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@Mistress Dizzy
Igarashi Akio looked out over the city from the mountain he’d climbed, a bright smile on his face. True, it may not be quite as wild and rugged as back home, but this wasn’t too bad. If nothing else, he could say for certain that this spot let him see a hell of a sunrise.
Yep, not too bad at all…
That being said, part of him worried that he might not get much chance to see it again. Due to a combination of his farm boy childhood and excitement for the coming day, he’d had a pretty restless sleep, and eventually gave up on it just before four. After a large, hearty breakfast, he’d decided he might as well spend his free time exploring, which had led him to his impromptu hike. He’d made it to a good position just as the sun was coming up, and he had been sitting there ever since, enjoying the view with a snack he’d prepared before leaving.
And then he was distracted by a ringing in his pocket, and he pulled out a small, battered flip-phone that looked almost comically small in his hand.
“Yo, Aka-nee!” He said cheerfully.
“Aint’cha up a little earlier than usual?”“Well, I figured I’d better check up on you, make sure you hadn’t seen something shiny and chased after it instead of going to school.”
“Oh, yeah, I guess that’s pretty smart. I’m not even there yet, I’m up on one of the mountains!”There was a moment of silence as Ki waited for his sister to say something, the only sounds being those of the wind and the morning birds.
“Are you serious?” An unsettlingly quiet voice came from the phone. “Ki, you have to be at school by 8:45.”
“What time’s it now?”“8:05!”
“Huh, so the odds of me gettin’ there on time ai-”“Aren’t great, no. You might be able to make it if you run, but please, for gods sake, don’t run down the mounta-”
“Sorry Aka-nee, I’m gonna need to hang up if I wanna get down fast enough! See ya!”Any further protests were ignored as Akio closed his phone, stuffed the remaining piece of toast in his mouth, and started sprinting down the hiking trail as fast as he could. It was only a lifetime of practice that kept him from tumbling over and rolling down the rest of the mountain. By 8:25, he’d made it back into the city. Thankfully, it shouldn’t have been too far from there to the school. He’d just need to turn right at the coming corner, and then it should be a straight run to the sch-
And then he was face down on the ground, toast gracefully gliding away from his mouth to land in a nearby puddle. For a second, he thought he’d been hit by a cyclist, something that had actually happened a few times since he first arrived a few days ago, but something about this felt… heavier.
"Oh god, he's dead." Of all the things to happen on their first day of new school, murdering a pedestrian was not on Jin's list.
Early that morning, Jin was up and in their uncle's garage as usual. Their pants and blazer hung pressed and waiting on a hanger. Their tools were spread out neatly on a cloth, and their neighbors ancient PC sat on the table in front of them. “Come on, you old bear. I have to get you working now, otherwise I don’t get paid.” The innards of the PC had been carefully removed, cleaned and scanned for viruses. So
many viruses. Now all that was left was to get the darn thing up and running.
“I swear, you are worse than a fax machine.” Jin spoke to the computer as they worked, putting back one part after another.
“Why the Tohsaka’s can’t just get a new damn PC is just beyond me. You are probably older than I am.” All the parts were now in place, power was running, but the monitor screen stayed dead.
“Ohh, no you don’t.” With one hand, Jin applied a judicious amount of percussive maintenance. In other terms, they gave the computer a solid thump with the heel of their hand. The old fan whirred to life and the computer began it’s booting process, leaving Jin relieved and grinning.
“Jin, you are going to be late.” JIn’s uncle Takumi passed by the garage, also preparing for his day. “It’s your first day, you have to make a good impression.”
“I am not going to be late. It’s 20 minutes tops, by bike.” Jin did get up though, yanking their uniform from where her aunt had hung it so carefully. They took ten rapid steps to their room, closing the door and getting dressed as quickly as possible. Then they stepped out with a suitcase, looking for anything they might have missed while packing. Sunday clothes, toothbrush, this years copies of Electronics Monthly, laptop, everything seemed to be in place.
“I worry about you on that old thing. Don’t take any major highways.” He said with a little huff. The argument about the bike was a longstanding one, but nothing either of them could get into now.
“Yes, Uncle.” Now it was Aunt Akemi’s turn, as she tied Takumi’s necktie as she had every day for 35 years.
“Try to make friends this time, Jin.” She admonished gently.
“No fighting.” “Yes, Auntie. But I can’t promise no fighting. I won’t start any, but I’ll end ‘em fine.” Jin’s eyes narrowed as they struggled with the uniform tie.
“We love you very much, dear. Be careful not to let your reputation follow you.” Akemi stepped over to help her sister’s only child, swiftly doing up the necktie with ease.
“No one can know you were kicked out of your old school. Think of what they’ll say?!” “Yes, Auntie.” Jin said dutifully, trying not to groan. [color=92278f]“I’ll be as good as I can be.”[color]
Takumi huffed again, but smiled briefly. “Close enough.”
