PROLOGUE



With that finished Kaguya took the phone away from her mouth and placed it once more in her pocket. The entry logs was a series of vocal diaries she started since her first year in Tokiwadai they contained not only her personal experience but her notes on some things as well. Walking up the stairs from the subways she looked out and saw the school in the distance. The school itself was nothing special in terms of appearance. Still despite its appearance it was unique in some other facts it was considered one of the more elite academies in academy city for example. Despite the fact it was a fairly recent school it quickly rose to be one of the more elite schools out there. Silently taking a memo of the assembly that was to be held later on. Also notifying students that they had some time before they should be heading towards the assembly hall.

Outside Kichijoji
Yuki Sighed as he stood outside the entrance to the school he had been the lucky(unlucky) teacher to be assigned the honor(chore) of standing outside and informing the incoming students of a impromptu meeting of minds for the morning hours. This meant that while students had some free time while they prepared for the assembly that would be happening. With a sigh Yuki stood in his pinstripe suit a small slouch in his shoulders as his matching hat was lowered over his eyes. With nary a word he handed each student the memo without fail. "Maaaaaaaaaaaaaan this suuuuuuuuuuuuuucks." He bemoaned to himself out loud as he once more handed a flyer to the student.
Prologue Done.

SEGMENT: Free Roam

Date: August 25th, 20XX
Time: Morning; ~7:00 AM
Location: Kichijoji Academy; Academy Entrance

ハットちゃん "Hat-chan"

The teenaged girl known only to her compatriots by the moniker of "Hat-chan" held the flier up above her face, golden eyes enigmatically watching the sun's rays filter through the flimsy mass of paper. It was, for all intents and purposes, no different from any common flier one could acquisition from political activists on busy sidewalks, albeit rather than promoting attendance for some sort of rally, its goal was to alert the students of Kichijoji to the presence of an assembly later that day. Quite a particular method of doing so, in fact. Yet admittedly a pity. One would expect an idiosyncratic nature to the paper to accompany the idiosyncratic information delivery.

Nothing of the sort, unfortunately, ebbed from the paper in her hands.

She shifted back into a sitting position, immediately pocketing the flier into her skirt. Lying on the bench had been a rather nice way to soak in the warmth of the ball of nuclear fusion that their little blue planet orbited, but to be perfectly honest, the hard wooden planks had actually started to hurt her back. Messing up her uniform at school wasn't a very good idea either, especially if a teacher took offense and decided to cast her into the depths of the darkness that were the classrooms were detentions were hosted.

She was definitely going to have to avoid that, no matter what!

Her left hand, pale and small, daintily reached up to adjust the position of her headwear. She breathed in, allowing the fresh air to cycle through her lungs.

Another day of school had begun.

Shinjiro Karasawa

"-They really needed a flyer for this?-" groused one of Kichijoji's rougher voices from the midst of a crowd, drawing a few looks. Not exactly because of his hair or eye color, despite what you might think at first. Turns out, weird hair colors were a dime a dozen here and Academy City, and the nutrition of Japan as a whole had by now improved to the point where even clocking in at 5'10" made him only a bit tall compared to most people, so it wasn't that either.

It was definitely the voice.

The English-speaking voice. Credit where it's due to Academy City's educational standards— this wasn't entirely unheard of there either. Plenty of High Schoolers had an admirable grasp on the language.

But this was truly fluent English.

Complete with a gruff, rhotic New York accent.

The young man owning it was never the earliest of risers, but by the time you'd gotten into High School here in Academy City, you learned that you just had to cope with it. As such, despite his somewhat grumpy demeanor, the grape-haired esper playing our hero for today was in fact, awake and alert.

Because seriously, after the first time he'd dozed off in class in junior high, the ball-busting that followed would drive any man to suck it up and work coffee into his schedule.

Speaking of coffee, a certain someone's shift was apparently switched up, because his usual order had taken a good five extra minutes to explain to the new chick behind the counter.

It's a coffee order, lady, seriously; not rocket science.

