place, or occasion!

...Granted, that still probably didn't justify the package of dango he always bought at the convenience store every time he went there just so he'd have the chance to make a "Hana yori dango*" quip if the opportunity ever presented itself - it hadn't - despite the fact that he rather disliked the sweet in question, but hey, at least he was prepared.

(*Hana yori dango is an expression meaning "Dango over flowers," equating roughly the English expression "The belly is not filled with fair words.")

“哦，多麼美麗的花朵舞後，突然天空最亮的恆星是永遠太遙遠，然而，像個傻瓜，我跳，我到達，到達，直到我的手開始增長乏力。我就跑，直到我能'看不到的橋樑，我自己的家。有我失去了我的路，終於？經過這麼長時間？“

Mei-Lien looked up from the book she read and smiled slightly as she saw her school before her. Yokai Academy. What a wonderful place to be. It was her second year here and the two months seemed to have been going well for her. She had made herself a bit of a trouble reputation among some, but to others, she was royalty. She couldn't ask for more really.

She recalled when she had left to come to the school not too long ago. Her father had wished her luck and nothing more. As expected. Who cared about him anyway? A little 'I love you Mei-Lien' or 'Do well in your studies Mei-Lien' couldn't have hurt him, could it? He never was the type of guy to show emotions anyway. Neither was Mei-Lien. So it was understandable that she and him clashed slightly with no conflict. They were almost too identical.

Mei-Lien recalled the many suitcases she had brought when school stared. Why did she bring it, who knew. It seems that everywhere she went, she needed a whole closet with her. After all, half the bags was clothes, another two bags was hair products. And the others? Well her sword collection of course. However, she had taken the swords for a bit to get cleaned. Thankfully she had brought the bag with her today.

"WELCOME PRINCESS!"

She turned to see a group of four boys coming to greet her. It seems like everyday she was remembered and treated as she wanted. How beautiful!

"Well, good day to all of you. Hm. Would you all be a dear and help me with my collection? I just had them cleaned and it's a bit heavy. Not a problem for you strong boys hm?"

She could tell that the males were quite flattered by her words, which they should be. She had a way of words, appearance and even touch. She was sly but in a good way of course. She watched as the boys began to struggle to pick up the bag.

"Ahh! This things like a hundred pounds! Whats in this?"

She gasped as he dropped it making it up up. Inside, instead of clothes or shoes, was a small bundle of swords. Mei-Lien quickly went to the bag and placed them back inside.

"What are you doing!? Be careful with those! Their very important to me."

The boy pouted slightly while hearing her.

"I-Im so sorry princess. Ill do my best to be careful."

She sighed slightly. She was happy that none of them were injured. She was even more glad that they weren't dirty. She stood and dusted her uniform off before flipping her hair slightly.

"Lets just get these to my room, shall we?"

After using the males for labor of her benefit, she paused slightly while seeing a face she hadn't seen before. She had heard that a new face would be around school. Of course, Mei-Lien didn't worry about her steal any sort of spotlight. She couldn't help but giggle a bit while seeing her bump into someone. She was indeed a newbie. Mei-Lien could help but get a bit curious about her but she wasn't one to act on curiosity. She was more collected then that.

She found a nice bench to sit on and happily hummed while people watching. She would giggle hearing the usual greetings of the usual people and happy 'you look beautiful' phases. It was a normal for her and she loved it more then anything. There hadn't been a day in her life that she wasn't admired by someone. Even as a child, her mother felt special.

She slowly gripped at the watch around her neck. She had always wore her mother keepsake no matter where she went. It was something very important to her. Yet, she couldn't talk about her mother. Talking about how she existed not too long ago and soon died made her feel... well, feelings. She can't explain it but she hates having feelings. Feelings only get you hurt in the future. She sighed as she read her book quietly on the bench.

“What a thriill ~ With darkness and silence through the nighhht ~ What a thrilllll ~ I'm searching and I'll melt into you ~ What a fear in my heeaart ~ But you're sooo supreeeeme ~"

The obnoxiously loud sound of Akio's less than stellar singing echoed through his dorm room, and perhaps the whole floor. It was always a bad habit of his, singing in the shower. “I give my liiife not for honor~ but for you, Snake Eateer ~ In my time ~ there'll be noo one eeelse ~ criiime, it's the way I flyyy tooo yooou, Snake Eater ~ I'M STIIIIIIILL IN A DREEEEAAAM, SNAAAAKE EAAAATEEEER~”

