Kana blinked, and suddenly the assignments were through. People were starting to disperse, and as the crowd began to thin, so too did the invisible weight constricting her begin to lighten. Briefly, she allowed herself to believe that the hardest part was over, at least for the day.

"—Penny for your thoughts?"

“Wh—?” Kana nearly leapt at Wakako’s question, and her face flushed immediately. It shouldn’t have startled her, it wasn’t as though she’d forgotten the giant of a girl, nor that she’d said anything even remotely harsh. Perhaps she’d just expected that, though. People didn’t often call upon her with friendly intent, and she was usually right to be skittish whenever the name “Mutsuki” was mentioned.

“My…” She mumbled, fingers fidgeting over her bag.

You think it’d be an absolute disgrace for this poor girl, the daughter of an actual hero, to be stuck rooming with someone like you. If—no, when—something terrible happens, what do you think that’ll do to her future reputation? Or her mom’s reputation? If you had even the tiniest shred of decency you’d offer to transfer to another room. Maybe you’d get lucky, like Shun, and get cordoned off alone.

So much for the hard part being over.

“I…think it’s very nice to meet you, and…I…think I already said that. I did. I’m sorry.”

Before she could rail on herself for that one, a sudden commotion pulled her attention away, as their upperclassman guide took a rather unceremonious fall. Shun, thankfully—and with notably impressive speed—was at her side offering help.

Kana took the opportunity to push onward, and returned her attentions to Wakako. No, she was not jumping ship just yet. She would swallow that awful thought and stick by this. For now.

“Maybe…uhm…would you like to get our rooms settled, first? It’d be a little quieter, and we could talk. If—sorry—if you want.”

---

@Naw

Wakako confirmed once more that this girl was even more nervous than she was. It was like that phrase about animals being more scared of you than you were of them, or however it went. It was a mixed portent for Wakako; she felt bad for Kana evidently feeling so awkward it was written all over her face, but it also gave her a small confidence boost for knowing people were as, if not more, nervous as her about this whole process. She was worried she would be surrounded by overbearing dominant types. Kind of like her mother. Of course she yet might have a few of those to deal with. That was definitely the impression she got from that Adrianne person.

Aia's tumble drew Wakako's attention, but she consciously decided not to look for long. She was sure she didn't want people gawking, at it looked like Shun had the situation under control.

"Ah, yeah, it'd probably be a good idea to set up our rooms, wouldn't it?" She had almost forgotten they had yet to get around to the task of setting up camp in their new home. What a strange thing it would be for her to set down roots for longer than a few months for once. "Let's get going then!" Wakako started in the direction of the Chiheisen building, where Aia had told them all the girls were to be housed.

"Oh,would you like me to take your stuff? I can lift things real easy, you know." Although a part of Wakako was ashamed of the body she had grown into, she had to admit it had it's advantages. She already had a pretty heavy bag given she was carrying some lifting weights in there, but she figured she might be able to manage Kana's too if it wasn't overly heavy. One part of Wakako was just trying to be helpful and make a good first impression, while the other admitted she would take some pleasure in showing off. Mother always said a task worth doing was a task worth doing efficiently. Wakako preferred to use the opportunity to impress.

---

@Mcmolly

As their class gathered together, some tensions began to arise. Osamu could not say whether it was a largely trivial dispute or something that was likely to build over time, but from what he could tell, one of the girls involved was merely oblivious as to proper etiquette rather than meaning sincere offense. Perhaps it would ultimately come to nothing.

The first pairing, as though by fate, involved the solitary foreigner in their class. Nothing on Osamu's face would betray it, but he was already leery of her being here. He fully expected her to prove to be nothing but trouble in the long run. Fortunately, it was not Osamu himself that would be forced to find out exactly how obnoxious the foreigner intended to be. He pitied this Nadeshiko girl, who was bound to bare the brunt of the indignities stemming from Adrianne.

