Nagi felt stupidly right on the money about Hitomi. The way she lovingly gazed and clutched upon her game device drew even more exasperated mental sighs from her. Nami might have been the better choice to talk to Hitomi, but Nagi had to make do with circumstances as these. Hopefully, the dormitory arrangements were temporary. A multiple personality issue stayed poorly hidden in common living area.

At least she came up with an excuse about herself and Nami that seemed to work. Well, Nami came up with the excuse, but Nagi had to introduce it.

Nagi knocked on the door nearest to the stairs. "This one's mine," she said coldly, though the tone of her words felt like paper in her mouth. She turned around to Hitomi and tried to smile that was trembling at its edges and showing more teeth than she needed.

"I'm Isa Nami," uttered Nagi, still holding onto the strange smile on her face.

She rushed down the stairs to the ground floor, her heeled footsteps breaking the awkward tension with Hitomi, at the very least. The dark blonde-haired male that would have been known as Youhei, the black-haired man that looked a little too familiar to Nagi, and Kirijo Yoromatsu. The previous conversation they had escaped Nagi's attention, but she did notice the smile that Yoro had was probably the same as the one she forced upon her face upstairs.

"Mr. Kirijo?" Nagi directed her voice politely towards Yoro, attracting his attention. Picking up her own photo (of her dressed like her normal attire) from her pocket, she held it out for him to see.

"This is my brother. Nagisa." Her voice sounded rehearsed, and after a few hours of practice in front of the mirror in the morning, it had to be. "He'll be coming into here sometimes, in my place. Let him have access to whatever we—"

Nagi took a deep breath, as if she tripped up on her own words. She sometimes used the word 'we' in place of 'I'.

"—I have. At least until I move out."

Yoro's smile faded for a moment. Someone was speaking to him. The second he realized that his smile was gone, though, he put it back up. He turned to Nagi and let her do her clearly rehearsed lines. He nodded along to what she said, looking down at the picture. Normally, he would have told her that visitors are only allowed in the dorm during daylight hours. However, he was aware of her... condition. Split personalities. He couldn't believe it when Takahiro told him. However, he was still a little iffy about her. Having someone with an actual mental disorder on the team could be catastrophic.

He had someone with... mental issues on the team before and it turned out poorly. No, that wasn't strong enough. It was a disaster. That night was his biggest failure as a leader. He looked up at Nagi. "Yeah, that's fine. Thank you for letting me know."

Maaka sighed as she looked the dorm building up, and down... she was late by at least ten minutes it seemed. That or orientation into the dorms had begun early it was hard to say so with suitcase, and purse in hand she tried the door handle and with no resistance opened the door to her new temporary home. At first glance she was shocked to admit she was impressed though her cold icy stare said other wise as her eyes darted to every aspect of the first floor especially to the bar where Youhei, and Ikeda were sitting. She briefly caught what seemed to be the end of a conversation about new talent. With a raised eyebrow she headed toward them.

"Excuse me I got here a little late I am Maaka Asaga, and I was informed I would living her by a Mr. Kirijo.... do I have the right place," She asked dryly looking back, and forth between the two who were sharing a drink. She patiently waited and observed the two the male immediately catching her eye with his weird ahoge hairstyle, and then the girl... she was cute. The silver haired woman found it a bit odd for a dorm to have bar, but that was a question for another day.

"A-ah, how'd you--no, I'm not even going to ask how you got that." Akira responded as she surveyed the bottle in her hands, obviously impressed with Youhei's taste. "and yes, I do enjoy banana, thank you. I might take a sip of it later or save it for a better time--" She was cut off as Yoro excused himself with a distressed look, and her brows furrowed as she heard a female voice rattling off at the other end of the phone. Who exactly was he talking to? It wasn't any of her business, they were just friends and all--

Wait, did he just say "I love you"? No, why was she even concerned?! It could be his sister for all she knew, but from her memory of the letters they exchanged, she only recalled that Yoro was an only child. The possibility had to be there, maybe this was a cousin or something. But if it was a girlfriend, why the hell wouldn't he tell her? Akira's expression seemed unchanged as she observed the phone call, but the look in her eyes was what sold her out. She quickly averted them back towards the bottle, but then the sound of the door opening caught her attention, and she saw a silver-haired girl standing in the doorway. The girl made her way towards them, and with a quick breath Akira pulled herself together and let a small smile grace her face as the girl introduced herself.

