Jolnas Ritter's Story

The bus ride had held many smells and sounds, including the jabbering of gossip, the trading of food and vacation experiences, and the anticipation of the new school year. As he felt the bus slow down to a stop. He stood up and picked his cane off of the bus floor. Hopefully it would be a good year and he would be able to go through it with some new friends, or it could be a repeat of last year, filled with reading, meditating, and day-to-day work, all alone. After most of the students had disembarked, he made his way off of the bus, being careful to tap in front of him with his cane so that he could know where and where not to step. After his feet were successfully on the sturdy path to the school. He followed the sounds of the teenage crowd to wherever he was going, probably to wherever they were holding an assembly. Nonetheless he walked along, stalking the clacking of feet along the pavement. It was louder than stepping across carpet, but while not softer, it was quieter than the thuds of walking across wooden boards. He adjusted his headband anxiously, making sure it was straight across his eyes.

As the warmth of the academy tickled his face, Jolnas knew that he was inside the academy. He slowly walked into the lobby When he suddenly heard a clattering and the doors fly open. Soon followed by a crash and an argument, to which obviously the girl had been accused wrongfully. It was the first day after all, but what was that about a condition? Something to go along with skateboarding he supposed. For some reason she had crashed onto a boy named Zeal, interesting name. Could have sworn he had heard it before in the previous year. They were still on the ground, so he had some time to actually make friends for the first time in his long stay at this school. Jolnas stuck his hand up, signalling for a staff member to help him navigate the school better. He listened as the sounds of slippers scuffling across the floor made his way to him.
"Do you need help with anything" A rather jittered male voice asked.
"Yes," He turned towards the voice "My name is Jolnas Ritter, and I'd like to know what dorm room I am staying in this year, as well as my homeroom."
the scuttling of the aides shoes revealed the position of the board.
"You are in room 3-3, and you are staying in dorm.." his mind trailed off as he absorbed the sounds and smells of the room around him. People smell in general, but also fresh plastic, most likely from prosthetics, laughter, hands rubbing together, breathing, from this he could sense were most of the people were, and for the smells, was that a dog?
"Nobody is registered as a hallmate for you however, hope you can manage on your lonesome."
He grimaced, and quickly forced a smile. Wunderbar. He had spent the summer learning even more Japanese, just so he could make more friends, and fate slaps him in the face as if he was a spoilt child finally taught a good lesson. The anger in him welled up as he fought back against everything he had learnt to fight depression. Then, he stopped. He took a few breaths, and calmed down. He really needed to meditate tomorrow.
He turned towards where the argument had taken place, walking over to it until he hit a body with his cane. Squishy, but with some bone structure. must have been the boy that crazy skater Mädchen had landed on. Keep it simple Jolnas, making friends shouldn't be that hard.
"Need a hand up?" He out stretched his hand, completely aware that he could be reaching to an empty space, embarrassing himself greatly. Oh please let it not be that, that's the last thing I want to do.

The office was so crammed, Zeal couldn’t even force his way through the mass of scrambling bodies. Several of the students, mostly ones with crutches or other supporting devices, were smart enough to wait until the mob of 1st years had dribbled to a minimum. Zeal didn’t blame them. Even the famous 24-hour nursing staff couldn’t save a student who had been trampled to death by his or her own peers. Unfortunately, the wave showed no sign of diminishing until after the entrance ceremony. With still thirty minutes to spare, the black haired youth decided to go for a walk until everyone calmed down.

As he adventured down the still pleasantly clear hallways, the familiar face of Mr. Takahashi appeared from around a corner. He smiled and walked up to the boy, the overpowering smell of his cologne almost made Zeal gag. What was that? Ode du sweaty skunk?

“Ahh, Mr. Yamaka. How was your summer?” the teacher asked politely.

“It was alright,” he responded. It wasn’t like he did anything over the summer then play video games, get pissed off at his own incompetence in drawing and mourn a friend.

“Good, good. I’m seeing you in my literature class this year right?” Zeal nodded his head. It was one of the classes he actually enjoyed, even if the teacher did have the personality of a rock. As the teacher continued to drone on about his summer with his wife when an unfamiliar sound began to rang through the boy’s head.

‘Wheels?’ The sound was getting louder. Fast. Before he even had time to react, a girl on a skateboard came rocketing down the hallway straight into his diaphragm, knocking them both into the wall. Zeal groaned in both pain and annoyance. ‘Great. Five minutes into the new school year and I’m already getting picked on.’ His topaz eyes opened to reveal an extremely beautiful girl laying on top of him, her icy blue eyes seeming to stare into his soul. The girl’s hand was buried in his sorry excuse for a hairstyle and he could swear she was rubbing her crotch on his knee on purpose.

"Well, this is strangely arousing,” she whispered, her breath tickling the young boy’s ear. In a single instant, Zeal’s face went from a soft white to a deep crimson. “W-What?” Amber eyes flicked between the quickly approaching teacher and the incredibly hot woman who was coming on to him and literally only an inch from his face. She was close enough that, with a little lift of his back, he could kiss her easily. Shaking his head slightly, Zeal cleared his mind. A hard task to do when a girl was close enough to kiss you and her perfume smells divine.

As quickly as it had happened, the girl was already pulling herself up off the ground. When the girl reached for his arm however, Zeal pulled his coat down over top to cover the stump. She seemed to get the hint and her hand quickly closed over his, lifting him off the floor with surprising strength. Crystal blue eyes scanned his body, looking for any hint of weakness or fragility. Her analysis was interrupted by a Mr. Takahashi running over.

While Zeal tuned out most of their conversation, he did pick up the girl’s name. Azalea Fray. It was a nice name that rolled off the tongue. If he’d had only known her name and not seen her in person, Zeal would have thought she was an incredibly innocent girl with social issues. This is clearly not the case. His ears pricked up at the mention of her disability and spent the next few moments trying to pinpoint what was wrong with her. It couldn’t be anything physical; she had the nicest body he had ever seen. It had to be something internal but with the way she was riding that skateboard, that was unlikely as well. He ran a hand through his thick black hair, trying unsuccessfully to get it out of its everlasting bedhead.

