Snap went the onomatopoeia of his fingers.

"So they do tell you Level Fives more about this place than the rest of us." he concluded thoughtfully, placing his chin in the crease of his thumb and index finger with a "sage" nod. "Figured as much." Disregarding the simple fact that he probably would have also known had he cared to simply actually read the news rather than skim, he continued onto her next question without missing a beat.

Level Five or not, every classmate he had, he was gonna to converse with on equal terms.

"Yeah, sorta. Nothin' so snooty as Tokiwadai, more along the lines of 'Noriaki North', ya feel me? I ain't smart enough fo--"

CHIIIK

A camera snapshot noise emanating from somewhere nearby had somehow caught his attention, cutting him off where he would normally blaze the trail far and away without pause, and he turned to the source inquisitively.

And his eyes bugged.

Walking serenely with a phone pointed towards the two, clad in the same beige uniform as Sachiko, was someone he'd never expected to see.

"H-Hat-chan?! Didn't you literally just ring up my Funkin' Donuts order, like, 20 minutes ago?! You're headed to Hybrid too now?!"

Was she gonna set up some sort of business there too?

What if she was gonna be the janitor after-hours?

You gotta be bustin' my balls here! What kinda school has me, a Level 5, a stunt biker, and Hat-chan?

Sakuya Kawashiro

Sakuya was making great use of her ability at the moment teleporting from places all around the school getting it prepped for the system scan. She was a teacher one hired to help with the esper students of the academy. Getting dampners in place such as fire hydrants, and rain causing machinery for one specific student. Still she got things set up for the regular students as well dummies, flashcards and all that was finally set up. With a sigh she sat down at the edge of the empty pool drained for the specific purpose of the students that dealt with heat based abilities. Still figuring that since she was done she supposed she could pop in and check on how Nakami was doing. So with that in mind she decided to just that popping out from the system scan area and landing softly outside the door to Nakami's office without a knock she walked in. "You done with the set up for the new Magician ranking system Nakami?" She asked as she brushed a strand of her white hair that fell in front of her face.

Nakami was leaning back in his chair at his desk, holding a clipboard in front of his face when Sakuya walked in. Turning to face her, he put the clipboard down on top of an open tome on his desk, taking one last glance at the list of names on the paper. "Almost. There's not that much to set up, since I only have two students so far. I just needed to designate a large area for the testing grounds, since relatively untrained magic can be dangerous." He stood up, taking a belt from the back of his chair and strapping it to his waist. The belt had eight rectangular pouches hanging from it.

"What time is it by the way? Are we starting soon?"

Hat-chan ~ ハットちゃん

The teenaged girl known only to her compatriots by the moniker of "Hat-chan" blinked purposefully, quizzically watching the face of the loud young man before her. Was she missing something? Her gazed moved towards the Level 5 she had photographed. Was there a piece of information that she didn't have?

Did she know this person?

Her hand lowered, and with it, her trustworthy smartphone. She peered closer at the teenaged boy who had just referred to her presence by the moniker of "Hat-chan". Nothing.

Was there some familiarity?

Nothing.

"Hello," said the teenaged girl known only to her compatriots by the moniker of "Hat-chan", her accent noticeably one that originated from the Kansai region.

"Hi."

...

"Hey-- Don't just blow my question off!" he sputtered, letting his voice rise higher than typical Japanese politeness would dictate, but to a level that'd be perfectly at home in NYC. "Where'd that accent come from, anyway? You spoke perfectly normal when you handed me my eclair." he both asked and mentioned, pointing an unnecessary finger at her (as if the moniker "Hat-chan" wasn't enough).

He grimaced as she peered curiously at him. Was she just joshin' him right now, or was she actually serious.

"Don't give me that look, we literally just talked half an hour ago at most. I still have the change you gave me from my thousand-yen bill!" he exclaimed, shoving one hand in his pockets and rattling the coins inside with a pleasant-sounding, uniquely coin-sh set of ching!s.

"And that ain't to mention you bein' in the grocery store yesterday stocking the shelves, or bein' there at the cash register during my 2 AM Big Mig run! You don't remember me popping in and doing any of that?!" he demanded, in a manner that wasn't angry so much as "intensely inquisitive".

