Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim the ownership of everything and anything throughout this story.
Author's Note: Ohhey, a new story from me :D This time, it's a high school story, taking place on an imaginary island in Japan (or at least, I think the name I picked doesn't exist... if it does, then it's not based on the real island). I'll try my best to accurately write the Japanese things in the story, but I only have Google and my experiences from watching anime to rely on xD So, I apologize in advance for any incorrect information, and feel free to PM me to correct it. Also, I'll be using the honorifics, so if you're not familiar with them, go Google it :3
A little warning in advance: updates will take anywhere from one week to one month. I will finish it for sure, but not at a very fast pace; I'm going to live up to my name as Lazy ;D
A gigantic thank you goes to Sakagami Hina, my amazing proofreader, for checking the chapters for me :D
The rising sun bathed Otoshima in radiance, its bright rays peering over the peaks of the mountain range that bordered the crescent-shaped island along the east coastline. The leafy treetops of the scarce forest that separated the town from the mountains glimmered in green. The sparkling blue water of the Pacific Ocean gently caressed the sandy beach on the west. A refreshing breeze scattered the petals of the blooming sakura trees that dotted the town.
It was a Monday morning, April 1st, the day of the Opening Ceremony at Kaion Academy. The private institute accommodated students of all three stages: elementary, middle and high school, all of which were in separate buildings. It was most renowned for its music program, inviting talented students from all over Japan to study there with a scholarship. That is not to say that the other departments were neglected: they simply didn't go by scholarship, but boasted of excellent results nonetheless. The students contributed to about half the population of the village; some of them were natives to the island while others moved there because of the Academy. They had the choice of living in the dormitory for free or in a house at their own expenses.
Though the sun had already woken up, the same couldn't be said about all the inhabitants of the Academy's dormitory. Especially about the occupants of room 214, where the only noise to be heard was their steady breathing as they were still in deep sleep. Until the second when the red numbers on the black digital alarm clock sitting on the small, wooden table between the two beds switched from 6:59 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. At that point, it began emitting an incredibly irritating beeping sound which would've raised even the dead from their grave.
The room itself was far from dead, though. It was furnished for two people, their slightly differing tastes coming together to create a cozy ambiance. It was a medium-sized space, roughly in the shape of a square, but not squished enough to be called rectangular. The door was in the bottom left corner and the door to the small balcony was right across from it, the rays of the waking sun barely penetrating the thick, dark blue curtains covering the wall-length window. In the path between the doors were two desks, both of them moderately cluttered, excluding the immediate proximity of the two laptops. Between the desks was a tall wooden shelf unit, serving as a storage place for their various belongings. The walls were plain white, but it could barely be seen from the various posters and pictures adorning it. A notice board was placed on the wall above the desks, a couple of notes stuck to it. Conversely, the wooden floor was kept tidy, with a large circular, fluffy cream-colored rug in the middle of it. In the bottom right corner was a huge, shared wardrobe to accommodate all their clothing. To the left was a full-length oval mirror; to the right was the door of the small bathroom connected to the room. Past it were the two beds.
"Rin-chan, turn it offfff..." mumbled the person curled up underneath the blanket on the left side bed.
"You do it, Miku-chan, you're closer..." protested the figure on the right side bed, trying to block out the noise by putting a pillow over her head.
"The table is exactly in the middle. Always was, still is, always will be," Miku sharply retorted. Despite the comment, she slowly extended her arm from underneath the blanket and slammed her hand down on the black plastic contraption she hated with a passion. The beeping stopped and was replaced with a bouncy song playing from the radio function.
The two girls, Hatsune Miku and Kagamine Rin, had been sharing a room for three years now, following the same morning routine the entire time. They were both a part of the music program, Miku about to start her third year of high school and Rin her first.
As much as Miku disliked waking up in the mornings, she wasn't too fond of being late, either; much less on the first day of the new school year. Taking a deep breath in order to gather her willpower, she grabbed hold of the blanket and tossed it aside. She sat up, letting out a huge yawn in the process. Seeing the motionless Rin, a mischievous thought crossed her mind and a sly smirk appeared on her lips. She stood up and quickly strode over to her friend's bed.
"Rise and shine, Rin-chan!" Miku announced as she swiftly pulled off the blanket and dragged the girl along with it. She landed on the wooden floor, intensely glaring at her roommate.
"That was so not necessary," Rin began to complain, pouting. "I was just about to get out of bed on my own."
"Because you have such a well-established habit of doing that," Miku remarked in a teasing tone, placing her arms on her hips.
"Shut up," Rin replied curtly, getting to her feet. "Like you're any better."
"Who was it that turned off the alarm in the end?" she reminded her. Mentioning it, Miku instinctively glanced at the clock: it was 7:20 already and they had to be at school by 8, which was a fifteen-minute walk from the dormitory. Classes only started at 8:15, but the main gate closed at 8, hence the need to arrive on time. "Uhhh, oops, we'd better hurry up."
With that, their friendly bickering came to an end as they both began to get ready. Rin was the first to dash into bathroom, quickly grabbing her uniform from the wardrobe on her way in.
Miku scurried over to it and took hers out as well. The girls' uniform at Kaion Academy consisted of a pleated, above-the-knee dark grey skirt; a short-sleeved, collared, white blouse; white knee socks and a tie that had the school's crest on it. To differentiate between the years, the hemline of the skirt, the edges of the blouse and the tie had varying colors: orange for first years, scarlet for second years and teal for third years.