At the teacher’s mention of his name, he came back to reality. Again, the girl was uncomfortably close to him. "I apologise for falling all over you and sending shivers up your spine,” Azalea said flirtatiously. Zeal blushed again and began to twiddle his fingers like he always did when nervous. “It’s, um, no problem". What was with this girl? What did she see in him that was so interesting? Once again, he was lost in thought. When Azalea bent over however, Zeal snapped straight to attention. Her pink braid flowed down her back like a silken snake, ending right over her perfect heart shaped pillow of an ass. It was almost heartbreaking when she righted herself.

After giving her skateboard to the teacher, Azalea grabbed the boy’s arm and began to pull him down the hallway. "Let's go, flower boy,” she purred. “Flower boy?” He asked quizzically. She had gotten close again, close enough he could smell the peaches in her shampoo. "You're prettier than half the girls in the school,” Zeal didn’t know if this was a complement or an insult but he blushed nonetheless. “Umm, thank you?” Another person had joined the hallway. A boy with a headband around his eyes. Zeal couldn’t help but notice how cool he looked, like he had just jumped out of an anime.

He unknowingly smacked the already dazed boy in the ankle, knocking him out of his Azalea induced trance. He opened his mouth to say something when the boy struck out his hand…towards the space next to them. “Need a hand up?” Azalea pursed her lips and whispered, "Sorry," before shove-nudging Zeal to the floor - again. "Ahaha, I'm so clumsy," she said loudly, glaring at Zeal and at the hand the boy had held out for him, nudging her head for Zeal to take it.

Finally catching on to the pink haired girl’s plan, he smiled and placed his hand in the boy’s. “Thanks. I’m Zeal. Thanks for the help.” He shot a playful glare at his comrade but she just feigned ignorance. An announcement blared over the intercom. “All students report to the main hall for the opening ceremonies.” Zeal tried one last time to fix his hair before giving up entirely. With his two new companions in tow, he lead the way to the main hall, keeping a firm grasp on the blind boy’s hand so he didn’t go astray. ‘Maybe this year, I’ll actually make friends.’

“All students report to the main hall for the opening ceremonies.”

"That oddly makes me want to not report to the main hall," she said, her gaze drifting to her left in thought before returning to staring quite plainly at the handsome boy - manlier than most - with the cloth shielding his eyes from the world. It made her curious to see what rested underneath, but also slight irritated. Azalea was not comfortable around the blind. Why? Well, because they couldn't see her. Because who was she kidding? She certainly hadn't won her admirers and pretty much everything with her startlingly superior personality.

"Nice to meet you and all that," she said absently with a wave of her hand at the two boys, one of which she'd knocked over twice. "You may refer to me as 'Your Grace,' 'My Queen' or if you want to be boring, Azalea, Zalea, Lea or Bitch-who-thinks-I-care." She gazed up at the tall man who couldn't see her, deciding she would bed him to prove she was charming enough that her lovers didn't need sight. Azalea took his hand, placing it right over... Her right breast. "This is Danger," she said, pressing his other hand against her left. "This is Angel. You may address them accordingly," she said with a smirk.

"You lucky bastard!" a student yelled at Blind and Smexy; Azalea laughed. Funny, these people were. She'd have half of them worshipping the ground she walked on by the end of the year and the other half plotting her death.

Yamaku Academy was one of the many boarding schools she'd attended since the death of her parents when she was four, but it was the first school she'd attended for those who were biologically different-ish. That was the way she liked to address them, her, she supposed, biologically different. They could still do what everyone else did, just differently, and in her case, well, she could do more than what everyone else did.

"How long have you two been here?" she asked the boys. She tossed her long braid over her shoulder, whipping an unsuspecting student behind her across the face. She laughed, speaking an apology in between her chuckles. She'd never get tired of using her hair as a whip, it was the only reason she'd kept it that long. That and because her mother used to comb her hair and tell Azalea how beautiful her pink waves were, and that she should let her hair grow. Azalea unraveled her braids - which took a surprising amount of time - and massaged her scalp, shaking out her long, soft waves. The scent of her peach shampoo seemed to fill the campus.

Azalea checked her body, clucking her tongue at the bruises and scratches that covered her and the blood that trickled from an ugly burn from her right palm to her elbow where she'd skidded crashing into Zeal. Speaking of, "You okay?" she asked Zeal with a raise of her sculpted brow.

“All students report to the main hall for the opening ceremonies,” repeated the announcer.

"What if you're deaf?" she muttered to herself, rolling her eyes. "Let's go," she said, looping her messenger bag over her head and tucking it across her body. She lifted her hair from beneath the strap, hooked her arms around each boy's elbow and headed for the main hall. Maybe she'd actually listen this time.

Yeah, right, when the Sun rises in the West and sets in the East.

"Play the damsel in distress and get a guy to carry that for you," she said not long after to a girl with hair the colour of sunsets and persimmons. She was beautiful, even if she did look a little disheveled. "That's what I do," Azalea told her with a smirk. "My mother always said a woman's real weapon was the one between our legs," she said. Well, that was a lie. Her mother never said that, but that's what Azalea thought she might had she lived. Well, that was a lie, too. The redhead was also in a wheelchair, but Azalea doubted she liked being first noticed as someone who couldn't walk.

"That's good for rolling over people you don't like," she said, gesturing towards the girl's wheelchair. Azalea cocked her hip to one side, smiling and running her fingers through her pink iris hair. Sunset - that's what she would call her - seemed like she would be difficult to charm, but that was all part of the fun. "Leave your bags, you're beautiful enough, whoever finds it and brings it to your room will crumble to the floor at a 'Thank you.'"