Goodbyes were said, tears were shed, and then Jin was off, suitcase tied to an old 1970’s mini bike. Everything seemed fine for the first ten minutes, until one of the straps holding the suitcase in place snapped free. Jin swore and twisted back in the seat, trying to hold it in place. Suitcase and student wobbled, and then before they could fall-
Jin hit someone.
"Hey, big guy!" Jin got off their bike with no small amount of panic, lifting their riding goggles. [color= 92278f] "Are you alright? Please be alright, I am so sorry, my brakes are slow and I couldn’t reach the horn in time…" [/color]
“I’m up!” Ki shouted suddenly, sitting up at an almost inhuman speed as a small amount of blood started flowing down the middle of his face from a gash on his forehead.
“”I’m fine, I’m good, I’m up!”He looked around from his spot on the ground, and eventually saw the person who hit him with their… Oh wow, he got hit by a
motorbike this time… That was a new one.
“Ah, hey!” He said, giving them a wave.
“Sorry about that, I wasn’ really lookin’ where I was goin’, ‘s your bike ok?”Jin exhaled with relief as the large boy sat up and started talking. And bleeding.
"The bike has been through worse, I promise." They returned and righted the vehicle, yanking a thankfully clean buffing cloth from the back case.
"Here, don't get blood on your shirt." Only then did Jin realize that they were wearing the same blazer.
"Wait a minute, don't tell me you go to the Meadow Ridge Institute?" Imagine their luck, running into ( literally) a fellow student before the day even began. There went trying for a new reputation. They had gone from delinquent first-year to vehicular manslaughter!
“Hmm? Oh!” Akio said as the… maybe girl… handed him a cloth of some kind to help wipe up the blood, which had begun to try and leak into his eye.
”Thanks! Dunno if it’ll get all of it though, head cuts bleed a heckuva lot, even when they aren’t that bad.”As if to demonstrate this, the attempts he made to dab the blood away seemed to do little to nothing to stop the blood from flowing. Eventually, he just decided to fold it into a thin band, tying it around his forehead to cover the injury. The blood was still visible as it seeped into the fabric of course, but at least it wasn’t flowing down his face like it had been before.
”Uh, you wouldn’t mind if I borrowed this for a bit, wouldja? If I went into school with blood pourin’ down my face, they might think I’m some kinda bad guy or somethin’.”And then she noticed his uniform and asked if he was also going to meadowridge, causing a grin to stretch across his face when he came to the same realisation.
”Oh yeah, you’re right! Looks like we might be classmates!”He held out his hand to shake.
”The names Akio! Igarashi Akio! Most’a my friends call me Ki though!”However, before their conversation could continue, Akio’s eyes widened.
”Wait, school! Late! I’m runnin’ late! We’re runnin’ late! We’ve gotta hurry, or else me lookin’ like a hooligan’ll be the least’a our problems!”“Takahashi Jin!” Jin shook his hand, and then realized the time as well. Igurashi-san was right, they needed to go. Jin righted their bike and gestured to the back.
“Hop on! I promise I’ll go slowly, but it’ll still be faster than walking.” Jin was genuinely surprised that the boy was not making a huge deal of things. They were relieved, too, because there was no good way to explain to Auntie and Uncle that they’d been dumb enough to hit a pedestrian. That would mean no bike, and no bike meant no freedom.
“Thanks for not freaking out on me. Now let’s get to school on time!” “Sounds like a plan, let’s get goin’!”As he spoke, Ki jumped onto the back of the bike, and was pleasantly surprised when the vehicle barey seemed to lower under his weight. Guess he should just expect stuff like that from big city engineering, huh?
It took just a couple of minutes for the two to make it to the school, but he waited around while Jin made sure nobody could steal it, hopping nervously from foot to foot. Part of him said he should have just run to the assembly, which they were currently missing considering his phone said it was 8:55, but he would’ve felt too guilty if he’d left her behind, especially considering he was the reason she was late in the first place.
As soon as she was done, he started running again, but slowed to a stop almost immediately when he realised that, even if he made it to the assembly, it’d practically be over.
“I… I think we missed it.” He sighed, and sure enough, he could already see students leaving what he was guessing was the auditorium.
“Well, thanks for gettin’ me here so quick!. Sorry that I kept ya from gettin’ here on time though. I owe ya.”He looked in the direction of the other students.
“Anyway, I guess we’d better get to minglin’! Sign up for some clubs an’ stuff, ya know? You just come find me if ya need a favour, an’ I’ll do what I can to help and repay ya for today! See ya Takajin!”And then he finished dusting off his clothes as best he could and ran over to the crowd. He’d noticed some pretty interesting clubs on the schools list, and damn it, he wasn’t gonna miss out on any of them if he could help it!
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