---

---

It was definitely a misunderstanding, but Jonathan couldn't quite see how what he'd said would be so offensive. At least, not until Yuki explained it to him. He scrambled away a couple feet, slightly red. Nope! Nope! Not what he'd meant at all. He accepted the handshake, though it was slightly awkward using his non-dominant hand. Red blood was hidden by the red of the handkerchief, and it was getting rather damp. At least the bleeding seemed to be slowing to a stop now.

"I thinnk I'd like that," Jonathan replied. He was going to extend an invitation to join the study party he'd had with Ryuuto when none other than the man himself appeared. He held up his finger to silence Ryuuto and Yuki for a moment and produced a tissue, then turned to blow his nose. Red everywhere -- thankfully it didn't touch his suit at all. He didn't need to call his attack names to dispose of trash, right? With a second of preparation, he balled up the bloody tissue and sent it on its merry way. Somewhere around two hundred meters out, the tissue came unfurled and fell apart in the wind. The rain would take care of the rest later.

"Much better. And yeah, but it's not much of a first day if I don't get bowled over. Remember when I met Taro?"

Taro had been a small student too - an augmentor, capable of enhancing his reaction time and speed, and he had been looking for a fight on the first day the previous year. The boy was a couple years older than Jonathan, though, and has since graduated. It wasn't really the same kind of situation - in this case, if Yuki was right about what 'hot coffee' meant, Jonathan had definitely deserved it. He'd thought as much earlier - since she didn't keep pummeling him, it must've been a one-off thing.

"...I'll have to apologize after she's cooled down a bit," he said, too deep in thought at the moment to notice what either of his companions said. Akiko still seemed like someone he'd like, and getting whacked like that did nothing but reinforce his judgment. Maybe she'd be willing to join the study group. The other three students who had been involved the prior year had already left the Institute, so he'd have to build it back up again.

@Cu Chulainn@Yuuta

---

---

Brock stood off to the side of the crowd, listening in. It wasn't really his thing, y'know? Standing around talking about making up and shit. If you don't mean it, then don't fuckin' get punched! Fight back!

His attempt at recruiting Natsuki as a peon friend was wrecked by the affair, too, but that wasn't a huge deal. She was impulsive, so she'd probably... Oh. Now, there's a good idea. With all the impulsive, fist-flinging, magical abominations wandering around out here, perhaps he could start up some sort of club? Schools usually liked that sort of thing, right? He'd been missing that sort of thing ever since the pigs grabbed him and his pals last year. Court dates every month were hella boring, so he was itching for some fun, and this presented the perfect opportunity to do something new.

A quick look over the gathering showed only two people who outwardly looked like his usual sort, and neither seemed to give a rat's ass about the goings-on in the hugbox around Jonathan and Akiko. One of them was... A sukeban girl? He'd scrapped with a few types like that back in Chicago, but they were mostly filthy weeaboos. This chick looked like the real deal. The other looked almost like a gang member with his nautical uniform, and his constant yelling only strengthened that image. Brock figured it was time to make a less 'dramatic' introduction, and approached the two shortly after a third joined their group.

"Yo, you guys see that shit? Haven't seen someone get rocked like that in a long time."

@Mercurial@Cu Chulainn@blumenk

---

---

"I'd rather be back in my study, myself. Too bright out here."

Daler's eyes were also not what they used to be, like the rest of his withered body. They worked fine, but like everything else, they hurt when exposed to too much of anything - sunlight in particular. Despite the aches, he was amused by the students' antics like Mako was. It seemed that counselors almost universally had that sort of twisted pleasure in witnessing 'learning experiences', as he liked to call them. The ones who didn't wouldn't last more than a couple years in the Institute, after all. Too much stress for those sorts of teachers.

"Clarabelle, Mako? If you'd like, we can go to my office for tea after this event is all over. I'm sure your dolls would love to come, too."

There was a hint of pity in his voice as he spoke - out of all the people in the gathering, Clarabelle seemed to be the most broken and hurt person there. He still didn't intend to take Mako's case unless she asked for his help, but he didn't know the new counselor as well as he'd have liked yet. It was always good to know the other staffers and he'd been woefully lax in that duty.

@Silver Carrot@VitaVitaAR

AKIKO

Akiko scoffed at the man she assumed was one of the teachers of the Institute. Talk? To that gross pervert? Nothing would disgust Akiko more, no thanks. "Let's not" She replied in a defiant tone as she kept her arms crossed and she stepped away from everyone, attempting to remove herself from the scene entirely. She didn't even want to think about the situation anymore, it was taking away from her excitement of her first day at the Institute after all

@Mercurial

---

Freyja could only sigh at the redhead's refusal. She could tell that a hardhead like her wouldn't easily budge if her mind already decided on something.

