harmonize_rpg | (no subject)

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(no subject)

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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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?"

"Late. I like my slumber," She replied. Then, she turned her head skywards as she seemed to think on something, and seemed to remember something.

"It's part of of expression, right? 'Early to rise, quick to give out' so late to rise would be the opposite."

Something about that made Mirai sigh lazily. One could see that there was a small smile on the corners of his lips. His nose wrinkled, and it sneezed, because it had just caught a stream of the rain. He wiped it off with the back of his hand and gave a slight laugh, as if whatever joke the girl had been making had just come to him.

"Well, that sort of humour is something for older people. I didn't think young ladies like yourself were so untoward."

"It seemed juvenile enough for a young lady to get away with," Haruka replied. "I'm terrible at being a young lady sometimes anyway." She shrugged, but said, respectfully, "But sorry if it offends you, senpai."

Mirai practically smiled at her. "Thank you. If being terrible was something you do in jest, it would be distasteful," he said, "but you are just fortunate that I am a very good senpai, who must guide, protect, and teach my kouhai as best I can."

"Huh. Lucky me," Haruka said. "I confess. I do things like this in jest occasionally so I guess that'd make me a terrible kouhai and a terrible young lady." She shrugged. "Though if I were worse, I'd bleach my hair, take up smoking, skip classes, pick some fights, and sneak into night clubs."

Mirai shrugged at that and picked up his pace a little. Then he shook the umbrella and scattered the rain atop it. A vigorous shake would hide at least some of his amusement, simply because he would move it off her head to let some of the rain come pelting down.

"Well, the world is full of bad girls. All over the place. Better not say you want to be one to someone else, kouhai. But if it is something you would ever do, let me know. Just give me a few hours, and I'll come and protect you."

He stared at her from under the shelter. Then he brought it back lazily. Upon his lips, lightly drawn, was a wry smile. He hadn't figured out how to skip classes yet.

"Really?" Haruka asked with a tilted head, appearing like a curious puppy. "So if I go bleach my hair you'll come save me from my scalp burning or a horrendous hair job?"

She shrugged. "I don't want to be one. It just sort of happens."

"Well, everybody's a little wicked. You don't have to be ashamed of who you are. So don't look worried, kouhai. I know the staff would be happy to be ashamed for you."

Mirai turned around on his heel and extended the umbrella again.

"And I will come save you, swiftly - and like a good teacher I'll make sure you dye it right. If it was done bad, it would be horrendous. Really, I would try to stop you first. But I always try to make the best of a bad situation."

"Guess they would be. Once they're done yelling at me for shaming them and calling me an ingrate for making thing inconvenient." She looked upwards. "Or I might get off with a slap on the wrist. The poor, blind girl clearly didn't know what she was getting into.

"Good trait to have. Much like playing with a poor girl's misconception."

"Thank you. But there is some truth in what you see. It's not always easy to explain why I enjoy playing a game where the prize is more than I can afford to lose." He looked at Haruka with a disarming smile. "I like having someone walk beside me. I hope you do too."

If she didn't, he could find more who would. There were simply far more people at this school.

"It's not bad," Haruka replied. "I'm dryer now."

However, she smiled, as though sensing his. "And why not? If they keep it interesting."

"Right."

Mirai sounded distracted. There was a small silence when he stopped walking; his heels were no longer clicking the path. He let go of the trolley. His thoughts were caught in a moment of realisation. Then they were circling around what Haruka had said.

He was already moving the umbrella from over her, and he left her standing in the rain, wet, horrible and useless.

"I shall keep it interesting, never fear."

Something was lurking in the back of him. His pleasant smile had been replaced by a soulless one, and there was a defiant malevolence in his eyes - an unpleasant sight.

Haruka felt the umbrella disappear and herself back under the roaring downpour. Instead of anger or even annoyance or depression, she just looked upwards as rain pelted her face and her hair. She seemed to be thinking on something before she turned back to Imaizumi's direction.

Her eyes were open, revealing unfocused light brown eyes. She said simply,

"Interesting."

She walked forward a little, but she wasn't looking for the umbrella. Instead, she felt for her bag's handle, which she knew was around him.

Mirai's smile broadened - which made it even more unpleasant. He stepped back, standing between the trolley and Haruka. While her bag had been behind him, it had not been so directly out of reach.

"... You were already wet?"

Now he sounded confused and unable to understand the problem. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot. The rain would not have made one spot of difference.

Haruka heard him move and stopped for a moment with her cane. It might have been unsettling for someone who wasn't used to it: how she seemed to be searching for something as her head moved but her eyes seemed to drift in the wrong direction.

"Yeah, pretty much soaked. So no biggie." She felt around with her cane as she walked, stepping around Mirai but missing her bag. After a moment, she asked, speaking as though nothing happened,

"Which clubs are you in aside from archery?"

Slowly, Mirai moved out of the way and sighed. But he raised his umbrella, giving her shelter with the expectation his offering would be reciprocated.

"Either you're being nosy or you're more blind than I think. Why do you want to know?"

Regardless, his offer was cruel - he gave something but demanded answers. Simply, he reveled in making people do what he wanted.

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