Passing through the school gates, he dismissively shoved the flyer into his pocket as he managed to draw up alongside the someone in question, having just gotten off one of the nearby benches on campus. Like flipping a switch, his perfect-yet-accented English turned into rough, casual Japanese.

"Yo, Hat-chan. Shift changed, eh?" he said, taking a very pointed sip of his coffee.

Or maybe she'd just quit. Hat-chan was like a short blonde dynamo when it came to managing to work what seemed like every single odd job available in District 12. Wherever a guy goes, she always manages to pop up.

But there weren't enough hours in the day for her to keep all of those jobs, that was simple fact.

So either were plausible.

ハットちゃん "Hat-chan"

"Yes," was the breezy reply that the teenaged girl known only to her compatriots by the moniker of "Hat-chan" gave to the boy she knew as Karasawa Shinjiro. The hat-garbed student followed the scent of freshly brewed coffee towards the boy's figure, her carefree golden eyes immediately centering upon his face like an aimbot on another player in a cheap Korean first-person shooter multiplayer game. "I am in the midst of adjusting my schedule."

Her usage of archaic Japanese pronouns more commonly found amongst the samurai dramas that aired almost constantly on television was immediately quite evident from her manner of speech, as was her accent and (supposed) city of origin (Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture). It was a noticeable trait of hers, although she was perfectly capable of making use of the 'standard' Tokyo Japanese accent if the need arose; some places of employment preferred such, after all.

"Was it that you missed me, Kara-han?" she asked, smiling casually at her friend (Could she consider him to be one yet? She would need to consult Youko further at a later date.).

Shinjiro Karasawa

That elicited a distinctly "Kara-han" reaction in the form of a wry snort.

"I certainly missed somebody who knew what to ring up for me, that's for sure." he fired back sarcastically, but with an equally casual air. Hat-chan was a chill girl, and someone who he'd run into so often whenever he went around town that he honestly felt like he'd known her longer than the couple weeks they'd shared as classmates.

He could definitely appreciate her hard work, that was for damn sure.

He had long given up on trying to shake anything but Kara-han as her way of referring to him. It was only fair, because he'd just stuck to calling her Hat-chan after five consecutive attempts to glean her name had been drowned out by random coincidence.

Or, acts of fate.

Whatever. Fuhgeddabout it.

Whatever the explanation was, he'd gotten sick of it and she was fine with "Hat-chan".

So it'd only be fair if he was fine with "Kara-han", between her getting the first two syllables through that Kansai accent she got whenever she was excited and all.

Not that it explained why she talked like a Samurai, but nobody in this city didn't have some weird quirks.

Onto another subject.

"You'd think they'd just have the teach announce the assembly or somethin'."

ハットちゃん "Hat-chan"

"Choosing to hand out memos would be a waste of a lotta ink too," she agreed, retrieving the flier that she had pocketed mere moments before. Engaging with the students at the gate was the best way to ensure that as many of them would know about the assembly as possible, but printing out the memos was pretty weird. She had initially thought that they may have been something more, but they were disappointingly lacking in Academy City's idiosyncrasies.

Unless the idiosyncrasy was in making the effort to print so many fliers for so little gain. The teenaged girl known only to her compatriots by the moniker of "Hat-chan" glanced down at the paper in her hands, casually studying its shape with her golden eyes. If she were to assume that one A4 sheet of paper would give five of the fliers, and that it cost around ten yen per print ...

She did the mental calculations. With nine hundred students that would need to acquire a flier ...

Wasting a hundred and eighty-ten on these fliers was wasting money that could be spent on buying some merchandise.

Shinjiro Karasawa

"Yeah, and I'll bet they'll try and tell us they can't print out enough tests for us to write on 'em." he grumbled, both agreeing with her and extrapolating upon the statement.

Seriously, screw schools that tried to pull that. How was a guy supposed to collect some fuckin' thoughts, huh? Absolute shitshow, the kind you'd hope to have only seen in NYC's public schools. He loved the Big Apple, he really did, but compared to Academy City the public schooling system was complete and utter ass.

