Meeting Rei Ryugazaki was not an outstanding event, nor was it stupendous in a way that was even remotely befitting what followed.

It was perfectly ordinary as far as meetings go, a little stiff for Nagisa's tastes. There were quite a few Iwatobi students taking the train to the high school, and there was plenty of nervous chatter filling the compartment as first-years speculated on what classes they would be assigned to and who their teachers would be. Nagisa was eager to join in, and had been talking idly with two fellow first-year girls before he'd noticed him. It wasn't as if Rei gave off an aura of importance or possessed a charm that Nagisa was unable to resist. It was because he was alone, (and Nagisa disliked loneliness,) eyes peering down purposefully at a book that was nestled in one hand, its spine bent in a way that suggested it had been read numerous times.

Nagisa scooted down the seat, filling the space to the boy's left. The dark-haired boy didn't so much as twitch, not even an eye-dart in Nagisa's direction.

"Hi," Nagisa said, sitting on his hands and swinging his feet. "I'm Hazuki Nagisa. You're a first year too, right?"

No movement. In fact, there was no indication that the boy had even heard him until finally his lips parted and a disinterested sound escaped.

"Whatever gave it away." came his stiff reply, eyes still set on his book. The sarcasm was lost on Nagisa.

"Your tie!" Nagisa chirped with a laugh. "Are you nervous about the opening assembly? I wonder what class I'll be in. I think that's important, what class you're in. I mean, you have to see those people every day, you know?"

"It hardly matters," the boy continued. "Furthermore, please stop talking to me. Your voice is exhausting to listen to."

Nagisa fell into a stunned silence. It wasn't as if he had never been spoken to like that before, or that he expected everyone he met to be overly jovial. He had experienced bullying, but this wasn't that. It was defensive, a reflex, like he had hit just the right spot on the boy's knee to cause the leg to jerk. He didn't seem cruel, standoffish perhaps, preoccupied, but there was nothing to be done about that and it really wasn't any of Nagisa's business. He sputtered an apology and skillfully maneuvered back to his previous companions.

He glanced at Rei Ryugazaki once more, several minutes later, and with his eyes he traced a bubble around the boy that spanned several feet in all directions. If he stared long enough, he was sure that the bubble was real, in some form.

.

.

.

The opening assembly was as boring as Nagisa assumed it would be. Three quarters of the principals speech went completely ignored as Nagisa let his attention wander, too busy looking around at all of the other students and subtly waving to a few people he recognized from his middle school.

Students filed out of the gym, chatting and laughing, and Nagisa once again caught sight of the taller bespeckled boy he'd seen on the train. He was walking in that bubble again, eyes trained forward, jaw set, expression neutral. In moments he was lost in the crowd, and Nagisa nearly plowed over a second-year trying to follow his trail.

"Hey," came a voice from behind him just after Nagisa apologized to the girl he'd almost knocked over, "Hazuki, right?"

Nagisa turned, his face lighting up in recognition. "Tsutomu-kun?" he asked, hoping that he was right. He usually was, he was good with faces.

The brunette smiled. "You do remember! Long time no see."

"I haven't seen you since elementary school, how have you been?" Nagisa asked excitedly.

"As good as can be expected. We're in the same high school with a lot of people from the elementary school. You went to a different middle school then most of us, huh?"

"Yeah, and I missed you guys. It kind of sucked sometimes, being the only one that went to a different school." Nagisa laughed awkwardly.

"But now you're at Iwatobi with everyone again, so that's good, right?" Tsutomu reasoned.

"I guess."

"Hey, so," Tsutomu pushed a little closer to Nagisa, directing the both of them into the flow of human traffic. "I saw you talking to Ryugazaki on the train."

"You were taking the train too? I didn't even notice!" Nagisa exclaimed. He frowned. "Who's Ryugazaki?"

"Wa- Seriously, you don't know?" Tsutomu stopped, clamping a hand down on Nagisa's shoulder.

"Know what?"

"That guy you were talking to, mister High-and-Mighty with his nose stuck in a book? That was Ryugazaki Rei. No wonder you were talking to him, shit, you don't even know about him, huh?"

Nagisa stared at Tsutomu imploringly, large pink eyes blinking daftly.

"Okay, so, that guy was kind of notorious at the middle school. He's as asshole, you understand? He didn't have a single friend. Every girl that ever confessed to him, he shot her down before she could even finish her sentence. Once, a girl left him a love letter in his shoe locker, and he returned it to her ripped in half."

"Mmmhmm," Nagisa hummed, arms crossed, "I get it, he's an asshole. That isn't really a surprise or anything, I sort of figured out that bit on my own. He's actually notorious for that?"

Tsutomu shook his head, and his face screwed up with the intensity of telling something akin to a ghost story. "No, he's notorious for being bad luck."

"Bad luck?" Nagisa repeated, cocking his head.

"Apparently when he was in elementary school he had to switch schools six times, because whenever he got close to anyone, really bad things would start happening to them. It's like he's jinxed."

Nagisa shoved Tsutomu in the shoulder, throwing him off balance. "Come on," he laughed.

Tsutomu shoved back. "I'm being serious!" he said earnestly. "He curses people or something! There was talk of black magic shit in middle school, no joke."

"He doesn't really look like the black magic type," Nagisa giggled, shaking his head.

"Hey, I'm giving you friendly advice, here. Leave that guy alone, just don't talk to him." he groaned exaggeratingly. "I mean, girls are stupid, they follow him all over the place regardless of what a dick he is. They dig that whole aloof, forbidden love bullshit. But there's no reason for you to go getting cursed, too."

"No one's getting cursed!" Nagisa laughed. "I mean, thanks for worrying, but I wasn't trying to be his best friend, or anything like that. I was just making conversation."

"I bet that went real dandy."

"Heh… Yeah," Nagisa said, his head turning automatically in the direction that he'd seen Ryugazaki walk off earlier.

Bad luck and jinxes were fun to talk about, and convenient to blame everyday occurrences on, but they weren't real, not really. And even if Ryugazaki thought it was true himself, wouldn't his abrasive behavior be an effort to keep other people safe? No, it was much more likely that he was your run-of-the-mill, anti-social loner. Whoever he was, it had nothing to do with Nagisa, so there was really no point in thinking about it.

As the sea of students started clearing, Nagisa and Tsutomu (or Hibiki-chan, Nagisa had begun to call him towards the end of their conversation) realized they hadn't yet checked what class they were in. Together they went to view the boards, stuck standing behind a rather tall, broad-shouldered second-year boy who was apparently checking for his friends name when he realized he was blocking their view and apologetically moved aside.

Nagisa found his class just as the taller boy located the name he had been looking for. He seemed pleased as he walked away, and Nagisa wondered if he and his friend had been placed in the same class together.

Hibiki was having trouble finding his class, and so Nagisa helped him look. When it was finally found, Hibiki whooped in joy; he'd been placed in a class with "three of the cutest girls in our grade, how lucky am I?" In a flurry Hibiki was gone, explaining that he needed to meet up with some other friends. Nagisa didn't mind. He had things he needed to get done before heading home, anyway.

Before Nagisa walked away, he glanced up at his class once more. He sighed. Ryugazaki, Rei blared at him unforgivingly from the paper, several lines under his own name.