That the trains weren't always at their destination on time was hardly anything new. Small things, like the train driver needing to use the restroom, traffic lights not switching on time, doors not closing and so on, they all piled up and caused small delays between five to ten minutes. This time there had been a bigger issue. There had been a malfunction with the railroad system, causing the equivalent of a traffic jam on the highway, only this time it was on the rails.
As such, the train that was supposed to arrive in Iwatodai at the time of 15:06 was almost nine hours late, arriving at the train station just shortly before midnight. By that point, most people had decided to step out earlier, even though it wasn't their destination and either took the bus or stayed in a hotel to wait things out until the next morning.
Sayomi wasn't one of those people. School started the next day and missing on the first day never left a good impression with the teachers. Especially if those teachers happened to be old, disgusting perverts with the surname Morooka.
Sayomi was by all accounts a beautiful girl otherworldly beautiful some might say. She kept her jet black hair so long that it reached her taille, she had a slender figure with curves just around the right places, dark, blue eyes, a rather pale skin, a small nose and beautiful lips. Finally, she had the height of an amazon, easily reaching the two-meter mark. Needless to say, she caught the attention of many "lovers" from both sides, but also just as many envious looks. She was the perfect female specimen.
She herself didn't know why she looked so perfect. She did just as much exercising as the average person is supposed to do and the rest was just genetic dumb luck. No plastic surgery or anything.
Right now, Sayomi wore the high school uniform that had been sent to her the other day. The girl accidentally sent the rest of her clothes ahead with her luggage and as such the only thing available for her to wear had been her high school uniform. It was surprisingly comfortable for a uniform, even though she would prefer it if the schools would already drop the uniform rule entirely. She had never been a fan of those, especially the skirts annoyed her.
Before Sayomi could go on a mental rambling about skirts and the over-sexualization of school girls and by proxy women in anime and movies, the world literally came to a total standstill in the blink of an eye. The lights turned off, in its place an eerie green glow, the water puddle from the corner had turned into a blood puddle and where once were the few people awake in this hour, now stood coffins.
Sayomi mentally chided herself for letting her mind go off track at such important hour of the night. She knew how dangerous this time of the day could be, the time only she appeared to be experiencing, when black creatures roamed the streets, attacking whenever she got in their line of sight. She double checked the knives she carried in her pockets, before readjusting her shoulder bag and cautiously proceeded to go make her way through the city. The big yellow moon enlightened the planet as it always did.
Using a pamphlet she had been given through the mail, Sayomi looked for the fastest way to the dorm she had been assigned to. However, since she was so unfamiliar with the layout of the city and since there was no one she could ask (she never dared to actually open one of those coffins), the schoolgirl pretty much got lost for some time, until she finally found the dorm. Luckily for her, the black creatures appeared to be not in the mood for a fight today and she knew from experience that for some reason they never entered any houses or apartments. So all she had to do was to go inside, wait until this hour was finally over and hope that someone was awake right now to show her, her room.
The door luckily was unlocked. Inside Sayomi was surprised by the arrangements of the dorm. The room was pretty spacious for a regular school dorm. Couches were placed in the middle, along with a TV at the far end. The lamps hanging from the ceiling were very decorative, the carpet and wallpaper looked exquisite too. Finally, there was a counter to her left. Nothing too special, but it had a sign-in sheet lying on top of it. Inspecting the paper further, she found out that people living in the dorm signed their names on it for each evening. From it, Sayomi also found out that the dorm had an annoying curfew officially starting at 8 AM.
The names were listed as follows:
"Yukari Takeba: 15:00"
"Akihiko Sanada: 18:35"
"Mitsuru Kirijo: 19:12"
"Minato Arisato: 21:20"
Sayomi blinked when she read the last name. It would be a funny coincidence if this Minato Arisato was the same one she remembered. Still, why did this particular Minato Arisato explicitly wrote down that he came back to the dorm way after the curfew started? It didn't make any sense. Before she could further contemplate, Sayomi heard something she had never heard before during the 25th hour: another voice.