“All students report to the main hall for the opening ceremonies.”

Azalea gave no reaction save a slight narrowing of her eyes and a curt, "They seem to think repetition inspires obedience. More like it inspires suicide."

As Maurice continued to talk, most of the words coming out of his mouth chastising the younger man for not taking the time to learn Signing, Aedan turned his attention to the students around him. There was some crazed Skater girl who was possibly gonna kill some one if she wasn't careful, awesome. The spoiled brat could have recognized her anywhere, not that they actually knew each other; but he had seen her around during the previous years.

As the pair reached Aedan's dorm, the over head quickly came alive with a small crackle.

“All students report to the main hall for the opening ceremonies.”

“Looks like you better get goin' kid.” Maurice smiled, taking Aedans bag and setting it on the bed that became a holding place of his belongings. He would have to tend to them when he got back. Nodding obediently, Aedan took a moment to adjust the red clips in his bangs. There was nothing in the school's student hand guide about hair clips, and he wasn't going to tolerate any of the stickler teachers trying to take them from him.

Giving himself a nod of approval, he turned on his heel to leave.

The halls were crowded, as expected on the first day. It wasn't the people that bothered Aedan, but rather the noises they made. Shoes squeaked against the tile floor, suitcases scraped on the carpet and the voices grew louder as children tried to talk over each other. Once again his eyes picked out that familiar peach colored hair. But this time it was accompanied by a man with a blindfold, and another young man. It wasn't an odd sight at all.

Finding nothing too interesting going on, Aedan made his way to the main hall. It was almost as much of a zoo as the hallways; children finding ways to sit next to their friends, and translation getting lost between those who couldn't understand Sign or what have you. Finding a few spaces open in the back, Aedan moved to take a seat.

Quickly, he was joined by a few of his 'groupies', a delighted mixture of a few boys and girls, some from the years before and some new faces mingled in. Through his years of attending the boarding school, Aedan had grown quite known for his music and his looks. He wasn't as brawny or built as the other boys at the school, but what he lacked in size he made up for in beauty and attitude. His girlish figure and nearly flawless (due to the piercings he gained on his lips) skin made him look like one of those Japanese BJD's all of the girls where carrying around.

Crossing one leg over the other, Aedan pulled his iPod out of his pocket once more and began searching through his apps. Settling on some Memory game, he began to play; gray-blue eyes glued to the screen. Though his attention was on the game, his sharp ears continued to scan the room for any conversation of interest or the screech of the mic that signaled the starting of the Opening Ceremonies.

Kora was trying to work out what to do..something that the frequent announcements were not really helping with. It was hard enough to concentrate without that...when she was addressed. She looked around to see a young woman with rather startlingly pink hair, who seemed intent on persuading her into getting manipulative and getting someone to do the carrying for her.

"Not completely broken down just yet." she remarked to the girl, giving an non-comittal shrug.

Even if she hadn't been able to manage, it was highly unlikely that she would ever have attempted that. Kora wasn't really someone who flirted, or indeed attempted to charm guys on the strength of simply being a girl. Perhaps it was because she'd never gotten any attention from her mother while she was younger, or perhaps it was because she'd never really needed to. The idea of getting others to do things for her made her feel uncomfortable anyway, increasingly so since she had lost the use of her legs.
"I got it anyway. One advantage of the chair, always got a bit of storage space." she added.
She took the bag and slung the straps across the back of the chair. Fortunately she had travelled pretty light and the weight was minimal. Toppling backwards would have been a pretty embarrassing start.

"And yeah, I've already been fully testing out the wheelchair's offensive capabilities. Trouble is if you're chasing people they can always run upstairs." she stated, grinning.

"Hi everybody. The name's Kora." she stated, addressing the girl and the two other boys with her, deciding it was a good idea to introduce herself. She decided not to try and pick out what their issues were. It seemed a little disrespectful on reflection. She'd never been keen on people defining her by what she was lacking.
"Any of you know much about this place? I gotta admit I'm none the wiser. It wasn't exactly my decision to go here."

It was more announced to her that she'd been attending it, as it turned out. It hadn't really bothered her thankfully, but she was a little unsure of the whole place.

"And yeah, I've already been fully testing out the wheelchair's offensive capabilities. Trouble is if you're chasing people they can always run upstairs." Funny, she was funny. Azalea liked her already. "Hi everybody. The name's Kora."

"Azalea, Zeal... No clue," she replied, waving at Blind and Sexy.

"Any of you know much about this place? I gotta admit I'm none the wiser. It wasn't exactly my decision to go here," Kora said, and Azalea felt for the girl. She hadn't exactly chosen to come here, either. She kind of missed the people who would beat her up to make the unfeeling girl feel now that she was so far away from it. It was fun pummelling people who were double her size and triple her in numbers.

"Nope," Azalea replied, rolling onto the heels of her feet and onto the balls of them, back and forth. She wasn't one for standing still. "Joined this year." Azalea watched Blind and Sexy closely, tucking a lazy arm around his waist and casually manoeuvring him so he faced Kora.

"Hey guys, do you hear that barking? I think somebodies collapsed. Guys, we need to help whoever is close to dying. "Hey, who's dog is that? is everything okay?" Azalea looked over her shoulder to find two girls 'talking' to four guys. Well, one was yelling and the other seemed to be... No. No. They let the boys walk away?

"You want to help whoever's dying?" she asked the tall boy, although she was still burning holes into the sleazy men's spines. She hoped they would snap. "Too bad, because someone's going to die," she said through clenched teeth, storming towards the four men. Azalea swivelled her body, smacking her shin against the backs of their knees, knocking two down and elbowing the others in the temple.

"What the hell?!" one growled, holding his throbbing head.

