"Class, may I introduce Rei Tsunumari. She will be joining you starting today."
Rei bowed. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Miss Tsunumari, please find a seat."
Rei nodded and looked around the room. She saw a young blonde girl beaming at her and waving her over. She took a seat next to her.
"I'm Shiemi Moriyama."
"Nice to meet you."
Shiemi smiled at her.
Rei looked at Yukio Okumura, who was their instructor, as he began to lecture.
"Today will be practicing elemental magik, as well as learning the different techniques and what manner of being you can summon."
Rei's ears perked up immediately at that and she listened intently. They were to cast a simple elemental spell, more to summon a fragment of the element.
She looked around as some of the others started to cast their spells. One of them, a pink haired boy, tried to summon a flame with his k'rik but it backfired and the flame caught his friend's hair on fire. Rei reacted quickly, summoning her water magik and doused the flames. She hurried over to him to see if he was alright, but he glared at her as the boys started to laugh at him.
"You look like a raggedy, wet dog, Bon!" the pink haired boy said, trying to stifle his laughter. "My bad, man. At least the cute new girl was able to come to the rescue."
Bon glared at him, then turned his gaze onto Rei as she came up.
"Are you alright?" she asked, reaching a hand up to check his head for injuries.
Bon regarded her, his scowl growing as he slapped her hand away and stormed off.
'Is it because of my heritage..?' she wondered, knowing that her mixed blood- especially the demon blood- was clear as day.
"Don't worry about Bon, Rei." The pink haired boy said, coming over to her. "He's been in a grouchy mood for days."
"And before you think of saying it," a girl with small eyebrows said, "it isn't because of your demon blood. Lots of exorcists have demon and human blood."
Rei looked at her, then at another boy as he came up.
"Whoah, really? You have demon blood?"
Rei nodded. "My father was an exorcist of human and nekomata mixed blood and my mother was a full blooded naiad."
The boy looked at her, noticing that she had pointed ears and some feline like features while otherwise looking normal. "Awesome!"
"Which would explain you innate ability with water magik." the eyebrow girl said.
"It would make sense, though, why he'd dislike me for my demon blood." Rei said, sighing.
"Well, he lets something little like that bother him then it's his loss." the pink haired boy said, grinning. "The name is Shima!"
Rei felt a bit more welcomed by her classmates as they introduced the rest of themselves, but she couldn't help but wonder about Bon.
"Hey, Tsunumari!"
Rei turned to see Rin and the others approaching her. She smiled and waved, glad they were able to make it in time for the train. "You guys made it!"
Rin grinned. "Of course we did! Great idea getting everyone together to go see Kenroku-en, I've never been!"
Rei smiled. "Everyone has been working so hard lately, I thought it'd be nice to take advantage of a day off and lovely weather. Is everyone ready to go?"
Everyone nodded and filed onto the train as the last whistle for boarding sounded.
Rei was about to sit down, but she noticed she had dropped her bracelet outside on the platform. "Oh no!" She stood and pushed passed the others.
"Rei!"
Rei hurried out onto the platform, grabbing her bracelet and sighing with relief.
"Hey, Tsunumari! Hurry up or you're gonna miss the train!"
Rei looked up to see that Bon had come after her. She nodded and they turned to hurry back onto the train, but it was already pulling away from the station.
"Crap!"
Rei looked from the train to Bon, offering her hand. "Come on! We can still catch it!"
Bon hesitantly took her hand, blushing when he realized how cute she looked smiling at him like that.
Rei grasped his hand and they started running, but they weren't quite quick enough and the train was gaining speed. She looked back at Bon as they ran. "Do you trust me?"
Bon looked at her confused. "Yeah, why?"
"Don't let go of me!" She said, then summoned her water magik and lifted them both up on a platform of water. She grinned as she felt Bon tighten his grip on her hand and she urged the water to catch up to the train.
Bon looked around, afraid of falling off the platform to begin with, but he looked at Rei as she urged the water to move faster. She held her grasp on his hand firmly, looking back briefly with a smile to make sure he was OK.
Soon enough, they were able to catch up to the train and Rei landed them on the caboose's patio.
"That was fun!" Rei said, smiling. She looked down at her bracelet, seeing the clasp had broken. "Oh... well maybe there's a shop that can fix the clasp near the gardens."
"All that over a stupid bracelet?"
Rei looked up at Bon and shook her head. "It's not stupid."
Bon looked at her, seeing a sadness as she looked at the bracelet- a simple chain link bracelet with different charms, most of them being water related.
"It was my mother's. My father gave it to me when I was little, said she wanted me to have it before she died."
Bon rubbed his neck, feeling bad. "Hey, sorry... I didn't realize..."
Rei smiled at him. "It's OK, I'm just glad that I was able to find it." She turned to the door, facing away from him. "We should join the others."
Bon caught a glimpse of tears as Rei turned away and he sighed. 'What is it about this chick?'