Wakako was paired with Kana, who was apparently a native of Aomori just like him. The fact that Aia had chosen to draw attention to it suggested her name was recognisable. After thinking on it, Osamu realised why. It seemed Kana herself was reluctant to respond to Aia's probing, and Osamu could fully understand why. The last thing he was going to do was draw attention to it, as he was sure that fact being made common knowledge was the last thing Kana wanted.

The rest were of little consequence to him. All names and faces he knew nothing about and had little to assume about them. Finally, when it came down to the men, of which there were few, he was to be paired with a "Yasuhide Seo", and someone called "Tanaka Shun" had no dorm mate at all. One of them waved to him, which implied that the one who did was Seo. Presumably, they knew who Tanaka Shun was and realised Osamu was the other one by deduction. That or it was a completely meaningless gesture and Osamu was reading too much into it, but in lieu of any knowledge to the contrary, he chose to have faith that he had reached the right conclusion.

Seo, however, appeared to be engaged in conversation with another at this point in time, making no move to engage Osamu himself. Osamu assumed this meant he had something he needed or wanted to say to them, and thus had no intention of interrupting. Osamu would instead politely wait until it was clear that he would not be intruding upon any ongoing conversation. There was no need to rush.

---

Sapporo, Japan
Ishin Academy, April 7th
"Interacting With":: Akizawa-san(@Asura)

---

As Adrianne stood there, awaiting for the muscular girls arrival, she was instead greeted by what appeared to be a gelatinous pink girl who looked more like mutated Jell-O with human features. She didn't know what to make of the slime girl, but two things were for certain - for one this was someones fetish and secondly this was her roommate. While she was praying that she would room with the muscular lass due to possibly being a great spotter, the jelly gal was fine with her.

Well, as long as she worked hard. "Yeah, it's a pleasure to meet you too, Akizawa-san," Adrianne bowed and replied in a mostly monotone voice, though it did crack a bit when she did force herself to sound enthusiastic to meet the girl. She couldn't tell much about the girl besides their initial meeting, but she could see some of the practical applications of the slime girls quirk; pretty versatile from what the horned foreigner could tell, with the combat application of it being nil to her, unless she counted asphyxiation.

Adrianne could only shiver at the thought of being on the receiving end of the slime girl; someones fetish indeed. Of course, the moment the cat girl stated that this was a famous name got Adrianne's attention, even for a split second. She raised an eyebrow with a slight frown before turning away an muttering under her breath, "Oh, right, them, not mine... yeah."

Aia-senpai listed off Tanegashima and Mutsuki, two relative unknowns to her as she huffed and sighed in the background, not doing much interacting as she scratched her chin with her free hand. One of them was famous and she wondered which famous name the cat girl was referring to the relatively silent, stoic, and downtrodden looking girl. Adrianne could only frown and ponder at why she asked Mutsuki specifically where she game from, frowning and glaring at the cat girl. Something was up.

She would keep her focus on the one girl till Tanegashima came up and gave a hearty wave. So she was the girl with a brawn and bust like her. Adrianne could only click to roof of her mouth, silent contrasting the well-built lady with the gooey gal that was her roommate. While she wasn't exactly disappointed in who she got as a roommate, she would of more than likely prefer Tanegashima as her own roommate since she looked like she belonged and seemed like an excellent sparring partner.

Of course, just as some discourse (which she could care less about), the squid kid, with the subtlety of a balloon popping by a baby's crib, asked her to get on with the rooms. Honestly, she couldn't exactly blame her, especially if they were just going to waste a day to let "students" get accustomed to Ishin. Those weren't students; the correct term for them was dead weight.

Instead of continuing on in place, Aia-senpai corralled the group of newcomers and got them moving as they exited outside the auditorium. Next was Genkuro and... that bitch. Whatever, she would be out of her soon, though she did scan the crowds for whoever was to be her roommate and soon discovered that it came from a more, well passive student if her introductions was to say anything. Adrianne couldn't help but pity Genkuro, who would probably be expelled, alongside Yano, but that would probably be more so going insane than anything.