"If you think that's going to hurt, this is going to hurt even more," she said quietly, stomping on the boy's manhood between his legs. Well, there wasn't much there. Still, it had the desired effect of making him scream like a little baby and writh- She fell backwards. Azalea narrowed her eyes at the sight of one carrot headed boy's - who was simultaneously sniffing on an inhaler - fistful of her pink hair. As Azalea fell, she threw her body to the right as well as her right leg, knocking the boy over the head - it wasn't a clean kick - and sending them both crashing to the ground.

What they didn't know yet was she had an advantage.

While Carrot head was catching his breath on solid ground, Azalea jumped up, dodging a fist that came flying over her head. She grabbed the dark skinned, infinitely muscular boy around the waist as he came at her, swept her leg over his and threw him over her shoulder, just to held he descent to the cold hard ground below.

The one who'd been screaming on the ground from having his non-existent balls kicked in threw a punch at her, and she shoved her arm forward, knocking back his chin with her palm and thrusting her fist into his gut. She inwardly cursed, half admiring the boy's abs and half feeling annoyed by them. Something about beating up a guy made them less attra- She was tackled to the ground. Azalea cursed aloud as her body slammed into the ground, she tried to stand, but couldn't. Sometimes this happened, when her body reacted as any other would, but she couldn't feel in.

Abs held her arms over her head, crushing her wrists with a hand - he was strong, she'd give him that, but he was also heavy, and heavy men fell harder - and pinning her legs and torso with the weight of her body. He was close. Too close. His breath smelled like brimstone.

"Pinning a helpless girl?" she asked sweetly. Abs shook his head.

"He's deaf," the third guy with the buzz cut said.

"Figures," Azalea said. "He probably uses deafness as an excuse to rape women because he convinces himself they said yes." A punch whipped Azalea's head aside.

"He can also lip read," Carrot Head said with a grin, picking himself up from the floor with too much wobble to be convincing.

Abs reached one hand down to his pants and began unbuckling his belt. Azalea raised a brow.

"Hey, hey, if you're going to make it easier for me to crush your balls, you should moisturise them, too," she said before her head was whipped aside again. She heard the crunch of something, and she hoped it wasn't her nose. She quite liked her nose. Suddenly, she was picked off the ground and slammed against the wall, Abs pressed her face against the surface with his arm and she felt blood trickle into her lips. She tensed at his body pressed against her back.

The fourth boy who'd stayed clear of all the fighting gripped her wrists now, bending them backwards in what was supposedly meant to hurt. One of his legs was a stump, which meant his upper body strength was unsurprisingly superior to hers. "I can see why you're so popular with the women," she told them as she felt an octopus arm dip under her shirt to release the clasp of her bra. "God, thank you!" she gushed. "That bra was really starting to hurt. Now my breasts are free. Oh heaven almighty, bless m-"

"Shut up!" Fourth Coward yelled in her ear - too close, too close - and shoved her wrists into the wall.

"Oh wow, this is a pretty awkward position to have sex in, don't you think?" she asked sarcastically. Just then, she turned around and heard the snap of the bones on her wrist and hammered Fourth Coward over his temple. He crumbled to the ground, unconscious. She turned to Abs who thrust a fist towards her stomach; she grabbed his wrist in its attack and hammered him over the head. He fell to the ground. She cursed, looking at her wrists and the bones that stuck out from her skin. No wonder they felt so weak. She grabbed her left hand with her right and shoved the bone back in place, she repeated the process with her other hand. Blood trickled from the wound and her hands would soon burn a dark, hideous colour, but it'd work for for now.

She dipped to the floor just as a fist came flying over her - always with the fists, they needed to work on their creativity - and stood behind the boy. She grabbed his hair and slammed his head into the wall, over and over until he crumbled to the ground. She grinned, licking the blood from the corner of her lips as she stared at Carrot Head.

"Last man standing," she said with a grin. "Well, and woman."

Within moments she had him pinned to the ground, the weight of his body crushing his arms. "For every girl you've ever hurt," she said as she slammed her fist into his face. "For the girls you were talking to before." Fist, face, crush. "For me." She slammed his face into the floor.

Azalea stood, cursing at the blood, bruises, cuts and broken bones she now wore. Way to make a first impression, Azalea.

---

"Miss Fray! What is the meaning of this!?" Mr. Takahashi yelled. I'm not deaf, you know. I can hear you just fine.

"What do you mean, Mr. Takahashi?" she said sweetly, widening her already large pale grey-blue eyes. Her irises were an almost unnaturally light colour.

"Fighting is not allowed on school premises!" Mr. Takahashi said through puckered lips.

"Oh, it was self-defense, sir," she said. "They tried to rape me." Azalea gestured with her head towards the four boys whose bodies she dragged along the tiles.

"W-w-w-" Mr. Takahashi blushed, looking anywhere but at Azalea. Man, if you blush over that... When was the last time you got some? she wanted to ask.

"Do you know where the girl is?"

"Who?" Mr. Takahashi lifted his spectacles with his middle finger.

"Dark brown hair, light brown eyes. About yay big. Blind, I think."

"Hana? Hana's in the infirmary."

"Thanks. Have a great day, Mr. Takahashi," she said, turning and dragging the boys away.

---

"Apologise," Azalea said, nudging the four boys forward.

Their bruised, broken and bloody faces stared up at the girl they'd teased minutes before. Now they kneeled on the ground and did as they were told, apologised like they'd never done before, like they'd killed the president's entire family.

"Now go," she told them, wiping the blood from her mouth and narrowing her eyes at the bone that protruded from her right wrist. She must've broken it again. Azalea lifted her left fist and slammed the bone back in place. It'd probably grow all wrong if she left it that way, but she was in the infirmary. She'd just break it again and have it reattached. She looked from the girl - Hana - to the boy who'd supposedly brought her here, and smirked. He was cute. She looked over at Hana, nodding in approval. It was the first day of school and already Hana had seduced a man.

Respect.

