[IC] Reborn: A New Generation

[Tsuricube]

In return for the curt wave, Kaiya broke out into a brief smile thankfully gone unnoticed by anyone in her class. She sat back down on her seat, her mood uplifted by the small exchange. She wondered if he had been bored like her, and turned her gaze to the clock hung on the wall at the front of the class, dully noting there was still a fair amount of time before lunch. Kaiya slumped unhappily, before an idea came to her and she brightened.

Taking the forgotten stack of finished homework, Kaiya stood up from her seat and strolled over to the front of the class, all the while watching her classmates scribbling away or pretending to work as she passed them. Her teacher, sensing her approaching, looked up from her own stack of work before taking the homework from Kaiya's hand and checking it over once. Twice. Then she made shoo-ing gestures at Kaiya with a smile.

Grateful for the granted privilege of freedom, she bowed before skipping out of the room with her bag in hand, closing the door behind her. Now, what shall I do? Maybe the nice stranger is still nearby?

[Borah]

Yuzuki turned her head towards the front, as well as the other students. She stood up and walked up and passed the stranger out into the hall. The students in the room all whisper to each other as the teacher tries to calm them down. Yuzuki stays facing away from the room and just stands there waiting for the lightning stranger to state what he call her out for.

[Grey]

"Well that was pleasant enough," Nagato remarked after Kaiya and him had finished their little exchange. The girl seemed nice enough, maybe he actually would return, rather than just entertain the thought of doing so. It wasn't as if he had anything better to do at the moment anyway, all things considered. He took out his phone and checked for any messages. Nope. Definitely nothing better to do at the moment. He checked the time. Perhaps he could go for a snack in the mean time.

Nagato directed his attention to the classroom and then back behind him. "... Yeah, let's do that," he affirmed, turning on his heel and heading off in the direction of a nearby convenience store.

Minutes Later...

Nagato reappeared back outside Namimori Middle, a sparsely-filled convenience store shopping bag in one hand, and 1/16th a chocolate bar and wrapper. Nagato tossed the wrapper aside. He stood in place for a moment before coming to a realization:

"I'm creeping outside a goddamn middle school."

[Savepoison]

Simple steps out of classroom, staring over toward the children they would fall quiet, some kids muttering among eachother, he closes the door at a lightning fast speed, he lets electricity spiral up his hand, crossing them among eachother, he simply stares, waiting for a statement.

[Tsuricube]

After having some fun with dodging the eyes of teachers whose classrooms she passed by and sneaking past patrolling Disciplinary Committee (who she was still considering to join) members, Kaiya freely wandered until she arrived at the first floor and exited the building, preoccupying herself by contemplating on her decision about the Committee. She was walking forward as if in auto-pilot, too engrossed in her thoughts. She abruptly stopped in the middle of the field. Wait, if I join the Disciplinary Committee, will I have to cut my hair in that... What do they call it... p-pompadour? Pompadour hairstyle?

She stared at the ground in silent horror before shaking her head with a small smile. Nah, Hibari Kyoya didn't have to- Well, he WAS the leader... Eh, it'll work out!

Satisfied with her conclusion, she raised her head, pondering on how to fully enjoy her bit of freedom until she noticed the young man she had seen earlier. Kaiya stopped once again, the small bit of shyness from her childhood surfacing. Indeed just a few moments ago she had been wondering about the possibility of the nice person being around, but now that she was met with the aforementioned person, she didn't know what to do.

[Borah]

Yuzuki just stares at the stranger, as he looks as if he's going to attack in the middle of a school day. "What do you think you're doing?" Zuki questioned the stranger, "We are still in a building full of innocent students."

Yuzuki stares down the stranger checking that her needles and dagger are all in place.

[Grey]

Due to mentally berating himself for, and I quote, 'creeping outside a goddamn middle school', Nagato didn't really notice Kaiya's approach what with his facepalming and his exasperated fidgeting. In fact, it wasn't for a while that he had noticed the young lady whose attention he had grabbed earlier was right there.

"Hm?" Nagato sounded quietly upon noticing the presence of the girl he had been interacting with earlier. It was apparent that the blonde was much... shyer than the impression he had gathered of her. Nagato quickly ticked off every single pick-up line ('she was in middle school, and I'm not a lolicon'), key foreign phrase ('She's in Japan, she should know Japanese.'), crappy party ice-breaker ('No, just no.'), vicious threat ('Let's try not to get kicked out of a town again, mmkay?'), and business term he knew. The amount of unique ways to initiate that checklist left him with... None.

Well. Time for 'Plan B'.

Whatever that was.

"Why hello ojou-chan," Nagato greeted with a wave the warmest smile he could put on, using the formal Japanese word for wealthy, high-class females. Even if she wasn't really upper-class, it was pretty rare for a young girl, or any girl Nagato supposed, to not get a thrill out of being talked to like she was a princess. Besides, she was in middle school so that put her at.. 14? 13? Somewhere around there. The chances that she had the 'childhood spark' would up the probability of this greeting's success, to consider all things.

"Are you all alone?"

'Okay, that sounded really creepy,' Nagato thought before adding, "it's not safe or right for a cute little girl to be out here all by herself."

'Nice save,' he mentally affirmed, despite the fact he wasn't all that taller than her anyway. A few inches more and she probably could've been his height!