Full of that exact kinda misallocation of resources. Why in the hell would you even have a school if you were gonna be shitty about it?

Made no goddamn sense, and he didn't even like school.

Ryu Wakamatsu

Ryu's head throbbed - eyes threatening to close as he walked down the street to Kichijoji Academy. The stake-out last night proved to be fruitless as the criminal did not show himself. The kidnapper wanted a million yen ransom for a young girl, the daughter of a big shot CEO, and the kidnapper told the Anti-Skill to bring the money and he'll bring the child. No harm shall be done to the child if they don't attack. He was willing to aid the Anti-Skill when his father alerted him of what was happening, and he happily accepted the job. Nothing had happened. The kidnapper never came and the child was never found. Anti-Skill and Judgement alike were dispatched to search for the criminal's hideout. Another group had successfully found it and quickly incapacitated the kidnapper and retrieved the girl. What time did that happen?

Five a.m. He could only get an hour of sleep in before he had to wake up for school this time. And thus his zombie-like state. Good thing his house was really close to the Academy so he didn't need to worry about being late with only an hour of preparation. He yawned again. This was bad. He would fall asleep on class if this continues on. He even almost ignored Yuki as he passed the teacher, but it was a good thing that he snapped out of it and then took the flyer and bowed his head at the teacher before heading in.

An assembly? Great. It was almost assured that he would fall asleep there. Hopefully it won't be anything too important. It would give him precious sleeping ti-

He was snapped out of his thoughts way too quickly and his sleep just quickly exited him as the shockwave Mi released sailed in front of him. His hair stood on end as he stumbled back, now more aware of his surroundings than earlier this morning. He could feel his heart thumping against his chest.

What the heck? Only a few people use their powers so freely. His eyes locked onto Mi's downed figure, and she would certainly see him.

Approaching her with quick strides, he said, "I don't think you should expel energy like that when you're in a.. er, crowded area." It was an attempt to say that she actually should avoid using her powers so carelessly like that. If she were to harm someone accidentally, then that would be bad.

@The ghost in black

ハットちゃん "Hat-chan"

"Don't worry," said the teenaged girl known only to her compatriots by the moniker of "Hat-chan" reassuringly, her light and casual tone clearly contrasting the grumbling of her fellow student, "Kichijoji is highly research-oriented. There will most definitely still be paper."

There would be no meaning to the learning institute's existence if the staff were unable to properly record the power development of the students. As long as they needed to do such, then there would definitely be paper and ink left for them to use. High schools were built on paper and constant homework, or at least that was what her television shows had informed her of (as well as irate, complaining customers). She herself had already personally experienced a fraction of the supposed deluge of assignments already, although she was admittedly disappointed in its failure to live up to her expectations.

Still, it was early days yet, and maybe things would change further along in the future.

Kaguya sighed as she walked around outside the school grounds she had little idea on what she wanted to do but she was sure that she would find something. Though it seemed that someone decided to give her a break and quickly spotted two particular 3D people that she could interact with in a limited fashion. "Ah hatagonist, Kawa something or the other how are you 3D people fairing this day?" She asked as she walked up towards them her unique speech patterns quickly labeling with things that was probably not their actual name.

Ryu Wakamatsu

Ryu heard her say something, but it didn't look like it was directed to him... or anyone at all. When she stood up, that was the only time he noticed that she was taller than him by a few inches. Such a tall girl. Then again, she doesn't seem Japanese. Her accent seemed thick too.

However the universal sign of, shaking hands in hopes that there are no hard feelings, was presented. Ryu offered a small smile and then shook her hand. "But it might hurt them. But I guess it should be fine if you really needed it." He said as his hand hung at his side once more. His eyes trailed to collar, curiosity getting the best of him. It was a piece of technology he was not familiar with - and he has certainly seen a lot of tech here at Academy City.