"Azalea," she said. Then, lifting her right breast, she said, "Danger. Angel," she said the latter whilst lifting her left breast. "You may address them accordingly. And you are?"

Now that he wasn’t plastered to the floor, Zeal finally got a good look at their new companion. He was tall, much taller than himself. If you placed then back to back, the highest tip of his dishevelled hair would only reach the blind boy’s shoulder blades. The next thing he noticed was that the boy was muscular and could probably kick his ass from the basement to the top of the school. Even if he seemed nice enough, Zeal made a mental note to stay off his bad side. The final point of his analysis took Zeal to the boy’s headband or rather, eyeband. It was marked with the school crest, and covered his eyes perfectly…or did it? Zeal scrunched his nose in thought. With the way the blindfold was placed, the bottom of his eyes should be showing instead of soft, pale skin. It was an interesting thought.
Azalea stopped and rested her back against the wall, clearly finding opening ceremonies to be a huge waste of time. Even if she was a bit reckless, Zeal admired her freedom and willpower. "Nice to meet you and all that,” she said with a wave. "You may refer to me as 'Your Grace,' 'My Queen' or if you want to be boring, Azalea, Zalea, Lea or Bitch-who-thinks-I-care.” Zeal couldn’t help but give a little laugh. “I’ll just call you Lea.” He responded shyly. He liked Azalea. She had everything he didn’t. Courage, freedom, motivation, and, most importantly, friends. When the she gently placed the blind boy’s hands on her breasts, a small flare of jealousy welled up inside the youth as a blush covered his cheeks which, from an observer’s point of view, were even deeper than the boy who was touching them.
"How long have you two been here?” She asked, almost reluctantly removing the boy’s hands from her chest. Zeal smiled and began to twiddle his fingers again. “I’ve been here since first year,” the boy put blandly, pulling his coat closer to his body. His smile faltered when the girl was struck with Azalea’s braid but only for a second. When she unraveled her braid, Zeal’s mouth almost dropped. She looked like a goddess. Pink silk fell down around her, making a hazy barrier between her and the outside world.

While she was doing this however, Zeal noticed how badly her arm was hurt. A long burn wound its way from her palm to her elbow, creating a thin bloody line. How she didn’t even register the pain, Zeal had no idea. "You okay?” she asked politely, not giving any notice to the small puddle of blood forming beneath her. Apart from a sore chest and head, he was otherwise uninjured. “I’m fine but what about you? Your arm is cut up kind of bad.” She dismissed his comment and locked elbows with them. As gently as he possibly could, Zeal used his coat sleeve to wipe away the excess blood from the wound but, again, Azalea gave no notice.

With a spring in her step, the trio made their way to a very cute paralyzed girl or, at least, Zeal thought she was cute. The way her red hair flowed across her scalp combined with her alluring grey eyes would make any boy’s heart melt. At the mention of between a woman’s legs a slight blush crawled up the young boy’s nose, the image of Azalea on top of him popping in and out of focus. Looking to help the girl, Zeal reached out to take her bag when it was snatched before he got there. The sudden movement caught him off guard, causing him to flinch. She introduced herself as Kora and asked if someone could guide her around. Shyly, Zeal raised his hand. “I-I could show you around… if you’d like,” he stammered. He wasn’t used to talking to girls, or anyone for that matter, so all of this sudden popularity was a bit overwhelming.

It was like he actually had friends.
Azalea’s sudden movement surprised him, knocking him into the blind boy. His amber eyes followed her over to a group of hoodlums from last year. Zeal shuddered in fear. These guys were the Tunnel Snakes, the worst people in school. There were rumors that they raped women in the toolshed by the track but they had never been caught. From the looks of them, he wouldn’t be surprised. These four guys were the main reason Zeal isolated himself so much last year, constantly picking on him, trying to provoke him to fight back so they could kick the shit out of him and not get in trouble.

And Azalea just walked up and kicked one in the nuts.

For the first few moments, Azalea was the most amazing thing he had ever seen, trading blow for blow against four of the toughest guys in the school. Then, they started to overpower her. The largest boy had pinned her up to a wall and was struggling to undo his belt. Zeal watched in horror as they smashed the still-smiling girl into the wall. Blood welled in her mouth as they continued to rape her, their hands dipping under her shirt. Summoning courage he never knew he had, Zeal rushed at the nearest boy. “GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF OF HER!” His target turned, a boy had previously been on the ground but had recovered for the proceedings, and lowered his shoulder his charging opponent, flipping Zeal onto his back. A shriek of pain ripped from his lips as a large foot came down upon his only hand. Audible cracks and pops accompanied the insane rush of pain, rendering him useless.

Time seemed to skip from the pain. One moment, Azalea’s being held by a huge goliath of a man against the wall, about to be brutally raped. The next she’s standing above the four of them, bones sticking painfully from her skin and covered in blood. Mr. Takahashi running in and….and….’Oh shit.’ The world around him began to fade to black, little swirls disappearing into the darkness at a time. Before losing consciousness, Zeal took one look at his hand. Bones stuck out from two of his knuckles and his index finger was bent at a very unhealthy angle. As the pain waves intensified, the world went dark.

Kora was a little surprised to be offered help. She'd never really received much around the house...not that she was likely to have accepted it even if she had. Still it came as a surprise.
"I can manage, honestly." she replied, smiling as she tried to keep note of people's names. The two guys seemed friendly enough as well. One, she could guess had a sight issue, due to the defect, and the other she wasn't immediately certain of. He seemed to be rather shy.

The girl who had spoken to her initially was anything but shy however. She was a bit...strange? Yeah, kinda strange...though it did at least make for an interesting encounter. Peculiar tended to be better than boring.
"I'd appreciate it if you could show me where stuff is. I kinda have to plan my routes a bit more because me and stairs don't get along...don't want to spend all my time running late." she explained.