"Yes, you're at the right place. Kirijo is the one you passed who was speaking to the other girl. I'm Ikeda Akira, and this is Fukugawa Youhei. I will show you to your room, since Kirijo seems to be occupied." She then turned her attention back to Youhei,"Excuse me, Fukugawa, and thank you again for the gift. Perhaps we can share it together sometime." With that, Akira escorted the girl up the stairs and took a moment to explain the second floor was reserved for the men, but the sight of a boy with a wild hair banging on all of the doors struck her as odd. She knew that Shirogane wouldn't take loud knocking too well, and she apologized to Maaka before excusing herself and grabbing the boy's attention.

"Hey, you must be new. There's an empty room at the end of the hall, so there's no need to bang on the doors. Besides, our names are on the doors so it shouldn't be hard to find one that's vacant." She stated to the newcomer with an odd look, unsure of whether or not he'd actually understand her.

Leo stood at the door for a few seconds waiting for someone to answer, but got no reply. He tried to turn the knob, but quickly found that the door was locked. Must be taken. I'll try the next one then... and repeated the process with the next door, only to get the same result. This is is gonna take a while... He thought with a sigh.

As he went to try the next door, a brown haired girl wearing glasses called his attention, and said something to him in Japanese. The boy just gave her a confused look. He couldn't figure out what she was saying, and he really didn't know what to think about the glass bottle she was carrying. He knew the legal drinking age was different here, but this was still a school dorm. Did they allow those things here? He figured they did because she didn't seem like the troublemaker sort. The girl pointed to some Japanese characters written on the doors, but Leo didn't have a clue what those meant. For all he knew, they could have said "keep out", or "come on in", or some other random phrase. He didn't have any idea what to make of those strange symbols. Her tone sounded like she was trying to help, she didn't sound mean, which he was grateful for, but this language barrier was going to be a problem.

Leo shook his head, and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sorry, my Japanese isn't very good... Could ya' say that a little slower please?" At that moment, he remembered something he had read from a website containing basic Japanese phrases. "Um... Ni...hongo... o hana...sema...sen...?*" He said slowly. Silently praying that he pronounced that right, and that she was able to understand.

(*He's basically saying "I don't speak Japanese.")

Youhei put on his best mysterious air, shrugging melodramatically in response to Ikeda's reaction. Truth be told, he was relieved that she had taken it well; he had expected her to either run away or freak out... And right on cue, Kirijo gave his verdict. Normally Youhei would have just flouted dorm rules regardless, but he respected Kirijo's willingness to let the odd thing slide. In future, alcohol would only be consumed in the privacy of his own room... or the roof, that could work too. He treated the other lad to a mock salute and a wry smile. 'Yes boss, you won't catch me again boss.' Any response Kirijo might have given was cut off by a certain text message; Youhei caught a glimpse of the screen before Kirijo turned away. A girl perhaps? Curiosity aside, he tried not to listen in on the call... and failed. Kirijo's tone, the nickname 'Kimi' and that scandalous 'I love you' tugged his ear to no end. And a limo? Bloody bourgeois...

His eavesdropping was interrupted by the entrance of another unfamiliar face, introduced as Asaga and characterised by her unique hair and cold demeanour. Youhei let Ikeda do the honours this time around; considering how nervous she had been mere weeks before, he was quite impressed by the confidence she projected in front of such an... intimidating young woman. He leant his elbows down on the bar and gave a camp little finger wave as Ikeda introduced him, sizing the new girl up. First impressions of Asaga painted a rather grim picture; her unfriendly eyes and silver hair gave Youhei a chilly feeling in his gut. This was not a girl that he would try teasing... He sighed deeply; it would seem that with the departure of Minobe, there wasn't anyone tease-able left in the dorm... He quashed that rather lonely thought as Ikeda continued. 'Sounds like a plan; I'd love to see you and Kirijo trolleyed.' The girls left about the same time that Kirijo came off his phone; Youhei considered making a snarky comment about internet girlfriends, but upon seeing the other lad's expression thought better of it. Instead he resumed their earlier conversation. 'So about these new people. Do they, uh... actually know what SEES is? And what are we going to do about Mr Yankee Doodle up there? You and I may be able to talk to him, but we are somewhat above the average English speaking quotient of this dorm.' He studiously ignored the elephant in the room, along with Ikeda's rapid escape...