"What is it for?" Alright, while it was obvious it was for regulation, as she pointed out before, there has to be something else besides that. Or a more accurate explanation. His hand slipped into his pocket as he shifted his weight to his other leg. While he had seen her around, they never got around to talking. They were classmates but Ryu tended to stick to people he knew. But he at least should've remembered her name.

Mi... Mi... Alcanta?

Something like that. She hadn't written it in Japanese characters so he had to decipher it from English. Sad to say that English words don't stick to his mind easily. While he could read and understand, it's more like he doesn't remember it when it's only presented once.

@The ghost in black

Bell woke up deeming It acceptable to wake up at 4:30am, she always found it hard to sleep without a little help from her friend Danial Jackson. She thought it best not to drink before her first day of a new school year, maybe she would even quit this time. Bell rubbed the sleepies from her eyes, not quite getting them all she began to get prepared for the day. After working on her newest fanfic and the mug of coffee that was placed next to her laptop, made sure everything was turned off and headed out. Bell hadn’t gotten very much sleep but that didn’t seem to show as she walked the short distance from her apartment to the academy.

The walk was in all consideration an easy one, however, Bell’s sleep deprivation kicked in. By the time she reached the campus Bell was completely out of breath and had to take a moment at the gate before she could go any further. The teen took another deep breath before releasing it, she stood up and straightened her cute little bow and continued. Bell hadn’t noticed the teacher in the pinstriped suit that was standing there as she was doubled over catching her breath. She looked up at the man with a surprised face as if he had materialized there suddenly. “uh-uh, hey…” Bell said nervously taking the sheet of paper he was handing out then ran off.

The paper had managed to slip out of her hand and caught in an inconvenient gust of wind and began to fluttered off, she groaned as she had to run again to catch the paper. After a couple, useless strides, she gave up and out stretched her hand and the paper came to a sudden stop then flew back to Bell’s hand. The girl narrowed her eyes at the paper in frustration and read the notice. Bell shrugged, the corners of the paper began to fold in on its self and a quick moment later a crane was formed and began flying around in her open palms with a big dumb grin on her face.

Shinjiro Karasawa

"Yeah, they all say that," he fired back through the styrofoam of his cup. "Right up until they decide to cut back funding to the District because someone smelled like ass in front of one of the higher ups."

He was quite obviously spitwadding. They both knew full-well that Hat-chan was right, but it wouldn't do to leave such a sentiment unvented after brewing for so long. It'd turn into god-knew-what by the time the assembly rolled around.

And hey, he wasn't always wrong about that sort of thing. This was Academy City. Shit's happened before.

Speaking of such strangeness—

"Karasawa." he cut in crossly, leveling a flat look at Kaguya, the classroom otaku. Most people should know his name by now, what the hell? Not knowing him personally? Okay, sure, fair play, but he knew that she had heard it multiple times before.

And he swore that if she wasn't already just a nut with her whole '2D people 3D people' uber-delusional otaku schtick, he'd think she was trying to screw with him.

But at this point he was only half-and-half on it, so no confrontations yet.

"Just wondering what the hell the point of this flyer was." he replied more evenly, fishing the crumpled piece of paper back from his pocket. "It'd make a lot more sense just to tell us about it in class."

Kaguya sighed as she walked around outside the school grounds she had little idea on what she wanted to do but she was sure that she would find something. Though it seemed that someone decided to give her a break and quickly spotted two particular 3D people that she could interact with in a limited fashion. "Ah hatagonist, Kawa something or the other how are you 3D people fairing this day?" She asked as she walked up towards them her unique speech patterns quickly labeling with things that was probably not their actual name.

ハットちゃん "Hat-chan"

"Maybe they might be willing to invest in colognes," replied the short, hat-garbed teenager with casual amusement, even as her twinkling golden eyes glanced away from Karasawa to focus upon the interloper to their conversation. Unlike her comrade, she wasn't in any way bothered by the manner in which Kaguya had chosen to address her (she did wonder where the name "Hatagonist" had come from, however), and merely reclined back against the wooden bench in the same relaxed and carefree state as always. "How are you going, Kasugano Kaguya?"