Hat-chan ~ ハットちゃん

"This is my normal," replied the teenaged girl known only to her compatriots by the moniker of "Hat-chan" in a breezy manner, the smile of a woman who was very much used to comments on their speech appearing upon her face. "And I bear witness to a lotta people who might've been 'popping in and out' of stores a lot."

Recognition had still not arrived for her. Purple haired and lightly tanned was not an uncommon combination for the strange and unique residents of the sovereign city-state. She could recall nothing of this loud young man, whose supposed presence in her previous employment trysts seemed to have been relegated to a part of her memory that could be better described as the "Recycle Bin". Maybe if she thought harder, she could restore the items present in that bin and recall if this other student was familiar!

She tapped her bottom lip lightly with her right index finger, face scrunching up into an expression of light pondering. This guy could be familiar to her? Maybe. There was always lots of customers, after all. What was one more man in a sea of them?

"So," she decided after two, no, three seconds of thought. "You know me then, so ... hello again then!"

...

"Tcheh," he grumbled, folding his arms in a childish pout. No matter what he may have thought about how memorable he should be, he couldn't exactly fault that logic. Especially coming from Hat-chan, who had veritably been working in every other store in the city at some point of another. Seriously, did she even sleep?

Get outta here widdat.

"-Seriously bustin' my balls 'ere...-" he muttered in English, before rounding back on the hatted full-time part-timer with a determined fire in his eyes. He knew how to solve this, and he'd make sure she'd not have such an easy time forgetting who she was dealing with next time around.

"Well remember me or not, we're headed to the same school now, so the way I see it we'd best start rememberin'." he said, a sly grin spreading across his face. Weird old-timey pronouns and regional accents and short-term-memory loss could shove it. He'd force her to remember him!

"Name's Karasawa Shinjiro! Know it well, but don't wear it out!" he boldly declared, jabbing his own thumb back to his chest.

Hat-chan ~ ハットちゃん

"Karasawa ... Karasawa ... Karasawa Shinjiro, is it?"

The hatted schoolgirl allowed the name to settle on her tongue, lips pursed as her mind began to establish a connection between this loud, overexcitable boy before her and the name. Karasawa Shinjiro ... Karasawa Shinjiro ... Karasawa Shinjiro ... wasn't there something about how saying somebody's name thrice in a conversation would help in remembering their name? It was not something she had ever tried before; most people she worked with wore nametags, and soon she would have remembered them thanks to those tags. This then, was an utterly new opportunity for her to remember the name of the boy known as Karasawa Shinjiro.

"Karasawa Shinjiro," said the teenaged girl known only to her compatriots by the moniker of "Hat-chan" once more, her voice possessing a more controlled energy than the bold release of the boy in front of her. "I will make sure to remember that name of yours for school, Karasawa Shinjiro."

She adjusted the aviator cap sitting on her head to a more comfortable position.

"Karasawa Shinjiro, I am-"

Outside the school gates, a car loudly honked its horn.

"-, pleasure to meet you."

There, three times in one conversation. Would she remember his name though?

The little monkey called after Rebecca as she walked further up towards the school, but as she did her phone began to buzz with a very familiar pattern of... Buzzes. Sunless... she thought, lightly confused at why she would be calling at this time. Rebecca reached into her bag, brushing past her handgun and banana to the phone. Then she answered.
"Sunless, what do you want?" she asked, with a note of distain in her voice.
"Damnit Hydro, both Melting Point and I told you don't take out the gun. No one is supposed to know you have that, and if the school finds out you are expelled. Didn't you read the letter?" replied Sunless, one of the more powerful espers in both SOUL and Academy City; an unregistered Level 5 Imagine Shadow. A force to be reckoned with.
"Yes, I read it- wait, how do you even know I did that?!" Sunless was always a creep, that was for sure, but that was a little too strange. Watching her at school from the base was a little overkill, even if it was her idea.
"Remember that group of idiots we took out last week. You know, the ones that called themselves... Argh, what was it... Screw it, I don't remember. It had that guy that said like "those who sin fall short from God or something." Anyway, one had an ability like AIM Stalker which lets me watch you." Sunless sounded so proud at that last statement. The ability to watch people from afar. Whatever. It was probably some dark matter creation Melting Point got off Kakine.