"Hm..." Yoro thought. "Well, we really have four choices as far as I can see; teach the others English, teach the new guys Japanese, interpret for one side or the other, or leave both sides alone and have them work out a way to communicate." He fixed himself a drink from the fridge; fruit punch. He always had fruit punch when he was depressed. "As for your other question... no. But I think you know what information you can or cannot divulge. I had Takahiro tell the others, but..." He sighed. "Can't really trust Tak to do something when I only ask him once. I love that guy like he's my brother, but... well, you know Tak." He scratched his head. "Um... but yeah." He looked at his phone, then bowed slightly to Nagi and Youhei. "Excuse me, I need to make another call." He turned and dialed another number. "Yes, I need a limo. Mhm. Seven thirty. Iwatodai. It's the large, red dormitory. Can't miss it. Yeah, that's the one. Thank you." He hung up. "I will have a limo arriving in a couple hours. I have... plans. Ahem." He put his phone up. "Mind... uh... passing me your flask?" He paused. "Just don't tell the others." He turned to Nagi. "I trust I have your silence as well?"

With a slight chuckle she continued on, entering the kitchen and pouring a still steaming hot cup of tea for herself before putting the kettle back on the warm stove. Grabbing a bottle of honey, she slowly poured some in before pulling it away and closing it up. Pausing for a minute, she decided to make another cup for Takahiro and although she was doing all this, she was still continued to listen to him. Letting out a happy sigh, she turned around with a cup in each hand before going back to Takahiro. "Here, I made some for you too and I'd love to go to Escapade with you. I've never really gone before.....I wonder, should I invite the others too...?"

"Thanks." Takahiro smiled and took the tea. He instantly went red when she suggested inviting the others. "No, no, no ,no!" His voice lowered. "Yoro is the only one that knows. I don't want everyone making a big fuss over me." He scratched his head. "You're more than welcome to come, but... uh... keep it on the down low? Please?" Takahiro cleared his throat. "So, why don't we head up to one of our rooms? Listen to some music, drink some tea." He tried changing the subject.

Ranko blinked a few times at Takahiro's quiet protest. Now that she thought about it they probably would make a bit of a fuss, though the person making the most fuss would be Youhei. Taking a sip of her tea, she let out a happy shiver then nodded. "I promise, I won't tell the others then. After all, having a secret just between the two of us is kinda nice in a way..." Taking another sip, she looked off to the side and blushed as her imagination was slowly getting the best of her. Hearing Takahiro clear his throat helped her snap out of her dreamland and then looked back towards him."Hm? Oh, yeah. Lets go to your room then?"

Shirogane snapped awake to the sound of loud banging. Someone was knocking on a door at the end of the hall by the stairs, and half asleep he was more than a little panicked by it. Having something of a fear of loud noises, especially in the home, he desperately tried to pull himself out of his stupor. Stumbling as he threw himself up out of his desk chair and knocking it over, he fell on to his bed in the process. The soothing sound of Ikeda's voice calmed his shot nerves a bit, and he listened closely for just as long as it took for him to realize he wasn't in any immediate danger, although he also remembered the dorm was becoming quite a bit more crowded today. The cool bed covers his face was buried in helped too.

Despite his heart still pounding anxiously in his chest, Akira stood up and went to his door, bracing himself for a moment before he opened it just enough to fit through and looked down the hall from his doorway. He was on the threshold but still had not left his room. His hair was a mess, he looked disheveled, and the puzzled look on his face didn't help his appearance either. He was pretty stunned that Ikeda should be toting a bottle around. That was usually Youhei's territory. And if the thought that she and this newcomer were trying to find a room to enjoy that bottle together had crossed his mind, it probably would have broken him. Instead, he was just stumped, and a raspy "Uhhh...?" escaped his lips, his voice barely audible from down the hall "Should I be worried?"