Adrianne could merely pout as she rubbed her horn awkwardly, her eyes empty as she stared off to the side, restraining herself and tuned out the green-haired imbecile, or at the very least, did her best. It's kind of difficult to ignore something when it was essentially the equivalent of nails scratching on a chalkboard, but she persevered in tuning out her incessant rambling.

Regardless of what happened, she took the opportunity to do her own assessment of everyone here, aside from her own senpai. Yes, she seemed a bit ditzy and even nervous, but again, she survived a year here, so Adrianne could personally care less about what she was like. However, the blue, bratty half-pint was paired up with a seemingly basic looking girl. Honestly, if there was anyone that screamed normal, it was this girl, even if she got into Ishin.

Honestly speaking, this chick was probably the second person she would of preferred being roomed up with due to being pretty inoffensive, though she might make a decent third depending on how Akizawa-san was like. Beyond that, she remained relatively silent and to herself as the final listings dropped as Aia-senpai finished the tour. As much as she wanted to stick around and appraise the other students, she had more important things to worry about as she tightly gripped her suitcase, shifting and hefting it around as if it were weightless.

"Now that's over with, shall we get settled in, Akizawa-san," despite the nature of the phrase, it was framed as less of a question and more an assertion based on her flat, yet somewhat rough tone of voice, gesturing to the girl to follow her. "Just t'let you know, I'm not much for talking, but I don't mind a little chit-chat."

That was a half-truth or lie depending on the perspective, but there was only one constant for Adrianne - she would humor the girl, as long as she wasn't irritating. "Also, if you don't mind, I can help carry some of your luggage to our dorms."

When their senpai called out Hajo and her future roomie, her eyes lit up. She stretched herself onto her tippy-toes, hands balled into loose fists, slowly shaking in excitement. However, her new friend seemed to not have heared the announcement. Or, if they did, Hajo thought, they were of a less-excitable kind than she would've liked. With puffed out cheeks and a pout, Hajo descended back onto her soles, allowing her shoulders to slump. Unsure what to do with herself and the now homeless enthusiasm that had surged within her just a moment ago, she merely fidgeted, massaging a fingertip between the index-finger and thumb of the opposite hand, her face cast towards the floor.

It seemed most of the pairs chattered away, leaving Hajo with a sense of emptiness. After a moment or two, she straightened herself out, and snuck towards the tall boy (Shin? Shuun? That was it, Shun.) and their upperclassman Nekohara. As she peaked past his wide frame, seeing the somewhat flustered senpai, Hajo tilted her head, giving Shun a mischievous smirk. With an index-finger resting on her chin, she leered up at him, musing aloud. "Shuun-san, I thought boys liked it when there's a bunch of girls in their class?" There were few to no hints at accusing him of any wrong-doing, though Hajo shrugged as if to dismiss such a thing anyways. "You've got a lot of space to yourself, at least!" she squeaked in what she hoped would be an encouraging tone of voice.

“What does Ishin think we think it is?”

Turning towards the cat-eared second-year, Hajo brought her arms behind her back, rocking on her heels and the ball of her feet in an almost jittery fashion. “Mh... is it not a high quality but, like, suuuper strict school? Like Shiketsu? Honestly, that's why I applied after... Well, it just seemed right, but, uh...” She craned her neck, looking over the crowd, where her gaze lingered on the takoyaki mascot, the comically-grumpy foreigner, then back to Shun. “Our class is kinda goofy, though, isn't it?” She smiled, now intertwining her fingers behind her back, her posture shifting into a lackadaisical one. “It must be funny to watch our class being so mixed. I mean...” she paused, her nose scrunching up. Her eyes flittered over towards Osamu, then Adrianne. “It really writes itself, with Kenzo Jr. over there next to her.” She pointed non-chalantly, for a moment or two, and suddenly she seemed a lot more aware of her classmates than previously. “I think it's fun! But... unexpected for Ishin, perhaps?”

