So this was it huh?
Aurel just stood there with all his luggage, alone to his thoughts as he stared up. Beyond these gates therein lied his new future - Hopes Peak Academy. This was the prestigious place where so many amazing people came to, right? Fidgeting around, the young thief brought up a finger to his mouth, chewing at it as his head swiftly whipped to each side, taking in the surroundings.
Trees glistening in the sunlight as leaves swirled around him, the iron grated fence was... rather imposing, not that it helped that there was a giant tower of a school behind it all. Out of all, any people who could of came here, it had to be him... for being an expert thief... or the ultimate thief?
Really, it didn't matter.
The only thing that was plastered on his face were his furrowed brows with a small frown as he continued to nibble at his finger... focus Aurel, this is your new future, you can do this.
Tearing his finger away, he gulped in a breath of fresh air as he took a step forward.
...
...
...?
What wasn't he just?
Urgh...
As the dream faded away, the boy began to emanate a guttural groan, straight from the bottom of his stomach. His body was wracked with pain as he slowly dug his hands into the... loamy soil? Like a claw, he scrapped up bits of rubble and dirt pulps as he began to slowly open his eyes. It all felt so cold; it didn't exactly help that a sharp pang of blistering cold air brushed above him, sending a shiver down the boy's spine.
His head was spinning and the world around him made it look like he was staring through the lens of a wobbling, unfocused camera. At the most, it was obvious to tell he was outside... it made him ponder on whether or not he passed out in front of the academy before wincing in pain at the sudden piercing headache he had.
It caused him to dig his fingers even more into the soil as he hissed a bit, blinking and adjusting his eyes to his surroundings. The first thing that caught his eye was the thing he was laying on, prone - the ground. Pressing his hands against the ground, the thief slowly forced himself upward. Even in his haze, he could at least still make that out, along with the... building?
As he whipped his head to the side, he found himself swirling to the point that it felt as if he was still on a nausea-fueled amusement park ride. Bending his arms, Aurel quickly thrust himself back up, wobbling a bit as he tried to find his footing, before maintaining a semblance of balance.
This whole ordeal felt awkward as he held his hands outward to keep himself from tipping over, blinking to acclimate his eyes to his surrounding. It took a few seconds for him to adjust, but after that, it was crystal clear and he could make out more than just the ground - the shapes of buildings that surrounded him.
They were a... strange mixture of being a log cabin and a somewhat modern condo, with a iron bar inhibiting any passage. From what he observed, one path lead down to other, seemingly locked up cabins, and the other, well to other cabins, save for another path that looked to diverge outwards.
Brushing the dirt from his face, Aurel steadily approached the cabin near the diverging path, squinting at the label on the side.
"Himura... Chikako," he groggily murmured before stepping away and raising his arms towards the heavens.
There were myriads of things running through the thief's head as he cracked his neck and rolled it around before reaching down to touch his toes. Just where was he was one of the many amongst a sea of questions, like if this "Himura" person lived here and if they were one of the people who possibly kidnapped him... and for some reason dumped him out in the middle of a dirt road where he could easily wake up and read their names...
That was... right peculiar as he pivoted around in time to see that there were
myriads of cabins facing the others as well. Putting a finger into his mouth, he began chewing at it as he cautiously approached another one, squinting to make out the name... before his finger fell straight out of his mouth as he hustled over to make sure if he was reading it right, rubbing his eyes as he got closer and closer.
"... Aurel," he murmured in bewilderment, eyes widened at the sudden revelation that this was his... living space for some odd reason. Wait... that meant multiple things. For a minor scale that meant Himura was the girls last name; on a more major scale he deduced one more thing.
"... if I'm right, then everyone listed on these cabins has to have been another abductee like me..." A small sigh escaped his lips as he trudged back onto the well-maintained path, save for a part that had his whole body imprinted onto it. For the next couple of minutes, he began casually reading off each cabin he traversed by, bit by bit.
"... Snow Iclyn..."
"... Ayu Usui..." Why were they here?
"... Lilly Hart..."
"... Shirou Emiya..." What was
their objective?
"... Hiroki Hisaka... wa? He momentarily paused and blinked for a second. The door to this cabin was left open; it was odd and very much out of place amongst the other six he had counted up so far. Of course, Aurel was as much reserved as he was guarded, ensuring that he would prevent himself from being ambushed in the process.
Taking one long glance over his shoulder, Aurel briskly and autonomically scanned the vicinity for any signs of life, becoming an unmoving sentry for the minute that he stood there. Following that, he turned back to face the entrance and took in one deep breath, clasping the handle of the door. It was now or never as he slowly pulled it open just wide enough to take a peep in...
... and... uh... what?
... hold on...
This isn't... ok?
Aurel's head involuntarily tipped to the side as he tried to process what was going on, leaning a bit too much on the door as a support for how dumbfounded and bewildered he appeared. His mouth was agape, one eye squinting with the opposite sides brow rising up. He blinked. And blinked again, slightly blushing at what he was witnessing.
... did they just... leave the door open while having... Aurel just... he couldn't compute what was going on. Did he walk in on them redressing? Were they trapped here like him, or the perpetrators of this whole situation who decided to just?...
...
The girl locked eyes with him, albeit very briefly, making the situation even more discomforting. Aurel just tensed straight up and frowned straight back at her, making it appear as if he was giving them a harsh sense of disapproval before instantly slamming the door and walking in the opposite direction that he came.
Both of his palms were pressed up against his forehead, double facepalming. This was already becoming an embarrassing repeat of the time when he stole the Imperial Treasures with that poor Chinese girl. The only good thing he could say that came out of this whole awkward situation was that he was more hyper-focused...
... like right now as soon as he heard a bit of squeaking behind him. Silently and swiftly, Aurel ducked to the side of the cabin, crouching down to obscure himself as much as possible... even with his minute presence, every little bit helped in hiding. While he was at this, he began to not only keep his ears glued to the cabin, but his eyes peeled as he squinted at another adjacent cabin and began reading off the name on it.
Once that task was completed, he rose up, and walked as casually and quickly away from that cabin, repeating the same process as before to purge that memory into the back of his mind.
...
Following the next few minutes of going in what he assumed was a nearly complete circle, Aurel had counted up the number of cabins and had a mental roster of each name he saw. He wasn't going to bother dwelling too much on the names, as he walked by Ryuma's cabin, knowing full well that none of them were familiar to the thief.
As he left the congregation of cabins and followed the trail, he found himself staring down another individual who was making their way down the path. Putting a finger into his mouth, Aurel began gnawing at it, more and more fervently as the other individual, who looked mildly pissed and piqued, approached. Fortunately, there wasn't any trouble at all as Aurel strolled on by the dude, being invisible as always to the world.
Aurels gnawing slowly died down until his hand flitted out of his mouth and his arm dangled to the side once more. While there wasn't much to think on, the next course of action he had on mind was to accustom himself to his surroundings, investigate for a better idea of the situation, and then get out of dodge when he could.
That was the plan as the thief slowly began approaching the docks, taking in each canoe, the hut, and the crystalline lake before him... this was going to be a long day.