"Who's there?!" a female voice shouted, causing Sayomi to spun around in surprise. Her eyes widened when she saw that there was an actual person standing in the middle of the staircase. Said person had brown hair, an equal eye color, wore some kind of pink uniform with an (evilly short) black skirt and black, high heel boots. The girl appeared to be equally stunned as Sayomi was to see someone else outside of a coffin at this particular time of the day.
"But how can you be-?!" the girl continued, only to cut herself off. "Don't tell me…" All of the sudden the girl's face turned serious and she drew a gun from a holster, Sayomi somehow overlooked.
The black haired girl reacted quickly. With her left hand, she grabbed into her pocket, took out a knife and threw it at the girl. Sayomi's aim had been way off, not that it ever had been good, to begin with, but it had the desired effect. The girl in pink screamed, holding both arms up, covering her face. She didn't see the knife hitting the stairs and nothing else. Sayomi used her advantage and ran towards the girl, taking out the second knife in her pocket with her right hand. As soon as Sayomi was in range, she grabbed the gun with her left hand from the girl in pink, pressed said girl against the wall with her left arm and finally pressed the knife in her right hand against the girl's throat.
Said girl's eyes shrunk to pinpricks, once her mind realized, in what kind of situation she was in. Sayomi almost cut her, because the girl tensed up and was breathing rather heavily. The black haired girl was about to say something when another female voice was heard.
"Please stop!"
A second later the lights turned back on, slightly catching Sayomi off guard, but she still held her grip on the brown haired girl. She did turn her head around and found a red-haired girl standing on top of the stairs. She had red eyes, wore red lipstick, a white blouse, a (less evil) black skirt, but also black high heel boots. Sayomi briefly wondered if they were in trend or something.
"Mitsuru Kirijo," Sayomi stated as a matter of fact. "I didn't know the Kirijo group hired school girls as personal guards." The black haired girl let go of the one in her grip and jumped backward down the stairs. To Kirijo's surprise, the girl managed to land perfectly on the foot of the stairs without any trouble or even the need to bend her legs to compensate for the impact.
"You know my name?" Mitsuru asked, checking on the other girl at the same time. "Are you alright, Takeba?"
"Y-yes. I-I think so." the girl stuttered, trying to compose herself.
"You were on the news last week," Sayomi answered the Kirijo heiress' question. "What's up with the gun?" The black haired girl directed her question to the girl now dubbed as "Takeba".
"I-I-"
"It's for self-defense purposes." The redhead jumped. "You know how it is these days. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding it has caused. It isn't even a real gun."
Sayomi inspected the weapon, curiously. She aimed at a nearby lamp and pulled the trigger two times. There were two audible clicks, but no bangs.
"I'd recommend getting a real one at least. I almost killed you, you know." the black haired girl spoke nonchalantly, causing Takeba to flinch and Kirijo to narrow her eyes.
"That being said, I would appreciate it if you would not carry such dangerous objects around, in order to prevent situations such as this one."
"Sure, no problem." Sayomi lied, putting her knives back into her pockets. "I guess it was kinda my fault too, to come in without knocking. By the way, my name Sayomi Kuro. I am supposed to transfer here today...or yesterday." Sayomi corrected looking at the clock on the wall. It read: 12:02.
"I am Mitsuru Kirijo and this is Yukari Takeba."
"H-hi."
"We weren't expecting you to arrive so late."
"Train got delayed," Sayomi explained with a wave of her hand. "Mind if I go to my room now? I'm pretty worn out."
"Of course." Mitsuru nodded. "I will show you the way. Please follow me." With that, the redhead went upstairs. Sayomi followed her, not eyeing Yukari, who tensed up when the new girl passed her.
Upstairs, Sayomi found Mitsuru waiting on the second floor. When the new transfer student set foot on said floor, the Kirijo heiress walked into the corridor. She only stopped at the end of the corridor, waiting for Sayomi.
"This is your room and here are your keys." Mitsuru handed Sayomi the keys. "I bid you goodnight." Without another word the Kirijo heiress walked away. Sayomi looked after her for a second, but then shrugged and walked into her own room. As she expected, there were her two suitcases ready to be opened and unpacked. But that had to wait until tomorrow. For now, the girl decided to crash into the bed and get some well-deserved rest.