The warm droplets of water soaked his umber hair, which thickened with moisture and hung itself over his face, covering his calming marshy-hazel eyes, trailing droplets of water down his face, and running it's soapy self into his mouth. He abruptly stopped his singing and spat it out, running his soiled tongue under the clean water of the shower head, cleansing the soapy taste. He ran his fingers through his damp locks, exposing his seldom-seen forehead to the open. An ugly thing, he thought. He hated his forehead, and elected to cover it with his much-loved hair, like he covered his ugly scars with clothing and his gnawing fears with the facade of a rambunctious flirt. He loved the shower. It was a place where he could expose himself as he truly was, and drown himself in thoughts. Not the lighthearted schoolboy thoughts he usually pondered, but the ones the kept him up at night, sweating and clutching his pillows like an infant. He reached forward, twisting the tap off, and stepped over the tub, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around his waist, and a brush, running it through his hair. He flicked on his hair dryer and let the warm breeze rush over his head.

He had been at Yokai academy for a few years now, and the school life was starting to wear him out big time. He had been home schooled for most of his life, when he still lived with his mother, and while he was well-liked around the school, and even had a substantial following among the student body's female population, he couldn't stand sitting in class and listening to the teacher drone on about history, geometry, or... math. He shuddered at the thought. Even though graduation was only months away, he couldn't help but attempt to curse those months away, hoping to draw closer the day when he could finally escape from school, his father, and all of it.

Putting aside his thoughts for a second, he decided to cobble together some semblance of a breakfast, and grabbed a frosted cinnamon bun and a hand full of almonds, laying back on the couch and putting on High Plains Drifter for the millionth time. He ate a few almonds and poked at the bun incessantly with a plastic fork. "Wait, why am I using a for..." He brought the bun to his mouth, taking a savage bite, and tossed the fork across the room. No sooner had the fork hit the door, when his phone started ringing, playing the first few seconds of Space Jam on a loop. "Hello?"

"Hey Akio, what's up?" A girl's sing-song voice. He couldn't seem to pinpont it's owner.

"Eh, not much, sorry, who is this?"

"Clover..." Shit.

"Oh! Clover! Of course! My cell's been acting up lately, the voice modulator thingy is busted." Smooth.

"Haha... So, where are you? You did remember you were supposed to meet me for breakfast this morning, right?" Double shit.

"Of course! I'm on my way right now!"

"Okay, just hurry, I've been waiting here for like twenty minutes..."

"Alright, see you in a few!" He set the food on the table and flicked on a tv. As he turned the doorknob to head out, he realized he was forgetting one thing. Clothes.

As he rounded the corner to the cafeteria, he spotted a nearby group of gossiping girls, one of them looking significantly worse for wear than the other, they seemed to be comforting her.

"Sheesh, I wonder who stood her up." No sooner had he said that than one of the girls began pointing at him. They looked angry. "Triple shit."

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" One of them yelled at him, breaking off of the group to accost him. "You asshole! Where were you?! You stood me up!"

"I-I'm sorry, I-"

"You what?!"

"I... I, uh..."

"You jerk!" She shrieked. Her friend handed her a drink. God damn it. Just as Akio expected, she dumped the drink, some sort of cola, all over him, and haughtily strode away with her friends. "Perfect." He thought. As he made his way the the cafeteria, thinking of how he would explain his sticky state to Clover, the woman herself rounded the corner, and she looked pissed.

"What happened to you?!" She asked.

"Well, I uh-"

"Where were you?"

"I was sitting on my couch 90% naked eating nuts and watching cowboy movies." he though to himself.

"You were what?!" She said. Oh god. He said that out loud. "Go to hell!" She said, storming off. Sighing in exasperation, he slumped int a corner and planted his butt on the concrete, attempting to wipe off some of the sticky soft drink. "This is going to be a great day."

Hai Nyce

As Hai rose from his bed a yawn slipped from his mouth. Hai turned his head to the side, so that he could glance at his clock. As he finally became aware of the time, Hai realized that he had time for a bath. Hai took of his clothes and leaned his head to either side cracking his neck, before he moved towards the exit. On his way out of the room Hai wrapped a towel around himself. As he shut the door to the room that the only pieces of evidence that someone was there, was a purple hair here and there as well as a few discarded garments.

