Nobuyuki Ueda was late. It almost seemed as if those four words were destined to be intertwined with another. He had entered the main building from the dormitories a few moments prior without seemingly a care in the world. As those who seemingly had a better grasp on the reality of the situation were running past him, screaming thought not vocally, more of the internal screaming that is mastered by those used to high stress situations, such as people watching in desperate agony as a roomba runs over some canine waste product and paints a picture with it. No Ueda was seemingly not cornered at all as he slowly progress, the sound of his odd three legged steps went about, the soft plodding of his feet, contrasting with the sharp thud of a cane bounding against the floor.

As Ueda plodded along his thoughts drifted away to him like smoke from a flame. His thoughts out of maybe a sense of nostalgia, to his first year at Yamaku. When he had first arrived two years ago the academy seemed odd, overly complex and incomprehensible to a degree that would drive the human mind to start ranting and raving about the coming lizard man invasion. It took him some time, to finally get a hand of things to come, moving along with the success of small child without legs trying to ride a bicycle: adorable, yet sad at very same time. Though somehow through the process of Osmosis, he did begin to pick up on how to get from point A to point B quickly. It came with a moment of revelation and understanding and for a moment he was a caveman and he had just discovered that if you rub two sticks together long enough, fire happens. Gradually this understanding came from, not relying on the map of the school all new students are given as they move in. For the map was almost a fictitious entry designed to give a semblance of order, even though the piece of paper could not tell you where the foot traffic was always the heaviest, where the 12:00 PM children with wheelchair rush occurs and one could only watch in horror as the wheeled demons mow down any that dare to stand in their way. He learned like most, and like most he did not use the power that came with this knowledge responsibly. For if he did, Ueda would not be late.

And yet here he was looking up at the stairwell in front of him. For Ueda was seemingly running on a clock that was about ten minutes behind the rest of his classmates and teachers, coming in to class late was a habit, and that was on good days. On bad days he just wandered about, not caring about his studies. He was much more content with finding new places where nobody could find them unless they were part time basset hounds. He took a breath as he brought his first foot onto the first step. And a dull pain ached through his body, and that was another thing that had changed from when Ueda first came to the academy. He did not yet have his cane. But little could be done to stop that and when he acquired it at the beginning of his second year, he did his best to ignore that even existed. But at times such as this when the pain ran through his legs, it was a reminder of why he had it. And a normal man would of taken the elevator, to avoid the inconvenience but of course Ueda would not do that, too stubborn and too unwilling to accept defeat as he pushed forward one step after another.

Two years at the academy had not changed Ueda. Though it many ways his perception of his situation did change. For he realized that with so many students attending the academy, that either the dice thrown at the beginning of ones life to determine if they would be normal, healthy, comfortably middle class, or, poor, insane, and posing a degenerative disease that slowly kills you must have been weighted heavily to one side in some peoples cases. Ueda deiced that it was either because the reminiscent figure above either had a sick sense of humor, or he like all the other kids just had bad luck and should ever becoming professorial uncontrollable gamblers. In many ways he still found the academy very counter productive in its goal, of bringing them up in a location where nobody was ostracized for being different. It was as if they were all goldfish in a safe tank, but what happened when they exited the tank? Well the plump little goldfish know used to swimming in a little tank, would be devoured by the sharks of course, the circle of life and all that. But Ueda put those thoughts away, keeping his own inner pessimist at bay. 

As he walked up the stairs somewhere close and above him, he heard a series of loud noises. It was only as he progress further up the stairs did he see the source of the noise. Three people upon the first floor landing, two of them standing and the other one a smaller figure kneeling on the ground. Ueda did some quick connecting of the dots, and deduced that somebody more specifically the small figure had taken a fall. And judging from how one of the boys, who seemed to judging by body language and general reaction, had slammed into the smaller figure and sent them flying backwards to their otherwise unscheduled doom. Ueda then moved around them and kept on progressing up the stairs, deciding that two people helping the smaller figure was more then enough. The sound of his cane echoing as he progressed slowly up through the stairs and away from them, as he thought to himself. [I] And thus it was proven once again, stairs are the mortal enemy of the bipedal mammal.[/I]

~~~
The door to room 3-4 was closed, when Ueda arrived and he shrugged before slowly entering. His teacher turned around and looked at him as he let out a sigh. "Mr. Nobuyuki, I was just starting, and may I asked why you are late to my class, as one would come to expect from you?" His teacher asked "Or did you just think that class started ten minutes later this year?" 

"Well no! Of course not Sir! You know how it is in the morning, and the traffic on the highway on the daily commute. You can't help when there is a ten car pile up, that is not my fault?" Ueda interjected with a sincere hint of honesty to his voice, even though he was lying through his teeth. 

"Mr. Nobuyuki, I'm well aware that you live in the school dormitories, or do you not remember last years incident?" 

"Well! [B]That[/B] my respected teacher has nothing to do with the current situation and I find it very insensitive that you open wounds still so fresh." Ueda declared holding his free hand to his chest as if he had just been shot.

"... Mr. Nobuyuki just take the empty seat next to Mr.Blair over there. He is new here at our academy, so I ask you from the bottom of my heart. Don't corrupt the boy."

Ueda nodded, and walked over to seat that his homeroom teacher had gestured towards. He eased himself down, doing his best to not put anymore strain on his already falling apart body. "Well, at least I tried." Ueda muttered to himself as he took out his books, not bothering to opening them as he shoved them to a corner of his desk and put his head down.