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Who: The Chitoku inaugural class.
Where: Chitoku campus, various locations.
When: Sunday, April 3, 2022, two days before the start of spring term.
What: The school has opened its doors.

After eight years of careful planning and preparation, the campus of Chitoku Academy for the Gifted was coming alive at last. Helpful staff members had been posted everywhere in anticipation of the crowd, and seemingly every variable had been accounted for in order to make the move-in and initial orientation go as smoothly as possible...

Save, that is, for the weather.

The sky had just opened up on several hundred students and their families. Boxes and suitcases were being hastily hauled to whatever shelter could be found, with the aforementioned helpful staff members now acting as guides to the most convenient locations, and clusters of people seemed to naturally form around them, waiting for the downpour to slacken so the day could proceed.

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There was a few moments of peace for Mirai to enjoy his title. He rolled the sound of it on his tongue. He was used to being mistaken for an older man now. He could have set people straight, but he of course did not reveal anything so undramatic and true. The emotion in his eyes grew distant and dark and out of sight,

"I can direct you to Yanagi - if you want. You were heading the right way. You were just a little off the beaten path."

Haruka tilted her head slightly.

"Huh. Felt like the middle of the road." She seemed to regard this a moment longer before continuing, "Sure. Which way?"

Mirai turned and waved a hand over his shoulder - he would have looked like a teacher no matter what he was doing. He was tucking the student card into the gap between the buttons of his shirt and walking slowly. He shot a curious glance back at the blind girl.

"It's back here. I think you might have to slow down in a while. It's quite crowded."

"'Kay." She nodded and following, shoes starting to slosh as she walked. She guesstimated how far ahead he was compared to her and her guess was fairly accurate. She ended up trailing a short distance behind and beside him before slowing down.

"That many people still out?"

"Enough so that they threw me out to come help the stragglers at the back of the herd," Mirai said.

He slowed down again so the girl could catch up. He could see how people might want to ask questions of her all day, but be unable to see past her blindness. But how fortunate he was to have all her attention to himself.

"Baaah," Haruka bleeted with a slight smile. She slowed down a bit more when her foot almost slipped, but nodded.

"Sucky. So said Ihoji-sensei. Unpaid and unappreciated huh?"

Mirai shook the rain off his umbrella. "Well, my life can be hard. I am sure an improvement will occur." He held it back a little, invitingly. "You don't have an umbrella or a hood, poor thing. Would you care to shelter from the rain?"

"A bit like closing the door after the tornadoes gone by," Haruka replied, gesturing to her appearance: long wet hair sticking to her face, neck and shoulders; her clothing completely soaked and stuck to her (though nothing indecent, save the tank top straps peeking near her neck); water sloshing from her shoes; and water dripping from everywhere all over her. However,

"But sure. Why not?"

She stepped closer, until she started feeling drops hitting her less. She tilted her head again, head turned right in Mirai's direction.

"Though in another story, this would be fulfilling a pretty inappropriate trope."

Some rain started soaking Mirai's hair as he got caught outside the scope of his umbrella. He could feel that it was trickling down the sides of his face, down his nose. He wiped it from his eyes and shook out his hair.

"If it was something I didn't find contemptible, it would be."

Shizuru had a feeling that was all the answer she'd be getting. Boring.

The legs of her front chair abruptly clattered to the floor as she swung forward and up. Mid-stretch, she peered down at Miyume.

"Gonna check the rest out. Wanna come?" she hazarded, though she had a feeling the answer would be "no".

"Yep." Haruka said with a nod. "This is just the story of a lost member of the herd and the unpaid, under appreciated, downtrodden staff. Baaah."

She followed his lead, concentrating on where the rain seemed to hit more. After a moment, she asked, "Who're you?"

"I should have introduced myself. I'll be leading the archery club. Imaizuki Mirai. 3rd year student." He chose to tell the truth, simply because he knew the power of control that came from using no deception. "Forgive the deception, but it was just too funny."

Mother won't approve.

Miyume's initial thought was quickly dismissed, though not without a strong twinge of guilt. And it was as she'd told her mother earlier, she felt fine. No pins-and-needles, no numbness, and no pain. Maybe she was a little fatigued but that was normal for a big day such as this, right?

"Okay," Miyume replied, rising from her chair and grabbing her cane in one fluid movement.

"I'm really not hard to get along with, Mirai-san. My heart's on my sleeve twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. What you see is what you get -- life's too short for me to do much else. You'll hear a lot of shit about me, and you can believe it, or not believe it. Somewhere between 40-60% might even be true."

Taue grinned, executing a slight bow.

"You know what they say, right? You never get another chance to make a first impression? I've got mine of you. You've got mine of me. They could both be right, one right one wrong, or both wrong. All we can do is find out, really. Did you get your stuff set up back in the room yet?"

Huh. She hadn't expected the girl to actually surprise her.

She stuck her arms through the coat's too-long sleeves, peering down at Miyume through her perpetually half-lidded eyes. "You okay in the rain?" And then her eyes fell on the cane. "And with that?" she added, jerking her chin towards it, her arms being preoccupied at the moment.

"I'll be fine," Miyume reassured her with a sweet smile. "A little water won't make me melt."

She tapped her cane once on the floor.

"Oh, this? I don't always need to use this but my mother insisted I bring it."

Another twinge of guilt and another dismissal.

Haruka stopped abruptly.

She had an unreadable expression on her face, aimed in Imaizuki's direction...she sighed softly, and then her face warped to seething fury, scathing rage in her voice,

"Oh, of course it'd be hilarious for you. Wouldn't it be funny to play up the poor blind girl's mistake? Let's see how long it takes for her to realize and oh god it's hilarious great she can't see me barely being able to hold in my laughter!"

She glared at him for a moment longer....

....And then she started laughing.

"That's what I would say if I were more sensitive," Haruka said, all the fury and rage gone. "This probably is something out of a sitcom, complete with misunderstandings and trickery."

She shrugged. "My bad. Again."

Mirai listened and didn't react to the display of anger. "Well," he said, "leaving aside the fact your blindness is no problem to me, I've always thought I'd try to get away with it if I had the chance. Really, I never thought I'd meet somebody who takes it seriously."

He shrugged, and held the umbrella a little higher so it covered both their heads. "A harmless bit of fun. I would be happy to carry back your luggage if you like."

"Darn. Curse my trusting nature and assumptions based on voices," Haruka replied, wiping a long strand out of her face. "Was I really heading in the wrong direction?

"Oh, if you're offering." She pushed the roller handle back down and held it out to him slightly.

Mirai took it and pulled up the handle, half-rolling, half-dragging the luggage across the rainy path. He switched the umbrella to his right hand. As he pulled, the weight became easier. Its gravity settled. Its wheels cruised, and he stared down, as if he was worried Haruka was going down the wrong path, as though wherever she was going she was escaping from him.

"I am surprised. I would never have thought people would abandon you to do this yourself."

"Too busy hurrying out of the rain," Haruka replied easily enough. "Maybe I should have looked more like a sad, lost puppy more would have come biting."

Not that she'd had a reason to look like one.

"Must have gotten settled in early if you had enough time to come out here to help the lost."

"Well, I work hard and strike whilst the iron's hot, so the saying goes."

He stared ahead at the girl's dorm in the distance.

"I rise early too... although that meaning is probably a little inappropriate. I'm sorry."

"Accepted," Haruka said. "No one back at the guy's dorms needed help? No where dryer than out here?"

Mirai enjoyed some silence for a little while.

"Not really. And at what time do you rise?"

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