Youhei nodded slowly, absorbing the implications of Kirijo's words. Four new people, especially four clueless new people in the dorm made things tricky; SEES hadn't decided on their next expedition to Tartarus but he was banking on it being soon. Either they could find a way of keeping the new people oblivious and/or asleep (drugs maybe...), or just drag them along and hope they don't die... Youhei felt a tang of guilty amusement over that thought, although it unfortunately reminded him of his own crimes... 'Takahiro is Takahiro, I know what you mean. Fair play, I'll spread the nude.' He still wondered what they would do with the American lad; theoretically Youhei could tutor him in basic Japanese, but that was a hassle... Well, he thought flippantly, Que sera sera.

As Kirijo finished up is second call and asked for a drink, Youhei obliged with a little grin, one eyebrow raised skyward as he spiked the punch. 'Ooh, Mr Dorm Leader needs some liquid courage, eh? Is your date that sc-' Only now, halfway through pouring the drink, did Youhei finally realise that one of the new girls was there. He stumbled a bit, panicking that he may have said too much and accidentally poured a tad too much into Kirijo's cup... 'Ah, hello there, didn't see you... there.' Come to think of it, he hadn't gotten acquainted with the newbies just yet; now was as good a time as ever. 'In any event, nice to meet you. I am Fukugawa Youhei and I shall be your village idiot for the duration of your stay.' Youhei gave a theatrical bow and his best faux formal smile; he still hadn't gotten the knack of making Japanese people feel comfortable around him, so went with his standard façade once more. 'And what may I call thine august self, m'lady?'

Nagi nodded with no expression on her face. It wasn't her issue anyway, and she hadn't really met anyone with issues bigger than her own. A temporary stay was no place for any lasting emotional bonds, and not that she was good at making them, anyway.

The self-proclaimed village idiot who called himself Fukugawa Youhei ingratiated himself to his role right from the start, considering all the theatrics he did in whatever went on in his head. Nagi rolled her eyes; Nami would have too, probably.

"Nami. I have a brother called Nagi, and he is very protective." Nagi felt the need to add on the latter sentence in a curt, direct tone. She didn't think that Fukugawa truly had any intentions of meddling with a girl, but her fierce stare into his eyes showed quite the opposite.

She claimed a seat at the common area sofa, and the strain released from her feet, and her heels, made her sigh almost audibly in relief.

Takahiro nodded, a smile on his face. "Yeah, sure!" He sounded a little too excited. He quickly regained his composure. "Um, I mean, yeah sure. That sounds cool." He blushed and took her hand, leading her upstairs.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Yoro turned his head to see Takahiro leading Ranko upstairs by her hand. He was going to say something, but the phone call with Kimi really put him in a mood where he didn't care about very much. Even if they were going to do something VERY much against dorm regulations, he didn't really care about it at the moment. All he could think about was Kimiko. She was very pretty, sure. Shoulder length brown hair, big green eyes, slim figure... but she was only pretty on the outside. On the inside, she was the ugliest person he ever met. Greedy, manipulative, rude, unkind to everyone but those she was manipulating. He sighed, totally tuning out Youhei as he sipped his drink. He felt himself slowly relaxing. The fiery whisky mixed with the smooth, fruity drink was rather pleasing. Youhei addressing Nami finally pulled him out of his head. He downed the drink in just a couple of gulps.

Bad a judge of character as Hitomi was, even she couldn't help but notice the cold, empty tone the girl spoke with, or the ingenuity of her smile as the girl claimed a door and introduced herself. And, before Hitomi could recover from the scare this Nami person had given her, much less start formulating an answer, the blonde girl had already brushed past her and disappeared into the stairway they'd come from earlier.

It took a while before Hitomi found it in her to move. For a few minutes, all she could do was stand still in shock, regretting her attempt to keep up a conversation more than ever before. And yet, scared as she was, she was also equal parts frustrated, her grudge bearing nature rearing its head. What was up with this Nami character? She had been the one to start talking, and when she'd answered, the other had up and left without so much as a goodbye. She hadn't even stayed to listen to her introduction. Probably because she... didn't really care. Figured. Who would be honestly interested in talking to her, anyway? She hadn't exactly done a good job in looking sociable and approachable. All she'd done was hidden behind her game and stayed quietly in the shadows like always.