Hai quickly arrived at a small secluded stream that very few people ever came to. As he climbed in, Hai tossed his towel into a nearby tree. The water flowed over his body going with the current to a place Hai had yet to investigate. His smile never once left his face, as Hai rinsed himself off. As Hai rinsed off he heard a loud crack, snapping his head around instantly. He noticed the branch that had held his tree had snapped, causing his towel to plummet towards the water. Without hesitation Hai lunged towards his towel scraping his chest on the bottom of the stream. His left hand attempted to break his fall, Hai's other catching the towel out of midair before it could touch the water. As Hai climbed out of the stream and began to dry himself off, he noticed a multitude of small cuts bleeding on his chest caused by the speed of when he lunged colliding with bottom.

His towel wrapped around his waist left his bleeding chest for the world to see. Completely unfazed Hai smiled with a large grin thinking about how wonderful his bath was. Abruptly Hai stopped his wet feet sinking into the muddy ground. With a quick glance of the area that surrounded him. He raised his hand to the back of his head and scratched it, before he continued with a shrug at the fact he had gotten lost again. Suddenly he realized a path was two steps over from him, "Ah, the school entrance maybe I can get some help here." Hai thought innocently to himself.

Nonchalantly, he strolled up to the pathway that led to the school. Hai saw one of his friends Mei-Mei, with no hesitation Hai walked up to her. "Hi Mei-Mei, Do you have any clothes I can wear? I lost mine!" Hai asked with a smile.

---

---

---

There was a the sound of creaking. Not like the sound of a door on rusty hinges, or the sound of a boot stepping down onto a loose floor board. This was a snapping, creaking sound that echoed much further, followed by the immense sound of rustling and ending with a loud crash. This was the sound of a large tree that had been forcefully uprooted and knocked over, and it wasn't the only one to meet that fate.

The forest was a great place for training. It went on for miles, making it easy for Maiyu to find herself a quiet place to practice where there were no spectators or buildings to wreck. However, she always had to find a different place. Every time she pushed forward with her training a clearing would be made and there would be no trees left to practice on. Such was the power of a pure-blood vampire, capable of forming craters around her just from throwing a single full-blown kick into the ground. It could become quite frustrating sometimes, but there were plenty of trees around her and plenty of land that she hadn't touched yet.

Wiping some sweat from her brow, she took in a breath and straightened herself up as another tree crashed into the dirt behind her. It was an unusual thing, sweat. After all what vampire was capable of sweating? In Maiyu's case, her mother was the daughter of a human, so despite her retaining the powers of a pure-blood there were still a few things that just seemed to be odd. At least, for a vampire.

"Alright!", she said loudly as she stretched her hands over her head. "That's enough for this morning. Don't wanna be late!" As if she could really be late. She could probably spend another twenty minutes in the forest, but she'd been there for a half hour now and was growing bored of kicking down trees.

Once Maiyu reached the school, which only took her a little under a minute to reach, she headed straight to the cafeteria. The breakfast she had before going into the forest just hadn't filled her up. Plus all that moving around made her hungry again. It's a shame she couldn't just eat anything she wanted off the menu, though. "Really, who came up with the idea of only taking one of each thing? I'm a growing girl!"

It didn't take her long to fill up her tray, probably because most of the students had moved out of her way after she got in line. Why? Likely due to the fact that Maiyu had revealed what race she was on the very first day of school, while a majority of other monsters usually kept their identity a secret. It was just a simple fact that there were quite a few monsters who feared vampires simply because of their abilities. Maiyu understood this, but to the outside eye it doesn't seem to bother her in the slightest. It did bother her a little of course, but there were also a few who didn't mind what she was.

Speaking of which, as Maiyu searched for a place to sit and eat she spotted a familiar figure slumped in the corner of the cafe. She smiled slightly and made her way over to the magician, stopping in front of him to enjoy the feeling of being able to look down at someone for once. "You smell like corn syrup. Don't you know what a bath is? You look sticky too."

Oh for Christ's sake - the girl was balling her eyes out! Was she seriously reacting so intensely to only a couple of words? The girl definitely didn't have very thick skin. At all.

Rolling her eyes, she shoved her pride down and swallowed her anger. Why waste it on a baby like this girl?

"Shut the Hell up, Oslin," she drawled out rudely. "You need to mind your own damn business and stay out of other's. You never know what you might find - and what you might find may scar you for life," she snapped. "So scram, Barbie," she added.

Oslin paled, tears appearing in her own eyes, before she turned and fled from the scene. Tresora bothered not to follow her with her eyes - she knew she wouldn't return.

Turning her eyes back to the balling, pink-haired girl before her, she let out a slightly-irritated breath. "Calm down. I'm really not that scary," she muttered with an eye roll. She adjusted her weight a bit, reaching forward to rub at her injured ankle. "You don't need to cry over it. I'm not going to yell, so stop being a baby. Besides, you don't even know me, so it really shouldn't matter so much to you. You need to grow thicker skin, caro," she nodded, pointing a finger in the girl's direction.