"And by the way... I heard what you said about Emmi. Listen Hydro, you've gotta let her go at some point. Just accept she is dead and move on, because you almost made Director cry and that is NOT a position we want to be in. Right, I gotta go. Bye" Emmi... That wasn't a memory she needed a second time today. Emmi was Rebecca's best friend in the Bleeding Star project. The day before they were to all be executed, they were pitted against each other, forced to fight for the last time; a fight to the death. Rebecca won, of course - it wasn't a hard fight; not physically. But mentally it took its toll. Her best friend, dead on the ground in front of her, burning. Then the order came through to kill all the subjects, and the miniature war began...

Actually, that reminded her. Sunless has left something for her that would conceal the gun from metal detectors. And... It was by the tree Soroe was next to, now playing a guitar rather well. Looks like I'm heading back thee then... she thought, putting her phone away and proceeding back to the little monkey.

A few second after Sotoe started his IPod he took out his guitar and decided to practice for a few minutes before anything else happened. He didn’t know when they would be called to a meeting area so he sat under the tree in the court yard at the academy. After tuning the guitar and finding the right song to practice with he began to play. It was trial and error when he listened to a song and played his guitar. After a few bumps and restarting the song he was able to get down the flow of the song. He took a deep breath and hit play on his IPod before he began to play his guitar along with the song.

As the song continued, like his Parkour and free running he got lost in the music. He didn’t realize he was getting too into the song and guitar playing as he stood up. His eyes where closed and he pictured him and his friends preforming on stage while his Friend Arthur sang the song he was listening to. Between Parkour and guitar playing, Sotoe felt alive and comfortable. Whenever he felt down or alone; he free ran or play his guitar. Being in this new place without his friends made Sotoe uncomfortable, but also it meant creating new friends. However, that also meant the scary fact that he wouldn’t since many people saw his free running stupid and crazy. That didn’t matter at that moment as he plaid his guitar and got lost in the music.

Sotoe let out a happy sighed when the song finished and a smile formed on his face. When he opened his eyes however, he nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw Rebecca and said, “Sweet mother of god where did you come from!” Sotoe didn’t realize he had stood up and plaid his guitar. Something he did when he got too into his music. He looked around and sighed, “I did it again didn’t I?” He unstrapped his guitar and placed it back into his case.

“Sorry about this. I kind of get lost in the music sometimes,” Sotoe explained. Well I just weirded out nearly everyone who saw me. If I wasn’t my free running it would be what I just did. Sotoe Thought.

Opponens808

A little while into the walk to the school, Ali' had already done two things that could potentially ruin his first day of school. Firstly, he had desecrated his uniform with feathers, buttons, and sewn-over designs. Secondly, he had only brought one phone. While in the morning that seemed like a good idea, now he felt maybe he should be carrying three him at all times. 'Can't those espers use their powers as much as they want and never run out?' He asked that to himself often and everytime he did he felt a little more pathetic as both someone who was 'special' and as someone who was considered a magic user. 'Whatever, At least I ain't some level 3 scrub or something' While rude as it was to think, it did help lift his mood slightly. And when his mood was raised, he no longer looked so down. He also literally looked higher up off the ground when walking and saw more, and what he saw would probably make him commit his third biggest mistake today.

Ali' had already been fiddling on his phone at this point. However, when he took his eyes off the screen he had seen a young cutie who seemed to be receiving a call. He couldn't tell what kind of face she was making but he assumed it wasn't a happy one. Once he saw her open it up, curiosity hit. Well, to phrase it gently, if curiosity was a truck it splattered him over the fucking highway. Curiosity would also back up through the piddly remains of Alistair just for good measure. So, Ali' couldn't keep himself back from eavesdropping. His phone was already prepped for spell-casting due to his earlier fiddling, and all he needed to do was pull a very unfashionable trigger. His fingers ran over the keyboard typing out the line necessary for the spell. He pressed enter and then whispered"Aeris". His phone battery would drop 5%, but his phone would probably be back at full power before he even got to the assembly. The wind then carried the words from her phone over towards his own, albeit with a bit of distortion. However, nothing big enough to keep him from understanding what she was saying.

When he overheard the first part of their exchange, he instinctively started to sink down and assume a bit of a stealthier position. He listened for about of a minute and after that his spell wore off. Ali' was so intrigued, though, so he instantly cast it again and lost another 5%. The moment the sound came back to him he overheard something about a girl named Emmi. Then some cheese about how she had to move on after her death, that, and about the director crying. Now, Ali' wasn't the most emotionally fragile man around but hearing about all this random stuff did make him feel concerned for the young gal. So much so that he would keep staring at her and eavesdrop on her even more. By the time his spell ended, their conversation had ended. The girl started to walk away. Alistair, being the gentleman he was, followed her and stared.