That, and it was pretty much her own fault for not knowing to stay away from the girl that'd dyed her hair blonde. You didn't do that around here unless you wanted to make a statement of some sort. Unless you were a strong personality that didn't care about others' stares.

Unless you were the... complete opposite of me, Hitomi sighed in her mind, shaking her head and finally pushing herself to leave the comfort of the shadows. She stalked her way to the other vacant door, pondering for a while why she hadn't been handed a key. They could... lock these doors, right? She didn't want anyone walking in on her when she changing, or sleeping or... wearing her gothic dresses. If the embarrassment of someone seeing her wouldn't kill her, she would do it herself.

The girl pushed open the door as silently as she could to not bother her new 'neighbours' and then slipped inside, suitcase and gaming console and all. She took around the small room and timidly sat on the bed, hands curled into fists on her lap. She felt... weird being there. It wasn't her room - not the room she'd come to know, at least, and to think that she'd be spending all her free time here... it felt suffocating, somewhat. But it wasn't like she had a choice. Maybe if the library was unpopular enough to leave unoccupied a particularly comfortable table, she'd migrate there instead, but that was to be seen.

For now, she'd unpack.

Once everyone entered their rooms, they would find a key laying on the pillow of their bed. Their room key, they could probably infer.

_________________________________________________

Once Ranko and Takahiro got to his room, Ranko found herself being ushered in, the door being closed behind them. He plopped down at the foot of the bed and leaned over to a stereo next to the entertainment center. "I have that same CD already in here... so..." He pressed a button. Digital letters and numbers on the front of the stereo read, "Track 1," The soft strumming of an electric guitar came through the speakers.

"Nani ga watashi ni okotte iru no? Watashi wa uchigawa kara tamaranai..." The voice was clearly Takahiro. He was singing in a soft, smooth voice. One could probably detect a hint of pain behind it. "Karada ga kanjiru koto ga amari itai... atsuryoku ga itami ni tsuika sa remasu... Aku kara watashitachi o o todoke shimasu..." Then, in a rough, screaming voice, Takahiro on the CD shouted, "Shōki no soto ni itsudatsu!" The soft strumming turned into a kickass riff. "YYYYEEAAAAH! Nani ga watashi ni okotte iru no? Watashi wa uchigawa kara tamaranai! Karada ga kanjiru koto ga amari itai! Atsuryoku ga itami ni tsuika sa remasu! Aku kara watashitachi o o todoke shimasu!" Takahiro was leaning back against the wall, watching Ranko. He wanted to see what her initial impression of the song was.

"We're a metal band." Takahiro said just above the music.

'Damn, he didn't understand me.' Akira groaned inwardly before shrugging towards the western boy. What exactly was she supposed to do other than wave her arms about...oh, right. She could take him to a room. With a quick glance back to the girl she'd taken upon escorting, she quickly opened two of the doors to the vacant rooms. Hopefully the kid would get the message of "pick one", and if not, well he seemed relatively smart for managing to make it this far with a language barrier.

Just as she managed to get past that hurdle, Shirogane's rough voice murmured out from behind his door, and the girl couldn't hide the flush that spread across her face. "O-oh no, Fukugawa gave this to me as a thank you gift. I.." 'You know, it probably wouldn't be bad to split this with Akira. He sorta looks like he needs it.' "We could split this later, if you wanted." she asked before trailing off, her eyes taking in his appearance before looking away. "Oh and the girl, she's new. I'm just taking her up to the rooms so she can pick one. The boy here was doing the same, but I can't help him, he only speaks English. A-anyways, I'll be right back!" she finished with a flush over her face before returning to Maaka, and with a goodbye to both of the men she resumed escorting the silver-haired girl to the third floor.