Her eyes fell on the boy who was approaching, and her reaction to his voice and his hand nearing her was immediate and intense - and completely uncontrollable.

Her muscles tensed and burned. A sheer sheen of sweat appeared on her skin, a nervous tingling began in her stomach, and her heart hammered in her chest. Her fingers clenched and curled inwards, her lips pressing together tightly in the same moment. Before she could stop herself, her hand had snapped out and slapped the boy's away, and she had scuttled backwards. For anyone who didn't realize that she did this in fear, they would undoubtedly laugh and find the movement to be hilarious and a joke.

Turning her face away as quickly as possible, she stumbled up to a standing position, most of her weight on the one side of her body so as to avoid collapsing to her knees.

"Thanks for the offer of help, but I'll pass. You can go ahead and comfort cotton-candy-rainstorm here," she waved her hand at the pink fluffball of a girl before her, "And I'm going to finish looking for my dorm and the head office so I can get my paperwork." With that, she hurried away, flipping out her holocomputer in an attempt to look busy and not nearly as frazzled as she felt.

She wasn't really paying attention to the computer, at least not as much so as she looked to be, and her fingers flew across the hologram screen as she limped.

It wasn't until she smelled food that she realized how hungry she was. After spending the past two and a half days hopping from plane to plane, bus to bus, and car to car, she hadn't eaten well nor much at all. Her stomach growled as the delicious smell of cinnamon rolls reach her nostrils, and she paused in her step, her head tilting back a bit to get better access at the yummy smell of cinnamon.

"I might as well grab some food before I finish looking for the office," she muttered, tucking the tiny computer into a small pocket on her bag.

Sora pushed through the doors to the cafeteria and strode inside. It didn't take long for several of the conversations to lull at the sight of a new student at this time of the year - especially one who held herself with the confidence of someone who cared naught for any type of judgement from her peers.

Acting as though she didn't notice the change of atmosphere at her entrance, she strode to the food area of the cafeteria, plucking up a small plate with a cinnamon roll, an apple, a bagel, and a bottle of orange juice, she quickly paid for the food. Immediately she made her way over to the nearest window and, tossing her bag onto the sill, she easily joined it, leaning back against the wall and removing a similar device to her holocomputer, but instead it projected from a far smaller electronic - it was her Black Hole Computer, and the projection above it was only one, yet far more visible and clear than the other projections. Taking a bite out of her cinnamon roll, she lounged backwards, slipping into a slightly relaxed mood, her free hand absently rubbing at her scarred neck, the frequent ache and burn that appeared in it slowly beginning to arise.

---

---

Akatsuya extended his hand, waiting to see how the girl would react. Maybe she'd be mad, or embarrassed, or flustered, or perhaps even grateful. The young incubus had experienced all these emotions before. But never in his life had such a simple gesture prompted the feeling that abruptly flooded his mind through the momentary contact he made with the fallen girl's hand.

Hate. Overwhelming, instinctual fear and loathing that struck his psyche like a thunderclap as his hand was batted aside. Muttering something under her breath, the girl quickly limped away, taking one last shot at both him and the crying girl as she did so. Izayoi took a moment, staring after her in confusion as he tried to calm the echoes of the feeling that had so suddenly assaulted him. What exactly had prompted that?

"T-thank you..." Murmured a quiet voice from behind him. The girl's cadence matched her appearance and attitude, her words gentle, soft, and shrill. Although her voice cracked slightly from the lingering tears she'd shed, Akatsuya could tell that she was mostly over her earlier breakdown. He smiled slightly under his hood, and turned to face her once again, donning his best smile and trying his best to forget the rather strange response of the last girl he'd reached out to help. Fortunately, given the calming feelings of relaxation she was experiencing, this was a bit easier than it otherwise might have been. Her presence seemed fragile to him, as though perpetually teetering on the brink of tears, yet at the same time, it was earnest and gentle. That explained her earlier overreaction to what had been a rather simple mistake. In any case, he was just glad she'd stopped crying.

"'No problem,'" Akatsuya said with a slight, reassuring smile, his bright green eyes peeking around the edge of his hood, just out of direct view. "-Is what I'd say if I'd actually done something worth mentioning." He added cheerily, trying to put the pink-haired girl at ease and drive away the lingering guilt she seemed to feel in regards to her earlier awkward encounter.