---

@Etranger@Raijinslayer

Namie put on a smile as she awaited his initial response. This was supposed to be a happy moment of reunion yet something about this had bothered her. She had heard the rumors that Seo had lost himself through what happened but at the time, it all seemed ridiculous. However when that mouth opened and then closed without a sound, her smile dropped even quietly gasping in shock when he turned to write on his board. She shook the disappointment from her face, masking herself with an easy smile nodding while reading his ecstatic, but written, greeting. "Yea... small world." She responded plainly even trailing off as her mind went elsewhere.

The tour had ended but the pair of them lingered around where it had stopped amid their conversation. This wasn't right. Seo had been so full of life the last time she had seen him but now he appeared as just a mute actor playing the part. Some of that might have been idealizing the memory of him but it hurt to think that those rumors about him were true after all this time. She forced a smile and nodded reading his followup response but the cracks in her expression were beginning to show, inhaling through her teeth as looked away for a moment at a lost for an immediate thing to say in response.

"Ah yea, that's.. good to hear, Seo." She tried focusing again after that momentary pause. There was so much that was unsaid. In truth, she wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him asking for the old Seo, the one she remembered to come back. Slap him, even, if that was required. She controlled herself, however, and tried to move on. "Well it will be fun to see how the year works out."

She didn't know what else to say at the moment. There were burning questions and a few lines in mind to attempt to rouse her friend from the past but she didn't want to push. She had even forgotten at the moment that she learned a bit of sign language to help him readjust if he ever came back to the team so he could "speak" to someone without having to write it down. She had wanted to think of something to say but her eyes wandered over to the boy who was lingering near by. It was a lifeline to save this dying conversation as she just couldn't pull herself up to say anything meaningful for him.

That was Seo's roommate, maybe? In which case that was probably explaining why he was here but it was kind of odd. There was no need to be polite, not that Namie saw it that way, instead it was kind of weird to just be standing nearby as if waiting a turn. She hardened her expression a touch but turned to address him... Aia said Seo's roommate was.. Osamu that's right. "Hey." She gestured her head up as a greeting. "I take it you are Osamu?"

It would seem that Osamu would not have to wait long before it was made clear their conversation was over. By none other than the girl calling out to him with his first name. Not just his first name, but his first name without so much as an honorific to accompany it. Either this girl had no care at all for etiquette, or she meant some offense in referring to him so casually. Neither option boded well. It seemed that Ishin did not implicitly attract those with a respect for formality, despite the reputation. Fortunately, this girl was not his roommate nor the person he intended to engage in conversation with, so that might be a problem for another day.

"Yes, I am Kenzo Osamu." He replied. "Forgive me for hovering, but I thought it would be rude of me to interrupt when you were mid conversation." He approached the pair of them and offered his hand to shake. "Let us introduce ourselves more properly, shall we?"" He was offering his hand to be shaken by both of them, preferably in turn, if they so desired. Though he could not speak for Seo's inclinations quite yet, he supposed there was every chance the first naming girl would not care to shake his hand. He would just have to see.

To his credit, Seo's face remained perfectly in his calculated expression of happiness and interest, even as he cursed it with everything he had. He could sense the distance growing between them, could feel the discomfort in Namie's words as she let awkward pauses punctuate the conversation, he own fake smiles cracking underneath the weight of. . . concern? Disappointment? The mute boy couldn't tell, and it ate him up inside as he wiped his board, clean, the empty smile on his face staying in place despite his best efforts to let it fall. He had an old friend from way back just asking for him to chat like the old days, but he couldn't open up to her. couldn't even begin to drop the mask, despite how glad he was to see her, how glad he was that she didn't seem to pity him, how glad just. . . standing by her made him. He couldn't convey any of that, the kanji he started to write down seeming to be as empty as his smile.

Luckily, the attention was torn away from him for a moment as Namie called out to Osamu. Unfortunately, that meant he'd have to interact with the stick in the mud as well. Turning around, Seo would produce his intro card with a sleight of hand flourish, holding out behind his fingers for Osamu to take and read. As he did so, he once more wiped his board free of what had been written won't prior and penned a new message.