GEORGE ELLINGTON

“Mmmmf!”

The muffled exclamation of panic merged seamlessly into the bustling noises of Academy City. Though it would be difficult to register the grunt in such a clamorous environment, there was no denying its source: a lanky, strangely-dressed foreigner making his way through the skies as if he was performing a re-enactment of the Ghibli classic, Howl’s Moving Castle. However, instead of strolling from rooftop to rooftop with the grace of the film’s eponymous character, George Ellington was wildly gyrating his legs, descending at a painfully slow rate. He resembled more a Road Runner cartoon rather than a masterful Miyazaki piece.

“Gunna be, mmmf—“ he took another swig of his liquid breakfast, “--late!”

He had only used his powers for speedy travel two times prior to this moment, the first try resulting in George demolishing a crepe stand and getting reprimanded by a Judgement officer. The second time resulted in the same crepe stand getting trashed. George could never set foot in that part of the shopping district again. He was forbidden from travelling in such a manner for a third time. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

Frantically sculling his breakfast smoothie, he navigated the District 12 skyline. Gradually. He had to control his speed if he wanted to avoid more Crepe Incidents. Of course, his velocity control could only account for avoiding broken bones, not other disasters such as the cat’s tail he landed on, the person who George spilled a third of his breakfast on, or the high rise window-cleaner he accidentally dropkicked. Yikes. George made a mental note to find a proper aerial route sometime after school.

The numerous high-rise buildings and religious facilities of District 12 provided a convenient path and soon enough, George was able to spy the buildings of Kichijoji Academy. George managed a relatively soft landing in one of the school garden’s bushes, then emerged triumphantly to collect a flyer from Tokikaze.

“Digging the threads there, Toki!” George smiled, referring to the teacher’s pinstriped suit. He clicked some finger guns at the hapless instructor before turning to the walking students and directing his next exclamation at no one in particular.

“Ha! Toldya wet rags I was gunna show up today!” he hollered with a peppy grin.

Most of the students simply ignored him and kept walking.

@banjoanjo

Aizen

- Where's your pants? How come is it's in Aizen's hands?
Third Person~

Academy City of fools he said, Aunt told Aizen that it's a city full of intelligent, she said. That's when things are wrong in this place, everything wrong with AC is just the tip of the iceberg like how the white stuff felt so good than the red stuff, in case no one knows Aizen likes to light up the mood and create thrills and chills! Bet it's time to reveal thy presence of heaven!

"Bro, I think you lost this." Aizen rocks some prank with some dude who looked like he lost some presence but then gained it! Is it real or is it fake? We have yet to find out. Some Gaijin is now flashed upon everyone without pants at all! Again, is it real or is it fake? Trick or Treat. Pants is a common word but Aizen's guess would be trousers for a foreigner?

Things are about to get haywire as everyone's pants started disappearing! Is it real or is it fake? From students to teacher. "Guys, look there's some madman who got your pants! RUN AWAY RUN AWAY A MIGHTY GIANT!" If the madman were ever real to begin with? Point Blank, there is a Giant or what you call a Titan holding everybody's pants? Is it real or is it not? The actions otherwise says so as it starts stomping and screaming.

(PC characters are not affected in pants incident except for George)

Ryu Wakamatsu

"Well, if you say so." He said, letting the smile on his face stay as he shifted his weight again. Now that he thought about it, his fear of another awkward conversation with another person wasn't the only reason why he never talked to her. It was because she was rarely at school for the past week. He was sure that one of his friends would push him to her sooner or later to improve his socializing skills, but they never did. "A... phone?" He repeated in a questioning tone. He failed to realize how that collar that can calculate the pent up energy she had to release was something like a phone. "Ah, so it was only for you. I guess it's dangerous for you to have extra energy then?"

Ryu nodded to her question, not seemingly bothered by how horribly she said his name. It seems he was used to it by now. "We are." He was unsure how to continue the conversation from there so he expected her to say something else. Ah, the disadvantages of being socially awkward.

@The ghost in black