XIII
The following morning came way too early for Sayomi's standards. She barely managed to get out of bed and dressed for the day. Just as she put on her second shoe, there was a knock on her door.
"It's Yukari! Can I come in?"
This was a surprise. After what happened the day before, Sayomi didn't expect the girl to show up on her doorstep. Nevertheless, Sayomi opened the door.
"Good morning," Yukari said with false cheer and a forced smile.
"'Morning." Sayomi yawned, stretching her arms. "What's up?"
"Oh, Kirijo-Senpai asked me to show you and the other transfer student the way to school. He's downstairs in the kitchen already. I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't oversleep on your first day."
"Thanks, I guess…" the black haired girl mumbled sleepily. "Hope you're not mad because of yesterday."
"Oh...er...don't worry. Forgive and forget, right?" Yukari forced an even bigger smile.
Sayomi decided not to press the issue any further. Instead, she walked out of the room, closed the door and headed with Yukari downstairs. The kitchen was stationed behind what appeared to be the small version of a bar. Inside on a small table was already sitting a teenage boy with blue hair, which covered one of his blue eyes.
"Huh, go figure. Long time no see, sleepyhead."
The boy stopped in his of motion of taking a bite out of his toast in favor of looking towards the person that had spoken to him. He stared at her with an open mouth for about five seconds, before finally taking a bite out of his toast, leaning back in his chair. He simply nodded towards the newcomer in reply.
"Wait. You two know each other?" Yukari asked, surprised.
"We've been assigned to the same dorm once, two years ago," Sayomi explained, sitting down on a chair. "We even went to the same school for a year. And you still have the same stupid haircut as two years ago." She addressed the last sentence to Minato Arisato, who just shrugged in response.
"As talkative as ever, I see."
"Ahahaha…" Yukari laughed nervously. "Well, I guess this won't be so hard for the two of you if you already know each other. So, how was your previous school."
"Boring."
XIII
Despite her best efforts, Yukari didn't manage to start a conversation between the three of them. Sayomi at best answered her with one-word sentences and the most Minato did was making gestures. It was pretty apparent that none of the newbies was in the mood to talk.
The way to school was pretty long, considering they had to take the bus to the train station first. Minato spent the time by listening to music from his MP3, while Sayomi simply watches the world pass by through the bus' window. The same went for the train ride, although the black haired girl was silently impressed, as it appeared as if they were flying over the ocean. The girl also gathered a lot of attention, thanks to her height. From an outsider's perspective it looked like there was an adult woman wearing a school uniform, when for all intents and purposes, Sayomi was just sixteen years old. The students didn't hesitate to point their fingers at her and "whisper" among themselves. It became even worse when the trio stepped outside and walked the main path towards the school gate.
Sayomi ignored them, as always, Minato didn't seem to notice the stares they were getting and Yukari looked really bothered by getting all of the attention. She tried to ignore it to the best of her abilities since they were now in front of the school's entrance.
"Well, here we are. Welcome to Gekkoukan High. I'm sure you're going to love it here."
"It's a school," Sayomi replied flatly. "I hate schools."
"Uh...right. Anyways, let me quickly show you where the faculty office is located. I need to meet up with someone really soon, so let's hurry it up a little, okay?"
XIII
After bringing the two to the faculty office, Yukari apologized for just leaving the two there, as the meeting with her fellow student consisted of club activities for the coming year. Neither Sayomi nor Minato minded, as the latter knocked at the faculty door. A "Come in!" came shortly afterward and the two new students did just as they were told.
"Oh, are you the new students?" A woman with short brown hair asked. She was holding a clipboard in her hands.
Both students nodded at the question.
"Let's see...Minato Arisato and Sayomi Kuro, correct?"
Again both nodded. "Not very talkative are you?" the teacher commented with a chuckle.