Kora, admittedly, was not particularly concerned with academic success. Up until recently, she'd never had much need to, as her future had been set out for her. Distantly she had the concern that now she would have to work harder on her grades, but she was trying to avoid thinking on that too much. Doing so would involve dwelling on the family situation for too long, and then she'd just get upset, it wasn't really a good way to start things.

The redhead pulled herself out of her reverie, and looked round as she heard a large commotion nearby.

By the time she'd decided to investigate the whole thing and wheeled over, it was pretty much over, one of the staff breaking up what appeared to have been quite a considerable fight, apparently between the pink haired girl and a group of very big, thuggish looking individuals.

She had to admit it was quite impressive, though she wouldn't like to admit that out loud. Kora wasn't really one to praise others very often.

Kora was about to leave and head back to toward the main hall when she realized someone else was still there. She caught sight of the guy she'd spoken to a few minutes ago sprawled on the floor.
"Oh man, you got kinda screwed up, huh?" the redhead remarked, wheeling over and taking a look at his hand, which was in a real state.
"Hey, I think this guy needs to see a doctor or something!" she called. The bleeding wasn't too bad, and he didn't look like he had any other injuries, but it did look to be something that would hurt like hell and would probably need setting.

A glance at him also showed that he only had one arm. She hadn't realized initially.
"Ouch, unlucky. You're gonna have an interesting few weeks, huh?"

 "Hello, my name is Alexander, but you can just call me Alex. I'm guessing you're mute as well? Anyways, nice to meet you…." He hoped the kid who introduce himself, so he wouldn't have to use pronouns in place of the kid's name. He thought that maybe this kid would know more about this school than Alex himself knew, since the kid seemed to be older than Alex. "Do you know how the translators here work? Sorry for bombarding you with questions, but I haven't really had a chance to go to the assembly or ask anyone questions." 

Aedan's attention turned to the other mute boy as he was addressed. He watched as the boys hands whirled with the sentences, his eyes barely able to keep up with them. But he understood. Smiling politely, Aedan gave a light nod before trying out his own bit of signing, granted it was equal of that of someone who had just learned the skill.

Hello, I am Aedan. My translator is Maurice and I sure he help you. Come after here. Me.

Somehow he hoped that the young man would catch his meaning before he wandered off to visit one of the girls. Turning his attention back to Azalea as she made her advances.

Resting his hands on the girls hips, he gave a soft grin as he was introduced to the whole family. This girl was going to be a handful, and he figured he could deal with that. At least she'd make an interesting body guard. When she let go with the little “prettier than girls” comment, Aedan tried his hardest to look offended. But... It was true.

Here you go, Aedan," Mrs. Osaka said, handing 'Aedan' his medication.

Aedan smiled and nodded a polite thank you before downing the pills with a bit spit. He had gotten used to taking pills dry, especially the tiny ones like these.

 "Well, nice to meet you all and all that. I'm sure my irresistible, charismatic personality has charmed you all," she said sarcastically. "I play for both teams," she purred at the beauty with red-brown hair, tossing her a wink.

Catching the last bit of that lovely conversation, Aedans ears perked slightly. Looking over toward Azalea, he gave an almost wicked grin before winking at her.

Seems like I'm not the only one.

Hoping the message would translate, his attention then turned to the blindfolded man at the door. Seemed another lost sheep had found his block. Thanking the nurse once more, he scribbled her a note asking her to leave his information with the younger mute before taking his leave. Maurice was going to be furious with him, and it was better to take his punishment now rather than later.

Allowing the friends to catch up on their own, Aedan took his leave. Making his way down the hall, he reveled in the occasional silence that graced the halls. It was the first day, so everyone was out either getting their rooms ready or familiarizing themselves with the grounds. Classes wouldn’t start until tomorrow.

It was amazing, how such a heavenly place could turn into such a battle ground. But, every heaven has it’s Snakes. Aedan smiled at the thought, giving a gentle shake of the head. This was a school; a special school, but a school all the same.

There was going to be bullies, be them as extreme as the Tunnel Snakes he could only guess, and there was nothing he could really do to stop them. They were vermin, always multiplying in the darkest of places and never stopping until they had an army under their control. Luckily dark spaces were a rare privilege around here.

“Hey there, Doll,” Aedan froze. He knew that voice. He knew the cruel shudder that danced up his spine every time it’s holder used that cruel nickname.

“I’m a little upset, you didn’t even come and say hello after you got off that damned bus of yours.”

The voice belonged to Wolfgang, the lead singer and manager of their band, as well as the star pitcher for the school’s baseball team. To anyone Wolfgang was a star. He held the looks alright, with his bleached white hair, bright blue eyes and… chiseled body. No! Snapping his eyes quickly back up to the males face he gave a look of mock apology.

Wolfgang smirked, stepping forward to gently catch the smaller boys chin between his fingers, forcing him against the white-washed wall.

“Now you know those little quips of yours get you into trouble… Or has the luxury of your damned family make you forget that little part?”

The smaller boy quickly shook his head, panic over riding his blue-grey eyes. This wasn’t anything new. Aedan knew how to play to Wolfgang’s power trips. He knew the rules, and he knew how to get himself out of trouble.

“Oh really now?” Wolfgang sneered, cocking his head slightly to the left, his hands slowly trailing from Aedan’s shoulders and working their way down his arms. “Are you sure we don’t have to have a little repeat of last year…?” Again, Aedan shook his head, goosebumps appearing up and down his arms. He hated the way his body reacted to the man, every touch was like cinnamon to the tongue; burning but pleasant.

Wolf was in control, and Aedan was letting him have it. Again, this was nothing new. Wolf had treated most of his band-members this way, well… Not to this extent. He was an outward guy, delivering Corporal punishment when he thought it was needed, but Aedan was different. Adean was beautiful, smart, and talented. Aedan was essential, and Wolf was going to do everything to keep his prize close by and obedient.

