Saturday quickly arrives and Tsukasa is laying on his bed, bored out of his mind.
"I've still got around six hours till we have to meet up." He says. He gets up and decides to go for a short run.
As he leaves his room, he sees shinomiya and Nana leaving their room. He tries to greet them with a smile but Shinomiya brushes him off.Nana however, returns the greeting, walking up to him as he does so.
"Your name was, Murusaki correct?"
"Elodea, Nana Elodea. But you can just call me Nana. It's a pleasure to meet you." She answered. She asks why he was awake at that hour and he says that he decided to go for a little run. He asks why they were up at that hour and Nana, before answering, glances at Shinomiya.
"We were just going to get some water from the vending machine downstairs." She answers.
"Oh I see." He says.
They decide to walk downstairs together.
"By the way murusaki-kun, how come you and sakuraba are so close?" She asks
"She's my next door neighbor. That and our parents were best friends back in their day. Naturally we Greg up together and became close. But that's all we are."
"Really." Nana says.
"You sound disappointed." He says
"Well of course I am. You're saying there isn't any childhood friends romance going on." She asks interogatively, to which the answer is a firm no.
Tsukasa then asks another question.
"She seems to dislike me for some reason." He whispers, pointing at Shinomiya, who is walking in front of the two.
"Don't mind her. She just doesn't like men in general. In other words. She just doesn't like the fact that you're a guy is all." She says
"You make that seem like a normal thing to say. In any case, I won't try finding out why, just so long as I haven't offended her." He says.
Nana shoots him a side eye, leading him to ask why she's looking at him like that. She just tells him not to mind her and they continue to the ground floor.
"Well. I guess I'll see you guys later." He says.
"Yeah. See you later." Nana enthusiastically responds. Shinomiya however, she just glares at him.
He pays her no mind and goes on a short run. As he is running, his thoughts drift back to the day of the admission exams. He remembers how he almost got hit by a spirit, but Nana saved him. Kijiri and Shinomiya also had to step in as well.
"It's not like I chose not to fight."
His mind goes back to when he first saw everyone's weapons. He wondered what weapon he'd get from his conduit.
He began to focus on activating his conduit but.
".." his thoughts begin to spiral.
Nothing happened....? But.... Why. Did I do it wrong. Maybe I have to think of a weapon to construct, no that's not right either. It's their first time using conduits right?
Right at that moment, a spirit lunged at him from behind.
*That's right....in that moment. I felt so... Hopeless, so weak.*
He returns to the present and stops at a hill. He looks at the sight of what looks to be the Academy from the hill. The sight leaves him momentarily stunned. As the wind blows in his hair, he takes a final look at his new temporary home before heading back to the hotel.
He returns to the hotel around 2 hours later.
"Where've you been all morning?" Fumia asks
"Just out for a run is a"quite the early bird we have here." Fumia says
"Yeah yeah" Tsukasa responds.
The two decide to go have breakfast, where they meet Homura, another one of Tsukasa's classmates. When they first arrived at the hotel, he was supposed to share a room with Tsukasa and Fumia, but since Serena was absent, he took that room for himself.
"Hey man, morning." Fumia says.
Homura simply gives him a thumbs up and continues stuffing his face with food. Fumia and Tsukasa just both smile awkwardly and grab some food. As they eat, they argue on which is better between mustard and ketchup. The argument gets pretty heated as they continue, Nana buts in
"What about mayonnaise!" She says with her usual enthusiasm. Tsukasa and Fumia both glance at each other.
"Yeah..... No" They say in unison.
Fast forward to the meet up time and the guys are all waiting for the girls.
"Their waking forever...." Tsukasa complains
"Just be patient man." Fumia tells him. Homura doesn't really seem to care, stuffing his face with snacks. Fumia tells at him to stop eating but Homura just continues. Shortly after this, someone calls out to them.
"Hey! Sorry, did you wait long?"
"Yes. Yes we did." Tsukasa says.
"Tsuki~ That's where you're supposed to lie and say you didn't." Kijiri tells him.
"Huh. Why would I do that."
Shinomiya buts in and tells everyone to enter the cafe. The Each have a seat and first things first, introductions.