"Let's start with Mr. Arisato. Wow, you've been in a lot of different places. Let's see in 1999, that was…ten years ago? Your parents…!" The teacher gasped upon reading the file. Sayomi visibly flinched, knowing exactly what was written in there or at least she had a pretty good idea.
"I'm sorry." the teacher quickly apologized. "I haven't had the time to read your files up until now. I hope you can forgive me."
Minato didn't answer, instead, he just stared blankly at his new teacher, which only made her even more uncomfortable.
"Moving on...Ms. Kuro, please give me a second to….oh, oh, I…"
"It's alright, sensei." Sayomi sighed. "I have long gotten over that. Never actually felt anything, mostly because I don't remember anything about what happened."
The teacher looked like she felt even worse than before. "I see. Um...ah, yes you two are in class 2-F, my class. Oh right, I completely forgot to introduce myself. I'm Ms. Toriumi, I teach composition."
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Toriumi-sensei." Sayomi greeted politely.
Minato just nodded, as if he was saying: "Same here."
However, Ms. Toriumi was convinced that her two new students wanted to be anything but near her, after she accidentally brought up their shared past.
"We better move to the auditorium. The headmaster will be holding a speech in a couple of minutes and we don't want to be tardy on the first day, right? Please, follow me."
XIII
There were times where Sayomi wished she wasn't a two-meter high half-giant. Now was such a time. The speech of the so-called headmaster was so boring that she wanted to do nothing more, but fall asleep. However, because she was as tall as she was, she easily blocked the view of the person sitting right behind her. Not only that, but she was also pretty easy to spot in the crowd, meaning she couldn't just doze off or else the teachers would have her head.
As such, not only did she have to listen to the headmaster, but also the hormone filled teenagers behind her, who were making comments about...let's just say her attractive parts. And they wondered what kind of underwear she was wearing. So, in the end, not so much fun.
Afterward, the two new students followed Miss Toriumi to class 2-F. At first, they waited until everyone was inside so that Miss Toriumi could properly introduce the two to their new class. As they waited, Sayomi suddenly remembered something and turned towards Minato.
"By the way, you still owe me 10000 yen."
As if on cue, one of Minato's hands shot out of his pockets, holding a stack of ten 1000 yen notes between two fingers. The girl next to him carefully accepted the money and counted it. Satisfied that nothing was missing, she put the money into her own pockets.
"How long have you been waiting to pull that one on me?" the girl asked, to which Minato only lazily waved off. Their teacher allowed herself to chuckle a little at their antics. It at least looked like those two were already good friends. Given their shared past, this wasn't all that surprising.
After the last student entered the class, the trio consisting of a composition teacher and two transfer students walked inside. Minato and Sayomi stood on each side of their homeroom teacher.
"Alright settle down. Everyone we got two new students with us from this day onward. These are Sayomi Kuro and Minato Arisato."
"Huh, two new transfer students?"
"Look at the chick! Is she even in the right class? She looks like she should be our senpai."
"She looks like she should be a teacher."
"The dude looks kinda like an emo. Hey, I heard those two came here with Yukari-chan."
"Really? The girl I can imagine, but the emo?"
"All right, settle down!" Ms. Toriumi shouted into the class. "Looks like we're lucky there are two seats available for you. Pick whichever you prefer."
Sayomi decided to take the one in the back left, where she was sitting next to the window. Minato ended up with one in the middle of the middle row. There weren't any real lectures that day. Toriumi just rattled down a list of rules and safety measures she was supposed to inform the students about every year. What followed were the exam dates, their timetables, possible club activities and a bunch of other stuff. The day simply flew by, as their teacher went on and on and on, until finally…
"Well, that's it for today everyone. Normal lectures will start tomorrow. Have a nice day." And with those words, the homeroom teacher left the classroom. Sayomi had already packed everything up and was ready to go. Looking towards the place Minato sat, she found out that the boy had been presumably rudely awakened from one of his naps by a cap wearing student. Yukari appeared to chime in the conversation as well.
Sayomi shrugged, deciding to go into the city alone and explore it a little bit. The train ride was as uncomfortable as one might imagine when hundreds of students get inside at the same time. Luckily most of them got out the very next station, Sayomi being one of them.