"unh-whuh-whasaw" Jolnas woke up with a start from a sleep of nothingness. He. Had he fallen asleep during the opening ceremony? He reached back to grab his chair for support, only to have his hand hit a wall. He felt around the base of which he was sitting on, to find a wooden board connected to this mysterious wall. He had been siting on a bench; no, he had been sleeping on a bench. Jolnas slid as far as he could go, trying to discover where the bench ended. Launching at a speed much faster than he had anticipated, he landed on his rear on the floor of what must be a hallway. Great, he had been left behind in what may or may not be some cruel joke. Just like he had been before, by everybody else. Not being able to keep up to everything else. He would be doomed to a life where he couldn't support himself. The despair of his life rushed back into him as depression from years passed rushed into him.
He started crying. The tears emitted from his eye ducts soaking his headband. "This is so stupid" he whispered. Throwing his headband across the room. "Am I doomed to this life alone? DAMMIT" He screamed the last word, the agony of stress trickling it's way towards his very mind as his emotional breakdown set in. He didn't care if anybody heard him. Sure, they would be there with him for a while, making sure he wouldn't kill himself, but then they would just leave him there again. Alone. Never knowing where he was going. Always lost with no guide but himself, despair, and sorry attempts to do better. So he sat there crying, in a shallow pool of sadness and angst.
A sound of squeaking, heralding his discovery that he was not alone. Somebody else was here. He had just embarrassed himself to some random passerby in a, wheelchair? How many students had he heard in a wheelchair? Only one and that was Kora...
"Hello?" He hoped that they hadn't heard him whoever they were, If it was Kora it would be a terrible loss of face, and if she saw him without his headband, well. He couldn't let her see that, let alone anybody. He tightened his eyelids, denying the world of his eyes. His one goal now was to retrieve his headband from the opposite side of the hallway. He placed his hand on the bench, humbly sliding back to his cane. Retrieving his cane he then slid back to the end of the bench, then started tapping around in order to find his headband, his method of saving face. He only had to take a few more steps to find... the wall. Was there no end to his troubles? He tapped around to the sides a bit faster, trying to find his headband on the floor. More frantically he searched, tapping every half second as to find what mattered to him.
He hit something, something metal by the resonation of the clang. He began to reach out, then retreated his grasp, then paused, sticking his hand out in the gesture of a hand shake.
Shakily, he had to try to break the ice, squinting his eyes, he stuttered. "er, have we met before?"

Kora was marking out a date in red pen on a notebook, deep in thought about what her plan was going to be, when there was a yell, and she was hit in the face with something, what appeared to be a headband, that dropped into her bag. She looked up to reprimand the blind guy throwing stuff at her, to find that he was yelling and crying. She was a little taken aback, and shortly afterwards he appeared to be as well as became aware of her presence. He began searching for something...and she could fairly quickly guess what.

"Dude, calm down." she stated, fishing out the band and holding it out.
"Up in front of you. Can't exactly hold it very high, but it's there."

She decided not to say anything about the outburst, deciding it would probably save both of them a great deal of awkwardness in the long run.

"You get left behind too, huh? There was a fight with some guys and the other guy got hurt. I did try to help him out but some other girl went off with him like I wasn't there so I guessed my presence wasn't really welcome and I wasn't going to get any credit. Kinda starting to see a pattern in my life...not that I'm bitter or anything. .." she remarked in a tone that suggested exactly the opposite.

She zipped her bag closed and flung it back over the handles of the chair. They were rarely used for their original purpose anyway. Kora couldn't stand being pushed anywhere.

"And I'm also figuring we might be late for the assembly, so there's that too. I was just trying to work out next time my family is going to visit, hence why I wasn't saying a whole lot. Folks are not good at sounding committed." the redhead explained.

"Dude, calm down."
Jolnas turned his head down towards Koras voice, so she got left behind to? That was a shame. But at least they were both in good company. If she had it then, he had probably thrown it at her. Absolutely terrible Jonas, embarrassing yourself in front of a lady. Your father would be very disappointed.
"Up in front of you. Can't exactly hold it very high, but it's there."
Jolnas swayed his hand to the side, brushing his skin against hers, then touching the soft headband. Grabbing it, he slowly removed it out of Koras grasp. He stuttered, trying to reclaim whatever dignity he had let loose in front of her.
"Th-thanks Kora. Glad t-to have you as a friend" He pulled the headband open enough to shuffle it over his eyes, not fast enough to show haste, but quickly enough to make it not seem that special. "The others are probably in the infirmary if there was a fight, so we should probably head there. Do we really need to head to the assembly though?" He smiled, then turned towards the sounds of music. "Unless you really want to go. I'm not going anywhere alone." He looked towards her general direction, lifting his arms and dropping them to his sides, letting him smack his legs with a satisfying smack. "Or we could just hang out here, go outside, go downtown, check out dorms..." He kept going on, was there no end to what could be done at the school? It would probably be better to go to the assembly but, why go where there's nothing to see? No fun in doing nothing. "We probably should go to the assembly but it's probably going to be boring and flowery crap we already know." He folded his arms. "No time like the present to goof off."

Kora reached up and handed the headband over, suspecting, at least partially that his gratitude was less down to the band and more down to the fact that what he'd done had gone unmentioned. She hadn't any intention of bringing it up again. In a way she could identify.

The young woman listened as he spoke, she was glad of the company at least.
She shrugged.
"Not got any particular inclination to listen to someone waxing lyrical about how everyone is special and we should all join hands." Kora replied.

"I guess we could go catch up with the others. I guess I was just a bit irritated.. I don't really like getting left behind. My brother and sister have this charming habit of walking as fast as they can when they're out with me so I get stuck behind, or going up stairs. It pisses me off." she muttered darkly.
"Hopefully I'll be able to do something about that though, y'know, get better at pushing this thing. Make sure nobody leaves me behind without my say so..."