"Yeah, that's it. Karasawa Shinjiro." he repeated staunchly, rising back to his full height with folded arms as he'd formerly been leaning in a bit when telling Hat-chan his name. You know, leave a lasting impression and all that. Immediately after, however, he found himself leaning back in and listening for her response. A shame, he'd kinda taken a liking to calling her "Hat-cha--"

HOOOOONK

"GET OFF THE FUCKIN' ROAD!" someone in traffic called out to the vehicle in front of them, just outside the school gates.

Train of thought and ability to hear her response both blasted into oblivion by the loud burst of sound, he grimaced. That was some terrible timing...

"Yeah, sorry, didn't catch that. You're..."

After finishing her phone call with Sunless, Rebecca headed back to Sotoe and the tree Sunless had left the parcel. There, Sotoe was playing a song on his guitar and he seemed rathe into it. wait, when did he get a guitar? Rebecca thought, but passing it off as something she neglected. After him seeing her, and then proceeding to flay himself, Rebecca left to the side of the tree where a hole was carved into the trunk. Inside that, a small plastic bag lay with a label; "For Rebecca". Idiot, leaving something so obvious. She pulled out the gun, taking care to keep it from view and then sliding it into the bag. Then she dropped it back into her own bag and proceeded towards he school, passing by Sotoe and saying "Come on, the assembly will be starting soon."

Walking up towards the school, she caught glimpse of a guy who seemed rather intrigued by Rebecca herself, holding a strange red phone. He looked to be staring. Rebecca stopped and walked over to him, standing in front to get a closer look. He didn't LOOK like an esper. In fact, he looked more like a fashion reject. Obviously he didn't understand a dress code very well if he decided to "accessorise" his uniform in that manor.
"Excuse me, but can I help you with something?" she asked, expecting a stupid answer she had received quite a few times before. There were many people who thought of her as "cute" and most of them ended up charred piles on the floor. Of course she wouldn't do it to him yet if he DID answer like that, but it wouldn't take too long to find out where he lived using Sunless's set of skills.

Opponens808

Ali' continued to follow her for a bit. She talked to another student who's name he never caught, but whatever. His better judgement had told him he should have been a bit more cautious while following her, but his nerves and body never listened that well. One could say all he ended up doing was look more stalker-ish then he had ever planned on. Well, not that he ever planned on looking it in the first place. While this had happened, she also saw her slide something into a plastic bag. He couldn't tell what had happened entirely, but he had a hunch it involved the firearm the person on her phone had talked about. If only Ali' had brought his binoculars....

After that thought flew through his head his current fear had been realized. She saw him. He was almost paralyzed with fear as she walked towards him. He stood stiff and still as she looked him over. He couldn't help but think 'What does she see in me?' as she gazed at him. Hopefully nothing too bad, but he wouldn't be surprised if she was irritated or just plain pissed.

Her tone seemed to imply that Ali' was right. "Excuse me, but can I help you with something?" Alistairs mouth threw out a reply before he could even start to think of how to get himself out of this mess.

"Sup' Bitch." Holy shit he regretted even breathing in her direction. If Alistairs mouth was a plane he had just caused 9-11.

"Sup' bitch." was definitely NOT the response Rebecca had been expecting. Oddly enough, though, it was not the answer that would have him dead by morning, which was lucky for him. She looked up at him, slightly confused at the response and taking a short while to process what just happened. A fashion reject and possible stalker had just been caught and used a rather offensive term. Then he suddenly got a look of "ooooh fuck what did I just do" and Rebecca realised he probably didn't mean to say that, but rather it just came out. She understood. She had been in several situations where she just said something randomly without thinking - which in most cases led to her being shot at. Hopefully this guy didn't have a gun on him, but even if he did it probably wouldn't do anything. Guns tend to be pretty useless against someone who can control parts of the air itself.