"I'll go first. The names Takaharu Fumia. I'm 18 years old and I like basketball and soccer. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"I'm Tsukasa Murusaki and I'm 17 years old. Uum... I like to eat and sleep."
Everyone stares at him silently for a moment.
"Yeah. You seem like the type." Shinomiya says. Tsukasa doesn't know whether to take that as a compliment or not.
"Anyway, I'm Haru Shinomiya. Same age as Takaharu. My family owns a dojo and I have lived my whole life by the sword."
"Oh~ that's pretty cool actually."
"Yeah yeah." She responds.
"Okay I'm next I'm next. My Name's Nana Elodea. My father was foreign, hence the surname. I like cute things, sweet things, and fun things. I'm 16 years Old. Nice to meet you all."
"I guess I'm next. I'm kaede Nozomi. I'm 16 years old. I'm hella into games so, let's all play together sometime."
"Oh really, what games do you play." Nana asks
"Now's not the time Nana." Shinomiya. Nana pouts but agrees to wait untill after introductions are done.
"Hello there. I'm kijiri sakuraba. Nice to meet you all. I'm about to turn 16 years old."
"Alright that just leaves one more." Nana says.
They all look to see Homura eating more snacks. He stops chewing for a moment, realizing it's his turn to speak. Tsukasa and Fumia say it's not use, seeing as how hi is always eating. To their shock however. He stands up, surprising the two.
"Yo. Ryusei Homura. I like food."
After this he sits back down and continues eating.
"Alright. Now that that's out of the way. Do you guys have anywhere you wanna go?" Fumia asks.
"Well I wanna see the aquarium." Shinomiya says. Nana chimes in, saying she also wants to go. Nozomi says she wants to visit the arcade.
"Well I was thinking of watching a movie." Kijiri says.
"Well. Anything In mind Tsukasa?" Fumia asks.
"I was thinking the same as Kijiri."
"Alright then. I guess we've got a lot to do today." He says.
"We'd better get going then." Shinomiya says. The group stands up to leave, but before they can do that.
"Hey. Where's Homura?"
They look around and see him buying more snacks. Fumia forcefully drags him away from the snack bar, as if he were some sort of man-child. The group then sets off to complete all the tasks they had for the day.
The first place they went was the aquarium. They were entranced by all of the marine life that they saw. Especially Tsukasa, Nozomi and Nana as it was theri first time. Homura was looking at a penguin with a fish in its mouth. Fumia made a a comparison. Saying the two look alike. They next went to the arcade. They enjoyed the fighting and racing games. There were some dancing games aswell. Nozomi dominated in every field besides dancing. Kijiri however, was quite good at dancing. They went to a movie theatre where they watched a romance movie. Most of the boys fell asleep during the movie. Homura was eating their popcorn as they slept. The other two woke up furious about their popcorn, Tsukasa having to hold Fumia back. They played a few more crane games at the arcade before finally heading back to the hotel. They say their goodbyes and leave to their respective rooms.
"Man. I'm beat." Fumia says.
"Same." Tsukasa responds.
"Today was a lot more fun than I thought it'd be."
Tsukasa just stares blankly at the ceiling. He seems to be lost in thought.
"Hey. Don't ignore me." Fumia says, slightly irritated.
"Oh. My bad. What were you saying again?"
Fumia sighs, saying it wasn't that important.
"But I did enjoy the day. Thanks Fumia." Tsukasa says, smiling at his friend.
"No problem man."
The two then turn off the lights and go to sleep. As the room goes black, Tsukasa's eyes close slowly.
Somewhere else in the city. Someone is sitting on a building, wearing a hoodie over their head.
"Are you going to stay sitting here all night?" A woman says to him.
He stays silent for a brief moment.
"I'm just taking in the beautiful sight of he city."he responds.
The woman approaches him from behind, turning out to be the same woman that attacked the school.
"You do realize we have work to do right?" She says.
"Yes yes I'm aware."
He stands up after saying this. He then turns to look at her.
"You really need to learn to relax more." He says.
"Shut up and go do your job."
He just smiles at her and walks backwards to the edge of the building.
"Well I guess I'll see you later then."
Without another word, he falls off the building, leaving her in the rooftop.
She sighs to herself.
"That guy is seriously annoying."