~So. . . how did you guys take to the presentation? Kinda boring towards the end, am I right?~ He playfully gave Namie a punch in the arm as he showed off the message, perhaps a tad harder than he meant to. But it's fine, he'd done it like that before, right? This is what she wanted him to act like, the old joker that took nothing seriously.

What do you mean 'act'? That's what you're like. It's who you are, stop overthinking it. Don't let that dumb hallucination shake you u, Seo. You're fine. You don't need to worry about it, you don't need those fuckin' pills to feel normal. You are norms. You're just an normal, average kid trying to make friends and get by. . .

@Etranger@Pirouette

Kana shuffled after Wakako, adopting a fairly brisk pace to keep up with her. This girl was certainly…different, compared to most adults Kana had met, let alone people her own age. It wasn’t off-putting, but she did feel a bit guilty using her new roommate as what was, essentially, a social blast-shield. The way people’s eyes were naturally drawn to Wakako made Kana wonder if she hated it too—the attention, the spectacle. Did children shy away from her? Did men and women who were too old for petty derisiveness, still gawk and grimace at the sight of her? Did friendship come rarely, and unnaturally, and never for long?

Maybe she was overthinking it. Wasn’t attention part of the deal? People were supposed to look at heroes, and heroes were supposed to like being looked at. Kana had always viewed fame as an unavoidable drawback to heroism, something that had to be endured, but she also hated the sound of her own name, so really, what did she know? Maybe it was a good thing to be famous, even if the idea twisted her stomach into knots.

“…I can lift things real easy, you know.”

Stop. Spacing. Out.

It took her a painfully quiet moment to piece together what Wakako had said—or rather, asked. Kana looked down at her bag, which she hadn’t stopped holding in her arms like an animal since they’d left the auditorium, despite that it had straps. There wasn’t much in it, because there hadn’t been much to take, so it wasn’t as though carrying it was a strain. Did she look like she was struggling?

It’s called being polite, you moron. It’s something good people do. Take notes.

What was she meant to say? Was it polite to accept Wakako’s friendly offer, or would it be demeaning to make a hero’s daughter carry her things like some pack mule? She hadn’t known Wakako very long, but she was nice, and Kana was suddenly very sure that she didn’t want to offend her.

“Oh, ah…I’m sure you can. Y-you seem very strong.” She offered the duffel out, more than a bit sheepishly, and tried to put on a smile that was at least familial to gratitude. “It isn’t really heavy, but i-if you want to, then…thank you very much.”

---

@Naw

With the introductions over, there really wasn't much left to do that day except get situated in their dorm and wait for class to start. After all, Yoru didn't wish to stay out in the wet cold of Hokkaido for too long. She had lotion to apply and balm to put on. Skincare was one of the most important tenements of beauty, after all. Plus, she didn't want to carry around her essentials for much longer. Not too much work to do so, but enough that she would rather unpack sooner rather than later.

She still paid mind to the interactions of the others, but she didn't join in. Associations and what not. With Aia talking about the subversion they'd soon learn, Yoru wasn't exactly surprised. Ishin academy had the reputation of being harsh and strict, but it was most likely less so on the inside. After all, they were all children. It wasn't like they were joining the military. Though, she did suppose that the true subversion would be that Ishin was an actual hellhole human grinder that was much worse than the reputation it possessed. That was a pretty messed up thought, though. Would probably be busted by the government for abuse and child endangerment if that was the case.

"So Yano," she told her new roomie in that sickly sweet tone, "do you want to go together to see our dorm together or stay around for a bit longer~?" She honestly didn't care which one Haruhi chose. Frankly, she didn't really want to interact with her at all. Her reputation demanded it, though. Going out as a bitch on day 1 that couldn't even put up with a single person was social suicide. Who knew, maybe that manic pixie girl wasn't as bad as Yoru once thought. Probably was, though.