"We should just let her be for the moment," she said to Alexei. "Let her cool down first before we try to make her patch things up with the boy."

She then approached said boy and saw traces of his blood near his nose. At least he already cleaned up most of the blood, probably using a handkerchief. She would have lent him hers if he hadn't one.

"Are you alright? If you want to, you can come to my office after this and I'll give you some medicine. Just in case if the wound gets infected."

She ended up becoming the institute's sort of nurse when she started studying medicine. She figured she wanted to expand her architect skills to that subject. However, she hadn't really gotten far in the effort as medicines were more complicated than she had expected. Combined with her affinity being in making bombs, not medicines, that step to making her first medicine was still far.

"I suggest you let her be for the moment. Her mind was still angry at the incident and she needed time to cool off. You can try to patch up things with her tomorrow."

@Azereiah

Sumiko's shoulders sagged a little. Well... the girl wouldn't apologize first, at least! But it looked like the guy might! And if he apologized, Futeki might apologize too! Especially if he explained about misunderstanding. To Sumiko, it seemed like things might still work out even if Futeki had declared she wouldn't apologize. Her words had been backed up by a teacher, too, so hopefully things would sink in and everything would be totally fine! It would have been nice for the resolution to come more quickly, but at least Sumiko felt like things were looking up and there wouldn't be any more fighting for now.

... Ah, she'd lost track of that guy she'd been talking to... She'd have to catch up with him later! Sumiko nodded firmly to herself. For the moment, she wanted to try talking to other people.

So the natural option was to walk up to the first person she saw and say hi. This turned out to be the cute purple-haired shy-looking girl from before.

"Hi!"

---

"..."

Making friends with real people...? Why would she do that when she has her dolls? Clarabelle remained largely silent. After the man offered up his office, she looked away quietly. If that was how things went, it was how things went. but it wasn't anything she particularly wanted. Her real desire was simply to be away from all of these meaningless people, to be among the only friends she could have. That was what she valued. That was what she desired. She could have them prepare tea for her. She didn't need someone else to do it. She didn't want someone else to do it.

"..."

And so, Clarabelle didn't respond, her sunhat shadowing her eyes.

@Azereiah@Silver Carrot

A whole lot seemed to be going on all at once, most of which Musashi couldn't track from his upside-down, leafy position. Somebody got knocked down and there was a whole lot of yelling over somebody being rude, then a whole lot of talking about friendship and some people making introductions?

Oh, but somebody had addressed him and asked about the panda part of his clothes, and a much, much older teenager who probably needed some exercise seemed to be glaring at him intensely. Could this mean...he'd found a rival!? On his very first day? How lucky was that!? He rolled over and up into a sitting position, eager to meet everybody and learn how things worked in this place, where surely he would find his destiny and become a superhero! or a ninja! or a ninja superhero!

But there was no need to be rude by rushing over to his new rival-friend first, this guy he'd almost fallen on had talked to him, after all!

"I dunno, I like pandas. They're the only bear that has opposable thumbs! If I had animal control as my power I'm pretty sure I'd wanna teach one how to use a sword!"

While that was true, Musashi's motivations ran deeper. First, he'd cobbled together his wardrobe out of whatever was lying around the house, since his parents hadn't generally stocked ninja-appropriate clothes. second, he was positive that nobody would consider a ten year old a threat anyway, but especially not if he was wearing a fuzzy panda motif and a bright white jacket.

Well, not until it was too late and they'd paid for underestimating him, and really, wasn't deceiving and misdirecting the enemy what being a ninja was all about?

No need to let anyone know that, though.

"I'm Musashi Sakai, and I'm a ninja! I'm here to learn to be a superhero!"

@Dragonsinc

HANA

Hana had been spending the last few minutes mostly trying to ignore all of the others by focusing on her book. It was pretty difficult to do so, considering how loud and rambunctious many of them were being, but Hana still managed to block out the noise fairly well. She was so wrapped up in her book that she didn't even notice the girl in the school uniform approaching her

"Hi!"

Hana jumped and let out a small yelp of shock in response to the girl's voice. She almost dropped her book, but managed to keep her grip on it at the last second. Oh no, this is exactly the situation she was hoping she would avoid. What should she say? She had to say something! "...Hello..." Hana said in the quietest whisper of a voice

@VitaVitaAR

Ryuuto crossed his arms and shook his head when he heard all the talk about apologizing and making nice. "She's clearly an emotionally unstable and volatile individual. Even misconstruing what you said, a rational person would just tell you to get lost, or at worst, slap you. The best predictor for a person's future actions are their past actions. Do you really want someone in your life that's going to explode at every little thing? I know I don't. I say you just let her be and have her go blow up on someone else. Forget about apologizing." Ryuuto adjusted his glasses, causing them to gleam briefly in the sunlight. He smirked, proud of his assessment of the situation, and determined to have as little to do with that violent redhead as possible.