"Asaga, right? Um...well here's the third floor, just for women only. We're not allowed on the fourth because it's reserved for the chairwoman only, and the rooftop is off-limits as well. There was...an accident, or something." She motioned to a room and opened it, gesturing for Maaka to enter. "Here's an open room if you want it. My room is on the right at the end of the hall, if you need anything feel free to find me and I will try to assist you to the best of my ability. As far as technical things go, Yoro might be better suited to help you. Um...uh, I gotta go put this up and speak to Shirogane about something." she motioned to the bottle in her hand before making her way towards her room.

Once again, a wave of negative emotion washed over her. She was angry at Yoro for not telling her about this girlfriend of his, angry at her for even liking--no, wait, what? She didn't like him. He was just a friend...right? With an outward groan, she tossed the bottle onto her bed and exited her room, shutting and locking the door behind her. Next on her list of things to do was to bother Shirogane and see what was up with him....and avoid Yoro.

"Huh?" Seeing Ikeda carrying around a bottle and escorting people to their rooms sent warning signals all through Shirogane's head already, but now that she was offering to share whatever that sweet-looking yellow liquer was with him he was ready to overload. Something like the image of a cabaret girl struck a chord within his imagination, not that he thought badly of Ikeda. The idea was just a little too exciting for him to handle all of a sudden, and it surely showed in his face as he burned under the collar, instinctively pulling it up just in time to hide his flustered expression. Of course the moment was gone all too quickly as Ikeda disappeared upstairs with the striking silver-haired beauty who Akira had only just now noticed, leaving him alone in the hall with the new boy. "Ano...donta ryuuka aatu mi. Ai donta supiiki enguriishu." In broken English he spoke more words than he usually did at one time.

And so Youhei's first attempt at making friends with the newbies failed hard; he got the impression that Nami (surname unknown) wasn't being 100% serious with her standoffish attitude, but all things considered it wasn't worth the risk. 'F... fair play. I have a few overprotective brothers too, so I know... them... feels.' He slowly trailed off as the girl performed a fantastic heel flip turn and stalked off to the sofas. Another one to avoid/be avoided by, he thought glumly... and that list was growing steadily. Youhei shook himself off, forcing himself to get a grip; while it was true that a lot of people he had grown to trust had left so suddenly, he wasn't about to lower himself to feeling lonely about it.
At times like this, there was only one thing to do; have a fag.

He excused himself from the common room, giving Kirijo a sneaky wink as he beat his retreat; his pride wasn't so great that he wouldn't admit being just a little intimidated by Nami... He passed the others on his way up, giving Shirogane a funny look as the lad failed at basic English and deciding that since Kirijo was taking the laissez-faire approach with Leo, he'd teach him some bloody Japanese at some point. Youhei rolled himself a cigarette as he passed the ominous double doors on the top floor and pointedly ignored the No Entry sign on the rooftop door while slipping out into the sunlight. Sparking up, Youhei took a deep drag while trying to organise his thoughts... The arrival of the new students had done wonders to clear his mind, but the guilt as still there, niggling away at him. 'This dorm needs a goddamn councillor...', he growled while leaning over the railings. 'What if I get PTSD, eh?!'

The girl went and opened up two empty rooms, then took off. Leo smiled and waved as the girl took off "Thank you! Oh... uh... Arigatou!" He exclaimed with a wave. After she left, the dark haired japanese boy that had peeked out of his room, and seen their exchange said something that only vaguely resembled English. He was probably trying to say that he didn't speak it himself. "Of course you don't... Thanks for trying though! Um... I guess I'll talk to you later?" He waved back at him as he went into the room closest to the stairs, and shut the door behind him.

Once he entered the room, he set his luggage aside, and lay his backpack on the bed. The room was kind of plain at the moment, but there would be plenty of time to decorate this place as time went on. Normally, he'd spend this time getting to know his neighbors, but considering the language issues, that really wasn't going to do much good. With a sigh, the took a seat on the bed. "This is going to be harder than I thought. Hopefully there's some people here I can talk to." He was starting to feel a little down, and when that happened, there was one thing that cheered him up. He pulled his laptop out from his backpack, and opened it up. When he saw the bars in the corner of the screen, Leo immediately threw his fist up in the air. "Yes! This place gets Wi-Fi!" Things were looking up already. He logged into Youtube, and looked up some pony videos. Watching videos of colorful, talking, cartoon ponies was always fun.