"Not too bad. You saved yourself from an unfortunate end which is something to be proud of. The names Rebecca." she looked back at the little monkey, "Little monkey we need to go now otherwise we will miss the assembly!" and with that she walked off again towards the school. So far the cast of characters was a rather diverse palette. But they were not the ones she wanted to meet. Apparently one of the Level 5's would be attending. A Level 5 Pyromancer. I would like to see this Level 5 fight melting point. Maybe she would stop calling herself flame princess and bow down to the more powerful Pyromancer. even if she told someone they wouldn't know who she was talking about. Melting Point, his name was; the leader of SOUL, friend of Dark Matter and Dual Skill wielder - the boss, if you will.

Sotoe picked up his guitar and looked back to Rebecca who was talking to someone else. The guy’s response to Rebecca asking him if he needed assistance made Sotoe’s mouth drop. Never in a millions years would Sotoe even consider saying that to a complete stranger. Of course Sotoe thought this kid would get a bullet to the head since she flashed her gun at Sotoe himself and all he did was give her a formal greeting. However, she surprised him by talking calmly and then telling Sotoe they’d miss the assembly.

“Y-yeah, hold on,” Sotoe said as he walked past the young man who had given Rebecca the rather unique greeting. He tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Come on man. We’ll be late if you just stand there looking dumb founded.” With that he raced after Rebecca. Never in a million years would he think he’d attended such a crazy place. Guess I’m not as weird as I thought. Sotoe thought.

“So let me guess: by the way you act and present yourself, you’re a level 5 or 4 Esper. Right?” Sotoe asked as he caught up to Rebecca. He smiled as he added, “I’m probably wrong though. I’m not the best at guessing people. Look at me; people think my power it to control gravity or something. Not sure where they get that idea. My power is to change the composition of an object. It’s limited and not that powerful which is why I’m only level 3, but hell if I care. It’s fun to watch people try and figure out how a paper playing card feels like metal.” Sotoe smiled as he remembered the first time he did it and drove his mother crazy.

Hat-chan ~ ハットちゃん

She thought she had spoken clearly enough. The hatted teenager tilted her head slightly to the side in what could be construed as confusion, her warm gaze returning to the face of Karasawa Shinjiro. Had she been too quiet? The hustle and bustle of Academy City could have affected her newest acquaintance's hearing detrimentally, after all.

"My name is-"

HOOOOOOONK

The car horn rang again, the noise at an almost unmatched intensity.

That same blaring tone sounded, evenly drowning out the blonde part-timer's name with aplomb. His grimace became a full-blown scowl as he tried to peer over the crowd. Whichever asshat driver was pulling this shit...

"Again, seriously?" he commented irately, looking around in open irritation. Somebody needed to stop humping their damn steering wheel on the road. Was this gonna be a thing? Was this seriously going to keep happening?

Only one way to find out.

Once was happenstance.
Twice was coincidence.
Three...

"One more time?" he asked, leeeeeaning in really close, ear-first. He'd have her name if it killed him.

"We should be leaving now since students are expected to be in the assembly soon" Sakuya replied honestly as she quickly went up and grabbed Nakami's arm taking him with her for the whole teleportation. "There we go lets head to the stage and wait for the headmaster and the students to arrive now Sakuya said as she walked towards the stage and stood at the right of the podium that was set in the middle.


"Well if your done playing you might want to hurry up" Sachiko spoke up as she walked towards the school her twintails flickering like flames as it was blown back by a sudden breeze. It was a simple matter all things considered she supposed head to the auditorium than go wherever for the system scan than classes. Simple in theory but things was never simple with her sadly or any level 5 she supposed. With a sigh she walked forward leaving behind her impromptu companion they would be reunited in time she supposed with the assembly and system scan.

Opponens808

The encounter took a much more positive, and also shorter, turn then Ali' had expected. Firstly, she didn't seem pissed at all! That was quite the shocker, and then she also gave him her name and left without even shouting at him or even looking disgusted at all! This was sign, a sign that things were going to play out well for old Alistair. A unnaturally wide grin formed upon his face as she left him to leave with her friend.

Her 'monkey' friend dropped by and gave Alistair what seemed to be permission to follow them for a bit more, or at least to the assembly. And thats what he did, and listened while doing so. However, now he was close enough to avoid using his magic to listen. All in all, he gathered that either Rebecca and Rex had probably just met today considering all of their weird names and monkey's introduction, plus his questioning her. Ali' pondered what the boys real name was, and if the nickname was either a pun or just a mean nickname. Well, whatever it was, Ali was sure he'd rather call him by his real name.