"Sorry, I'm going off on one, you want to head over to the infirmary and go see? I guess we should see what happened." the redhead replied, snapping the brakes off the chair and beginning to move in that direction.

"You're german right? I was born in europe, Norway to be exact, though you wouldn't know it, right? Moved around an awful lot what with all the company stuff. Folks are moving again at the moment, so possibly another reason they're keen to get shot of me I suppose."

"Not got any particular inclination to listen to someone waxing lyrical about how everyone is special and we should all join hands."
Wow, pretty voice and smart. Could there be any more pleasant surprises to this girl? Who else would he have to meet today that was this interesting. He still had to find Zeal and Azalea, and ask how they were doing.
"I guess we could go catch up with the others. I guess I was just a bit irritated.. I don't really like getting left behind. My brother and sister have this charming habit of walking as fast as they can when they're out with me so I get stuck behind, or going up stairs. It pisses me off. Hopefully I'll be able to do something about that though, y'know, get better at pushing this thing. Make sure nobody leaves me behind without my say so..." Funny. He had a knack for getting left behind too. It wasn't because he wasn't quick enough to keep up though, he just, well. He had no idea where to go. He listened like a rock standing vigil to the hours of a summer day. He didn't care if she kept on with her mild complaining. Having a conversation was worth anything. He wasn't going to put up with any crap, but this, just listening to Kora was great.

"Sorry, I'm going off on one, you want to head over to the infirmary and go see? I guess we should see what happened."
He heard the clicking of, something. Probably having to do with her wheelchair. The axles squeaked to life as she made her way down the hallway, causing a rather startled Jolnas to follow the sound of the wheels. Oh boy, a challenge.

"You're german right? I was born in europe, Norway to be exact, though you wouldn't know it, right? Moved around an awful lot what with all the company stuff. Folks are moving again at the moment, so possibly another reason they're keen to get shot of me I suppose Company? Her family owned a company? Wow, his father was an accountant, maybe he had worked for her family somewhere in his life.

"Yep, born a little north of Hamburg in a city called Kiel. Lived there all my life until I got shipped here. Great place, so many smells. Nice sandy beaches too." He paused. Should he make a joke? Yes. "The sand being the only thing I can feel there though." Hopefully that didn't come out as depressed, so to reinforce the joke, he gave out a little laugh. "Tell you what though schön You speak English, or french. or something other Japanese? I think two euro's should be able to speak a bit easier than what we're doing with now. I picked up a bit of Norwegian back at my old school, but it mostly had to do with fish and winter stuff," He really] hoped she didn't know german, otherwise he was probably going to get left behind for hitting on her, not doing anything about it, and coming off like a creep. Come on Jolnas, you're blind, and could probably throw Arnie into a headlock then have in for an eight-count. Yeah except Eight-count's a boxing term.

"I was born near Oslo. Cue jokes about being a viking. " Kora chuckled.
"I guess I'm a bit of a mutt mind you, even if my family has always been very funny about marriage and all that nonsense." she explained.

"I've lived over here since I was about nine or ten, but I know english. My mother is canadian so I was sort of expected to know it. Not that it made a lot of difference. We don't talk very much. Talking would imply some sort of human emotion as supposed to the reptile instincts that my mom possesses..." she muttered, before drawing to a halt, resting her hands on the wheels of the chair.

Kora's relationship with her mother Karina had never been a good one. For the most part the barely talked. She lived elsewhere anyway. They'd never really wanted to bring up the divorce, as some sort of method of saving face, she supposed. Her father never wanted to give the impression that the family was not entirely flawless, to the point of outright deception it appeared.

"You don't happen to know where to go from here do you?" she asked, looking back at her newfound friend. She'd been aware of not rushing ahead too much, guessing it probably wasn't easy to keep up when you couldn't see someone.

Jolnas reached for a wall, scanning around, in an effort to find something that would answer Kora's question. "There should be a fire escape map, with some braille on it." He was speaking in english now, his accent still permeating through every word. The smooth wall hiding his saving grace.

"If only I could find it though, I could tell us where we needed to go and we could be on our merry way. He moved his cane to attach it to a magnet on his back, the magnet being held in place by a strap he wore under his uniform. He opted to use both of his hands instead, waving around as the faint hiss of his palms slid across drywall. He moved over to strike his hand against a metal plaque. Re-positioning himself to read the plaque better, he ran his fingers along the cold metal. In braille, he translated to English. "Fire escape routes," He traced his fingers to finally find the infirmary, stopping, then swiping them across, the feel of bumps in a set track so familiar. He had mastered braille when he was Thirteen. It had been two years prior that he had learned it however, the first word he had learnt being turtle. The word stuck with him, up unto the point that the doctor suggested Meditation and a physical activity.His father had replied with boxing, but his mother objected, stating that there was no way that he could protect himself by putting himself in harms way. Then his father had suggested Kung Fu. His mother was only a small bit more lenient to this idea, and wasn't very happy when her blind son took his first lesson. Both of his parents were surprised to hear their son explaining how he had held his own against a fully capable child. "They breathe really heavily, and there movements are loud as well."

He remembered being asked about what forms he would try to attempt. His reply to this was, "Turtle, there is no way I'm gonna fall if the goal is to take hits." Through the times of when he had to protect himself, he was always in stance, his feet rooted to the floor, his arms up, his back hunched over, hiding behind his arms, away from all pain. He would usually take a punch to his stomach, but the cry of surprise as the assailant pulled back their fist because of how hard his abs were (he would always keep his abs tightened when fighting), was hint enough of there position, and he soon dealt with them.

"Hey Kora, could you come up here? I need to know where we are. I found out where we need to go though." He inserted his hand into his pocket, and removed his can from it's resting place. He was glad to have somebody that could see around. "I think I'd literally be lost without you Kora. I have to admit, we might make a good team." He turned around, trying to remember where she was relative to him.