As she glanced down, he followed her gaze, his eyes at last falling upon the source of her regrets. It seemed that in her panic, she'd snapped the strap on her bag. It wasn't unheard of for monsters in distress to unintentionally use much more of their strength than intended, which explained why one of the metal fastenings she'd been holding onto had bent and snapped open, rather than the cloth strap itself simply tearing off like one might expect.

Cute as a button and strong enough to break metal between her thumb and forefinger, huh? Well, now I've seen everything, He thought, chuckling slightly to himself as he reached out a hand, smiling gently as he took a closer look to see what damage had been done.

"You know, the strap itself isn't damaged - just one of the clasps that holds the two parts together. I'm pretty sure you can take those off," He observed, looking at it. "Plus, these school bags are all pretty much the same, so a part from mine should work fine on yours, right?" Reaching down, he carefully removed the undamaged fastening from his own bag, then took hold of the strap of hers and casually popped out the broken piece, weaving the cloth through the appropriate slots in the part from his own bag. "See? Good as new," He said with a grin.

It was at that moment that he realized that he was currently crouching just a few inches from her, and his face was actually remarkably close to hers. If he had leaned in any further, she might have caught a glimpse of his eyes. Whew, close one, He thought, adjusting his hood slightly as he drew back, standing up and extending a hand to help her back to her feet. Let's try this again, He joked to himself as he waited to see her reaction. Surely she won't slap me too. Well, I hope she doesn't, anyway. With strength like hers, she'd probably break my wrist.

Mei-Lien continued to read her literature as usual. It was quite the lovely day to catch up on her readings. Most of her books were in Chinese; which she preferred to read in. Something about Chinese text just made it... easier for her to understand. English was fine too but nothing was better than her native language. Besides, Chinese was a language of tradition, perfection and affection. It seemed fitting that a being like her would know the language perfectly and grow up around it as well. Isn't destiny such a strange thing.

She paused hearing the all too familiar voice and phrase. She knew something was going to happen to change the atmosphere of her environment. But, instead of an annoying fan boy, it was her good friend Hai. He was a strange male indeed, but a friend non the less. He gave her a lot of attention and in exchange, she gave him friendship. The guy was far too nice NOT to like. His attitude was adorable and cheery. Besides, he was in the same grade as her. She had to look out for her fellow classmate.

She closed her book and sighed slightly seeing the toweled and unclothed male before her. These sort of things were almost the normal for him and by now, she was use to it. "For the love of Budha Hai, how many times do I have to tell you? If you go around showing off your male figure, then all the attention wont be on me." She said with a small smile. She then folds her arms and raises an eyebrow. "Oh? You forgot your clothes? How is... that even possible... You know what, don't even tell me. It's probably better that I don't know.... And care."

She placed her book on the bench and stood before dusting off her skirt. She quickly flipped her hair and sighed. "Well, I suppose I can assist you, but you owe me mister~." She said before removing her large jacket. She often wore large jackets because it felt more comfortable to her. She held her arms out holding her jacket. "Here... Eh... Cover something with this. This will help for the moment until we get you some real clothes." She then quickly took his hand and her book and began to pull him along. "I mean seriously Hai. Are you TRYING to take all the attention from me by doing this stunt? Geez. Not cool." She said with a laugh. "Anyway lets get you to some clothing quickly. First thing in the morning and your already undressed. That's so odd. Most importantly, you need to be more careful. Next time you might even forget your towel. Then what will you do? Not sure if i'd be able to save you from that Hai."

Hai Nyce

As Hai carefully took the jacket from his classmate, Mei-Lien, with a giant smile Hai says "Is it even possible to take attention away from you for more then a few seconds? I mean they look over here to see the half naked guy, then get enraptured by your beauty after noticing, o it's just Hai." With a small laugh Hai puts on the jacket, making sure not to let go of his towel as he slides one arm at a time through the sleeves. Finally Hai grabbed the top corners two corners of the towel, and tied them together in a small knot.

"Well to thank you how about a poem?." Hai asks rhetorically.

A Orchid bright as no other
A light shining forever
A song of beauty and life
Without a thought of any strife.

"That's only the start I'm still working on the rest" Hai says with a happy and excited gleam in his eyes.

"Now where do you think the best place to get me some clothes would be?." Hai ask's never once letting his smile slip off his face. As he looked around Hai spotted Izayoi with Kimiko. Nodding his head in there direction Hai says "Maybe Izayoi has an extra uniform I can borrow." With his smile wide across his face Hai thinks to himself, "so far this day has been awsome."