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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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Careful with the blind girl's luggage, Chloe tilted her head slightly at the question, almost inquisitively. Clubs... that had been a slight sore spot for her. She didn't really like associating with people, and clubs made you do that. Whats worse, she was required to choose at least two; a sport and a cultural club. She frowned only slightly.

"... Judo and Music. Yourself?"

The question was more a matter of politeness, but she found deep down she was slightly interested in knowing the answer.

"Interesting. Guess music's self-explanatory after the piano thing," she replied. She held the door open for Abendroth. "Drama and swim." After a moment, she said, "Don't suppose I can shangai you into either?"

The German quickly shook her head at the offer before remembering that Haruka couldn't see her. Damnit, this was getting annoying.

"No."

Was her blunt reply. She quickly slipped through the door that Haruka held open for her, offering a small grunt of thanks. The ridiculously tall girl waited politely for Haruka to pass her and take up the lead again.

"Darn. Guess I'll have to shanghai some other impressionable first year," she replied, passing for Abendroth. She felt near the door for the floor map, taking her time as her fingers brushed over the wall and missed it by a few centimeters.

"Have you checked out the city yet?"

Chloe was patient. She didn't want to insult the girl by directing her hand or telling her which way to move; she figured that would be patronizing.

"No. It's... not my thing."

The German said, almost matter o' factly. The city had many things in it, but the most popular places she heard about were the night clubs and such. Yeah... definitely not her thing.

"Huh. What is your thing then?"

She kept feeling until her fingers caught on the board. She shuffled a little until her fingers read the general lay out and the direction her room would be. She lingered a bit longer even after she found her room so she could memorize the entire floor, before nodding and starting in the right direction.

What was her thing? The question gave her slight pause. What WAS her thing? Last time she checked she really didn't have one... music and cooking were pretty much the only things she excelled at besides physical endeavours. As the blind girl began to move so too did the German, almost as if on auto-pilot.

"...I don't have one."

She said truthfully, her eyes turning towards the room numbers so she could help Haruka find her room if she really did need it. Something told her she was just fine navigating by herself, however.

"Piano doesn't count?" Haruka asked, without missing much of a beat.

She was lightly dragging her fingers along the wall, feeling for when the wall gave way to doors. According to the layout that was the closet and the next door was where this side's dorm rooms started. It hadn't said one thing though...

"Which sides are odd and even numbers on?"

Did Piano count? She wasn't really sure. She mulled that thought over for a few moments before Haruka spoke again, this time asking for assistance. With a quick glance, the German gave her answer.

"The right is odd."

She said, looking down the hallway. She already knew roughly where the room would be, but that was fine. She would let Haruka discover it on her own. It was her room, after all, and she needed to know where it was instead of just being lead there.

Haruka nodded. "Thanks."

Her fingers continued to drag and she counted the doors: 502...504....506...508...

And then she stopped in front of the appropriate door. She turned to Abendroth and said, "Here we are?"

Chloe nodded before catching herself again.

"Yes. 510."

The German did not set down the luggage just yet. She would carry it in for the blind girl, but she needed to wait for her to unlock the door first. Chloe patiently watched the blind girl. She was very independent for someone that society perceived as "less-than-able". Hell, she was more independent than a lot of kids she had seen on campus already. Most of them looked to be rich kids from well-to-do families. With a silent nod, Chloe affirmed her approval of Haruka.

Haruka waited for a moment to see what would happen, but since she didn't hear movement, she unlocked the door and turned back, nodding gratefully.

"Thanks a lot for the help. Sorry for dripping on you again."

"Not a problem."

And really, it wasn't. She had been rained on before so a little water never hurt anyone. The German held the bag of luggage in one hand, but gently set it down on the floor by the door. IT would be rude to just enter the girl's dorm, even with the intent of helping her. Assume nothing. Instead, she stood politely next to the bag, waiting for whatever Haruka was going to do next. If she went to take the bag, Chloe would not object. Part of her hoped that Haruka would get into dry clothes soon lest she catch a cold; being sick during the first days of school would be a rather terrible first impression, she thought.

Haruka reached for the bag after she heard it set down. However, she didn't leave immediately. Instead, she just tilted her head again and asked,

"What do you think your thing might be?"

The tall girl was caught off guard by the sudden question that was dropped earlier. An uneasy silence was made apparent between the two of them as Chloe did her best to think about how to answer that question. What was her thing? Her niche? She didn't feel she had one... or deserved one for that matter. She could give her a sellout answer like 'oh, yeah, piano.' but she felt Haruka deserved more than that; she didn't feel like making stuff up for the blind girl.

"...perhaps I will find out."

The German said truthfully. Maybe she would find her thing here? She doubted it, but stranger things had happened before.

Haruka listened, and seemed to think on the answer before nodding.

"Interesting. How the hero's journey starts part of the time, right?" She shrugged a little. "Sounds fun."

Hero's journey? The tall girl's head tilted slightly, inquisitively, at the blind girl. Was she relating this to a fantasy book or something? She did say she was in drama, so perhaps she was the kind of person to relate things to stuff she understands? It was possible. After a few moments, she gave a very small shrug.

"I'm no hero."

While it did sound fun, that was for heroes, of which she most definitely was not. The girl placed her hands in her pockets awkwardly.

"Archetypes." Haruka shrugged again. "The story begins when a protagonist goes out on a journey or something or someone comes to town. The quest to find your thing sounds like a journey?"

Archetypes, huh. She wouldn't call herself a protagonist either. Chloe wouldn't even call herself a background character. really. Was there a tier below background character? Supporting character meant that you had some sort of usefulness, so that was out too. The way most people treated her in this school, she was some kind of antagonist. The scary gaijin out to ruin Japan's culture and to bring them to the precipice of destruction. Yup, that sounded about right. Instead of voicing all of this, however, Chloe simply shook her head.

"Perhaps."

"Maybe? No need to hurry to find it," Haruka replied. "Settling in and surviving first day sounds like an adventure enough."

She shrugged a little. She asked, after a moment,

"You were heading somewhere before I bumped into you?"

Chloe frowned somewhat. Surviving the first day... something told her that Haruka might not have known just how true those words actually were. At her next comment, the German looked up. Yes... she had been going somewhere, hadn't she? Ah, the cafeteria. She remembered now; she wanted to take a look at the facilities as well as the food they would be forcing down the student populaces' throats.

"... Taking a look at the Cafeteria."

"Probably should get around to that too." Haruka looked upwards before continuing, "After I stop dripping around.

"Shouldn't keep you any longer too."

Chloe nodded. She should let Haruka get settled into her dorm anyhow. Moving in could be rough, and she couldn't even imagine what it would be like for a blind person on their own. Something told her that Haruka would be just fine, however.

"It was... nice to meet you."

The German said awkwardly, unused to either using pleasant words in conversation, or saying things that were nice in general.

Haruka nodded with a smile. "Yeah, nice meeting you too. See you around?"

That smile threw her for a loop. A part of her always wondered if people meant it when they smiled at her. So far she couldn't detect any malicious intent behind it, but she had been wrong before... even so, the corner of Chloe's mouth twitched, as if trying to smile and failing.

"Sure."

With that the German nodded her head politely even if the blind girl could not see it, and retreated back down the stairs.

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