The next couple of hours were spent going around town, seeing places and familiarizing herself with the area. As far as she could tell, students preferred to be in three specific areas: the train station, because there was a cinema nearby; the Paulownia Mall, placed in the middle of the town, it's most outstanding feature being a fountain, surrounded by various shops and small businesses; and finally the strip mall, most commonly known for having a lot of small restaurants and other things stacked on top of each other in one building.
By the time she was done exploring, it was pretty late and so the girl decided to head back to the dorm, which luckily wasn't that far away from the Strip Mall.
XIII
Back at the dorm, Sayomi was greeted by none other than Mitsuru, who was sitting on a couch and reading a book. A cup of tea was placed on the table in front of her.
"You appear to be exhausted, Kuro." Mitsuru pointed out.
"I am," Sayomi admitted. "Walked around the city the whole time, trying to get a feel for the place, you know. Urgh and I still need to unpack. Excuse me, senpai, but I better get to it."
"Of course." the redhead nodded, flipping a page in her book.
Sayomi wanted to go upstairs but was interrupted by Mitsuru.
"Ah yes, Kuro?"
The girl turned her head. "Yes?"
"I do hope you have stored your knives safely away. I understand if you use them for self-defense purposes, however, I cannot allow you to carry them around in the dorm, let alone in school."
"Of course, senpai." Sayomi lied once again. "Don't worry, I usually only carry them around at night. I….have made the unfortunate experience of trying to get mugged one day…" the girl flinched a little. "I'm little paranoid thanks to that."
"...I see." Mitsuru answered after a moment, nodding. "Still, I would much appreciate it if you would keep them away."
"Of course, senpai." The newcomer nodded and finally headed to her room. Once there, she put her school bag away and started unpacking. Luckily this particular dorm was very generous with the size of each and every room, not to mention everyone had their own rooms. As such there was no needless bickering about personal space, which shelf belonged to whom or even where the goddamn trash can is supposed to stay. Plus, Sayomi could finally take out all of her equipment, which she needed for the 25th hour.
The first things were her knives, which she actually always carried around unless she needed to fly by plane. Then she needed to get a new set of knives.
The second thing was a simple chainmail armor, something she actually got from the last place she stayed in, namely Inaba. Surprisingly it had an old blacksmith living there, who not only sold her his piece of "art" without any convincing, he also sold her a new set of knives and even a set of tools to keep them sharp and in good condition.
Lastly, there was a small washing bag at the bottom of her suitcase. She opened the small bag and took out a very soft brush, multiple bottles filled with oil, multiple tweezers, all varying in size and a roll of plastic bags. She carefully organized those things above her sink.
"Let's see, did I forget anything?" Sayomi asked herself, looking around her room. "School stuff, clothes, toiletries...I need to ask Kirijo where the showers are...chainmail, knives, repair kit, looks like everything is there. Took long enough. Might as well see what the fridge has to offer."
XIII
Later that evening, it was a short time before Midnight, meaning only a minute or two until the 25th hour would hit, Sayomi was sitting on her bed, only wearing some comfortable trousers and her bra. Next to her were lying a bottle filled with oil, the soft brush, and a medium sized tweezer.
The girl looked at the alarm clock on her nightstand, counting the seconds until it suddenly went out and the world became green. The yellow moonlight was shining through her window, enlightening the room rather well all things considered.
"Finally." the girl let out a sigh, closing her eyes. "Let's get to it."
From an outsider's perspective, it appeared like she was meditating (without the right sitting position). However, as the seconds passed, two bumps started to grow under the skin of her back. The bumps grew and grew to impossibly huge sizes until the skin was ripped apart, and two huge, black feathered wings spread behind Sayomi's back.
"Thirty seconds." The girl told herself. "That's half the time I usually need. Maybe I'm getting better." The girl shrugged. She brought her right wing over her shoulder and carefully rubbed the top of her wing a couple of times. She then took the soft brush and carefully began the tedious task of preening her wings.
"Of all the abnormalities this hour has, why the fucking wings? They're a pain to clean."