@Azereiah@Hammerman

Terri Bronco, the Strongest and nastiest submission fighter on the Texas frontier... well, the plains outside of her family's ranch near Galveston, anyway... was approaching the school, laden with several large, bulky bags. Such a small girl was, obviously, having trouble with them. She huffed and groaned, dragging one of the larger bags behind her before stopping, opening a water bottle, and getting back to dragging it. Shouldn't a place this swanky have a doorman to help people with their luggage?

Well, it couldn't be helped. She shifted the four or five bags on her back, slinging the one she was dragging across... and started trudging along once more.

Bradley put a palm on his face in frustration. These landlubbers are fussing over the stupidest of things. Apparently, one of them hit on the other one, and then he gets punched in the face. If this were a crew, Bradley already knew what'd drag their boat down to the Kraken's depths, and its these landlubbers too absorbed in finding a nice lass. Ridiculous!

And then that pink-haired lass started at him again with her snide responses. Attitude like that would get you the plank, Bradley believed. Too bad walking the plank has become illegal, in this day and age... But oh, he definitely had a bit on his mind to tell her...

"An attitude like that's the reason why none o'the boys here are hitting on ye, lass." Bradley growled, his arms crossed. He would've said more if the lad in the messy suit hadn't arrived into their conversation. He nodded in agreement as to the few things he had to say regarding his issue.

"Oy, now that's what I like to 'ear! Someone who's got 'eir priorities in order, sounds like!" Bradley grinned before he rested his chin on one of his hands, evaluating the scene and thinking for a bit. "So it looks like all the other laddies and lassies are hangin' around here, so it's either the Institute is invisible, which sounds f***in' stupid, or the Institute is just a few paces ahead, and these landlubbers are just doin' f***-nothing but loungin' around. What d'ye think?"

@Mercurial@blumenk

Yasu Hirabayashi

"Yeah, like I'd want you losers hitting on me." Yasu quipped back. That was only shortly before someone came and encouraged his stupidity. It was like neither of them could even take a guess at why they were told to stand here. Bradley even passed over an explanation that might have sounded stupid if it hadn't been for the circumstances that had brought them all here. "So, um, did you not preform trippy magic stuff before coming here? Because I did. If I can shoot electricity out of my hands, then there can be an invisible school. I guess it's not just your eyes you need to start using."

Then they were joined by yet another person; someone that wanted to shoot the breeze about the guy that got punched out. "He sure went down like a bitch for such a big guy, yeah." She replied. Eyeing this new comer, she was getting a rough vibe that reminded her of the people she tended to deal with back home. Hopefully he wasn't the brainless thug type, or this was going to be an even more tiresome group to hang around. "You're not going to join their screaming match, are you?" She pointed at Bradley and Daisuke.

@Cu Chulainn @blumenk @Azereiah

---

Alexei Pavlov

Alexei was disheartened to see the girl reject the idea of talking it over so quickly. It seemed they had a difficult one on their hands. Now he was certain that Daler had a third eye about these things. "Yes, perhaps you're right." He replied to Freyja. A more forceful teacher might have sat them down together and make them talk it out, but Alexei did not have the heart to go beyond asking politely. He decided to leave Johnathan to the seemingly ever growing group of people around him. He already had Freyja and Yuki tending to him, so he hardly needed a third teacher.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted another person approaching from afar. It was a small girl, so she must be a student. Furthermore, she was clearly struggling with a great deal of luggage. Alexei rushed over to the girl. "Ah, young miss, I see you are in some trouble!" He stated upon reaching her. "Might I offer my assistance? I can take most if not all of those bags for you if you desire!" Being the school's resident strong man, Alexei was not going to have much trouble carrying such a load. He did wonder why such a small girl was carrying so many large bags...or how she got this far with them all at all. But asking questions was not his business; his business was assisting his students!

@Hammerman @clanjos

---

---

Jonathan couldn't help but agree completely with Ryuuto's assessment. The redhead was almost certainly an explosive and volatile sort. Unlike his quiet and more serious friend, though, Jonathan wasn't the sort to shy away from loud, aggressive, or belligerent people, as he sometimes fit all three of those descriptors himself. A shit-eating grin crossed his face that Ryuuto knew all too well from the past year. It clearly said 'I'm going to do something stupid and I'm going to enjoy every second of it'. Perhaps Ryuuto would change his mind after a calmer meeting. He usually changed his mind if he were proven wrong, but if he were proven 100% correct, then maybe a change of plans was in order. Still, full steam ahead -- nothing ventured, nothing gained!