[Tsuricube]

Initially, the remnants of her shyness from childhood had taken over her, but at the warm smile that Nagato gave, Kaiya found herself becoming a bit more comfortable around him. Though, being referred to as an "ojou-chan" prompted her to blink owlishly in confusion.

Eh? When was the last time someone called me- Oh, from the time those thugs tried kidnapping me!

At the memory of the incident, Kaiya found herself becoming a bit more cautious. Well, he didn't seem like the type to do that, so nothing bad could happen, right? Besides, she was sure she could fight- or at least, buy enough time to escape if the situation arises.

"Are you all alone?"

...

Should I be backing away now?

"It's not safe for a cute little girl to be out here all alone."

But... "...You aren't that tall either."

It slipped before she could stop herself, and Kaiya gave a quiet gasp. She quickly retaliated by bowing and apologizing, "I'm really sorry!"

[Grey]

"..."

Nagato was silent for a few moments before he burst out into hysterical laughter.

"BWAHAHAHAHA~!" He exclaimed mirthfully, continuing for a few moments before calming down and smiling just a wee bit brighter. "It's fine! No, really, it's fine," Nagato insisted, waving his hands in front of him in an attempt to get her to stop bowing.

[Tsuricube]

Out of everything else, Kaiya was certainly not expecting him to burst into laughter. She raised her head, a look of confusion passing as she straightened from her bow. A sheepish smile made its way onto her lips and she rested her right hand onto the side of her neck while lowering her gaze off to the side: a habit she had when she was unsure. An inner debate was evident by her blinking and shifting eyes. She eventually nodded to herself, coming to a decision.

Kaiya lowered her hand and met Nagato's eyes, smiling as she introduced herself, "My name's Nariaki Kaiya. And you?"

[Savepoison]

"So.." He says bluntly, sparking the lightning closer to her, awaiting a reaction to it, seeing if she could see it

[Borah]

Yuzuki glances from his expression to his hands. She slowly lets her flame expand around her. "Well aren't you considerate of others." She spat out, "What's your business with me?"

[Grey]

"Heh, Kurosaki Nagato at your service, ojou-chan" Nagato lied casually, using a randomly thought up name to exchange the relatively infamous surname of his. The first name was fine, as nobody had ever inquired about it anyway. Knowledge of his family's 'brand name' was usually enough to sway the opinions of clients positively. Besides, how much of a negative difference would giving a fake or real name even have? At least with the fake one, you can't just Google the name and find a bunch of new reports with his family name on it.

[Nicias Askani]

Kaji woke up from a chill down his spine. he glanced up at the board but it was blurry since his eyes were half open. he looked out the window but didnt see anything out of the ordinary. he scanned the class as he fixed his hair and noticed Yuzuki was missing from her seat. that's not normal

[Savepoison]

He stares down, letting his lightning fade "So you are a Guardian Aswell.." He murmurs, before staring up momentarily "I am a freelancer..You..?" He says, almost annoyed

[Tsuricube]

"Nice to meet you, Kurosaki-san," Kaiya said. Her shyness around Nagato seemed to have disappeared, and she found it easier and more comfortable to speak to him. Allowing her curiosity to take charge, she cheerfully asked, "So, what brings you to a town like this? You don't seem to be from around here."

If anything, Kaiya was confident when it came to knowing Namimori and the locals. She grew up knowing a lot of people; like the nice lady that owned a local cafe who invited her for snacks sometimes and even gave her discounts. Some of them she didn't know at a personal level. Wandering around the relatively small and peaceful town was one of her favorite pastimes, so she would learn people's names by simply overhearing them, and she would eventually put a face to a name. Or it could go the other way around. She remembered briefly wondering if it would be considered eavesdropping, but ended up shrugging it off nonchalantly.

[Borah]

"I am a freelancer..You..?" The stalker teacher said, "No one to your concern..." Yuzuki replied. She retracted her flame and stood up properly.

"Was there any reason to take me out of class for this?" She calmly asked looking at him dead in the eye. She patiently waited for his answer. She looked at her watch, '2:45...Schools almost over...' she thought. She lowered her arms and raised her head, still awaiting for his reason.

[Grey]

Nagato resisted the temptation of trolling harder by straight up telling the truth and saying 'Yeah, I'm an assassin for the mafia' and playing it off as a joke. Instead, rather than that, he chose to answer with a half-truth, "my mom and dad come here pretty often 'cause of their jobs and all." That wasn't really a lie... It was just he also came here for jobs. Alone. And his, as well as the rest of his family's, job involved being an assassin as previously mentioned.

"And yourself? You go to school here, but you don't seem to be a native," Nagato asked innocently.

[Tsuricube]

"Oh, I was actually born here, but I spent most of my childhood in Italy. We ended up moving back here, though. This is my parent's hometown," she readily explained, though she left out several details better left unsaid. Wanting to avert the conversation from the topic, Kaiya was inwardly dancing with joy at the resounding ring of the school bell, signalling the end of another school day.

"Oh- School's over, already?" she said with genuine surprise, turning towards the building where students began filling the first floor. She hadn't taken note of the time, and completely forgot about going to her afternoon classes. Darn! There goes her privileges...

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Kurosaki-san," she turned back to her new friend. "My sister is on her way to pick me up right now. We should chat again someday!"

[Nicias Askani]

Kaji stood up rudely "im going to the bathroom" and walked out the room with no regard for the infuriated teacher. He took his bat with him for good measure. As he walked out the door he notices yuzuki with some dude. awkward alert. "You alright Yuzuki?"