After that train of thought ended, Jonathan finally nodded towards Professor Leden. Serious sort of teacher - moreso than he was used to. Maybe he'd end up in her class at some point, maybe not. He appreciated her coming to check in on him either way. "Hm, yeah. I think I probably should get this treated. Thanks. Speaking of heading to your office, when's the event starting? Almost feels like we're behind schedule."

He checked his watch to be sure. Judging by the position of the sun in the sky, it was not 7:42 PM. He must have forgotten to wind it again.

@Yuuta@Hammerman@Cu Chulainn

---

---

From that first bit, Brock already knew he liked the sukeban girl's style. He placed his arms behind the back of his head and stretched. "Nah. No point screaming like a dumbass. Lot easier to just hang back and watch." He shot a glance at Screamin' Bradley out of the side of his eyes, clearly visible beneath the Douchebag™ sunglasses.

Speaking of screaming, perhaps telling the two idiots what was going on might get them to shut up. Brock took a deep breath to ready himself - usually insulting people didn't lead to him getting his way no matter how strong the urge was. "Not sure what's going on. I think there's supposed to be some sort of opening ceremony? Feels like whatever they're doing, they're fuckin' late, though," Brock stated. Annoyingly, the sailor kid seemed like he wasn't the sort to take interest in the goings-on in the larger group. It did seem odd that things had taken so long to get rolling. Perhaps the staff were too busy with the not-a-fight that happened a few minutes ago. He'd ask what was going on, but they were probably taking care of it already.

@Cu Chulainn@Mercurial@blumenk

Yuki decided not to chime in on what had just happened any longer, and smiled, thinking to himself. It seems nobody has fell for his brief bit of mischief, at least not too much. A shame, really... well, at least he wasn't actually hit on. Well, he'll let these two old friends talk amongst themselves for the time being.

"Oh, hello, Freyja. How are you on this fine, sunny day?" Yuki stood up and gave a bow. It'd be rude to not say hello to his colleague, after all.

@Azereiah@Hammerman@Yuuta

"Eh?! If the bloody Institute's invisible, then explain how in the seven seas did I spend the last five minutes walking in circles tryin' to find it?" Bradley retorted to the pink-haired lass. He had began to think about what he said shortly after, and realized mentioning him walking around in circles would paint him off as an idiot. He then quickly decided to change the subject.

"And besides, my parents have been huntin' other rogue channelers since before I was a wee babe. As far as I know, it'd be a waste o'time and power t'just keep the Institute invisible, 'specially when it's already in the middle of nowhere."

Bradley crossed his arms again and began to think. The bearded lad with the shades seems to be on to something though.

"An opening ceremony? Better be f***in' worth it, then, with all this waitin'. I'm just keen on doin' something, already. All this lollygaggin's starting to get on my nerves."

@Mercurial@blumenk@Azereiah

"You seemed pretty lonely, so I decided to come and talk to you!" said Sumiko, brightly. It did seem like the quiet purple-haired girl was pretty isolated. Sumiko hoped she wasn't coming on too strong, but she couldn't help but be enthusiastic when it came to making new friends. At least, she hoped this would end with her making a new friend. She gave the smaller girl a wide grin. She was so cute! Her eyes swiftly caught the book that the girl was reading.

"What's that book you're reading?" the exuberant girl asked, peering at it curiously. Sumiko figured that the best idea to try and get the shy-seeming girl to open up was to try and talk with her about things she liked, and that book looked like a good place to start with. It only made sense to start there, didn't it? Of course it did!

"It looks pretty interesting!" Sumiko added, cheerfully. She'd already made friends with that guy, and now her next friend might be this super cute girl! If she was lucky, at least.

@tipssyCalibrator

---

Hearing Ryuuto's analysis about the redhead, Freyja sighed and smiled at the same time. It was just like him to say that, she thought. She couldn't really change that part of his personality, even if she wanted to, which she didn't, considering she was already proud of how he was right now.

She believed he needed more tact though. She couldn't see him getting a girlfriend at this rate.

"Good. Then make sure you come right away after the opening ceremony ends. And don't worry. We're not behind schedule at all. We should begin soon," she reassured the wounded boy. "Oh, and I believe we haven't been acquianted yet. My name is Freyja Leden, and you can call me Miss Leden just fine. What about yours?"

"Ah, and hello to you too, Yuki." She switched her gaze to the young teacher, bowing back a little. "I am perfectly fine, as you can see," she replied with a little smile on her lisp. "I am certainly interested in the new students as some of them I will mentor for sure. I just hope that Ryuuto can get along with whoever they are."

"How about you? Have any students that pique your interest?" she asked him.

@Cu Chulainn@Azereiah@Yuuta

@Mercurial@Cu Chulainn@Azereiah

---

"While screaming like a dumbass is not exactly the smartest thing to do, it's better than to guess that the institute is invisible without having any evidence to it" Daisuke responded to the delinquent girl and the newcomer in his usual monotonous tone. Taken for a fool wasn't something he liked, thought they did have a point that the staff could hide the school from prying eyes, thought it would be pointless as they were in the middle of nowhere. Wherever the school was, they had been waiting for a long time already for it to appear. "Maybe we should ask one of the teachers? Standing here won't give us an answer"

@VitaVitaAR

HANA

"I...i-it's...umm..." Hana stuttered, clumsily trying to form any kind of sentence while at the same time panicking about even being talked to in the first place. "...it's...a-about flowers..." Hana finally said, and held up the book to show her the title, just so she didn't have to speak. The book was fairly thick and short, and looked like some sort of informational book. The title read 'THE POETRY OF FLOWERS' across the cover in a big fancy font, with various types of flowers dotted across the rest of the cover. The book was very clean and undamaged or tattered, and appeared as though she had just bought it yesterday

Ryuuto immediately perked up when Freyja mentioned that she would be mentoring some of the new students. He looked up at her for a moment, trying to catch if she was looking at any student in particular, then looked to the crowd. However, he couldn't seem to discern who among them would be lucky enough to have Miss Leden as their mentor. Now, Ryuuto didn't mind the fact that she would be mentoring other students; it was an inevitability given the faculty to student ratio. However, it was likely that he would be working closely with whatever students she would be mentoring, and he was very curious who would be joining him in their lessons. Anyone but the redhead, Ryuuto thought. I'll be okay with anyone, as long as it's not her...

As he scanned the crowd, though, he saw a rather interesting sight. A young girl, probably one of the youngest students that had gathered around, was hauling what looked to be twice her own body weight in luggage. His initial reaction was amusement. She was just so small; how was it even possible for her to carry all of those things... Fortunately, Mr. Pavlov decided to go an offer the girl some assistance. Still, it seemed as though she could use a little advice from an upper-classman.

"Looks like you should make the switch to e-textbooks," Ryuuto said as he approached Terri. "They take up less space, they're less expensive, and you can use ctrl F to find the specific phrases you're looking for. It's an indispensable feature when looking up key terms for homework." He smiled and adjusted his glasses so that the sunlight glistened off of his lenses. "I'm Ryuuto, and I'm guessing this is your first year here." With that, he waited for Mr. Pavlov to take some of her things, and offered to shake her hand. After all, she could very well be the new student that Miss Leden would be mentoring. It would be best to start off on good terms if that was the case.

@clanjos@Hammerman

Yuki chuckled to himself, putting a hand to his mouth. If they weren't sure Yuki was a teacher, they are now. Ah, well. There goes the big surprise.

"Eheh, I almost forgot I was supposed to do that. I do hope I can find some promising students with some artistic talent, though. Perhaps I can finally find enough students to pilot my art class... which reminds me."

Yuki turned towards Johnathan, giving him a more proper bow, that of a dignified noble.

"My apologies for not completely introducing myself. I am Lord Yuki Blakesly Hisakawa. I will begin teaching at the Institute starting today. I'm also hoping to start an art club, if that interests you. I hope we will all have a wonderful year." Yuki says, raising. He chuckled to himself, once again.

"Oh, and I'm sorry for trying to decieve you in saying I was a student here. I just wanted to feel young again, is all. It'll be our little secret to the rest." Yuki put a finger over his mouth, with a wink.

@Hammerman@Azereiah

Yasu Hirabayashi

It was good to hear the new guy had a head on his shoulders. Though Bradley managed to prove he was even more of a dumbass than ever. They both also seemed to think she was sincerely claiming the institute was invisible. "I said it could be invisible. I just learned magic is a thing. Just about anything's possible now." She told them. "And I'm not so sure the teachers are planning to explain themselves. Russky over there was cagey about a lot of things when he collected me." She motioned at Alexei. "My guess is whatever they have planned, they have a way too inflated opinion about how clever it is and want it to be a surprise. But hell, I'll admit, they could just be idiots." It was never beyond doubt that the people around you could be rock stupid. Heck, she just proved that by standing near Bradley.

@Azereiah @Cu Chulainn @blumenk