She changed out of her light blue, spring onion-print pyjamas and into her uniform. Grabbing a hairbrush, she began tugging at her long, teal hair. After years and years of practice, she expertly styled them into two ponytails, putting a black-red hair accessory at the top of each. She stepped in front of the mirror, combing her bangs into place, humming to the tune of the song playing from the radio. Her aquamarine eyes carefully examined her appearance to make sure that she looked perfect. She was far from being a vain person; nevertheless, it's only natural for a girl to pay a little extra attention to her demeanour on the first day of school.
By the time she felt satisfied with the figure reflected in the mirror, Rin stepped out of the bathroom. She was fully dressed, the signature white bow in her short, golden blonde hair and white bobby pins keeping her bangs fixed.
"Your turn," the girl said cheerily, tossing her orange-print pyjamas onto her bed. The initial reluctance of waking up had dispersed, to be replaced with the anticipation of starting her high school years, her bright blue eyes basically shining. Miku nodded in reply and went inside to brush her teeth.
In a matter of minutes, both girls were at the door, putting on their basketball shoes. They had to wear indoor shoes at school anyway, so their choice of regular footwear wasn't of importance. Miku took another look at the clock as she turned off the radio: it read 7:40 am. Just on time, she noted to herself.
Schoolbags in hand, they left their room and Miku closed the door behind them, locking it. Crime rates weren't high in the area, but they had a philosophy of 'better safe than sorry'. They hastily made their way out of the building, practically flying across the hallway and down the spiralling staircase to reach the main entrance.
The dormitory itself had three floors and was in the shape of an 'H': the boys were in the left wing and the girls were on the right, with the middle serving as a common area. There was a kitchen and an eating area on the ground floor of both sides of the building, so as to limit the meal-time commotion. It was mostly used by the students who remained in the dormitory during the school breaks, since the actual cafeteria functioned on the Academy's grounds.
At the entrance, someone was waiting for them: a boy with short blond hair pulled into a messy ponytail was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, impatiently tapping with his foot. He wore the male school uniform: dark grey pants, a white shirt and an orange tie bearing the school's crest.
"About time," he remarked with a scowl and his head slightly tilted to the left as he noticed the two girls approaching. "What took you so long? There isn't even the dilemma of picking an outfit!"
"Good morning to you, too, Len-nii," Rin greeted him with a sugary smile, as a mocking reply to his displeased expression. They were twins, but Len insisted that his sister keep in mind which one of them has two whole minutes more of life experience.
"Mornin', Len-kun," Miku added. "Sorry, waking up just isn't our thing. And at this rate, never will be. Since when are you so eager about getting to school on time, anyway?"
"Since it's high school now..." he mumbled, almost incomprehensibly. "Whatever, let's get going," he announced, straightening himself up.
The trio trotted along the cobblestone path leading down to the paved road; the dormitory was on a slight slope, at the edge of the town. As such, there were no houses between it and the Academy on one side of the road; just a large, grassy field instead, the dewdrops glinting in the morning light.
Miku, Rin and Len arrived at the ornate metal gates of the school merely minutes before 8 am. Several groups of students idled around in the yard, chatting amongst themselves.
"Barely... safe..." Rin observed, panting, as soon as they were within the safety of the school grounds. They made a dash for it at the last hundred meters or so.
"Remind me... to set the alarm... earlier," Miku noted, gasping for air.
"And remind me... why I wait for you two... every morning?" Len commented, just as breathless as the other two. More often than not, this little jog was a part of their routine.
"Because you're just that awesome, Onii-sama~," his sister responded once she could talk normally again, paired with a wide grin. Like anyone could stay irritated upon seeing such a cute expression. For some reason, a pink tinge lingered on Len's cheeks, even though he was back to breathing regularly.
"Don't you ever forget it," he said, gently ruffling her hair, which she quickly rearranged into place afterwards.
Miku couldn't help but smile at the sweet scene unfolding before her eyes. It was a shame she had to interrupt them. If only these carefree days would last forever...
"Rin-chan, Len-kun, we should go check out the class placements for the year," she suggested to them. They nodded their heads in agreement and the three of them walked over to the large message boards that stood near the gates.
Kaion Academy believed in creating a strong community. For that reason, those with scholarships and those without were put into mixed classes, which were reassigned at the beginning of each year, in order to establish an all-around friendly environment for the students and allow them to come in contact with more people.
They stopped in front of the third message board, the one that had the placements for the high school students. They scanned along the lists, searching for their names.
"Oh hell no," Len stated all of a sudden, his eyes widening. "They dared split us up and put us in different classes." Instinctively, he tightly gripped onto Rin's hand. The wide grin on her face from a minute ago was but a distant memory, replaced with an intense frown.
Against all odds, the twins had remained in the same class during their middle school years. Never in their darkest nightmares would they have thought that they could get separated. It was like chocolate without sugar: simply impossible to imagine.
"Aaaawww, I'm so sorry, but I'm sure it'll be alright," Miku attempted to comfort her friends. She stepped behind them, putting her hands on their shoulders. "You just won't be sitting in the same classroom anymore, that's all. Nothing else will change."
Simultaneously, Rin and Len turned their gazes away from the board and looked each other in the eye.
"Yeah, it'll be fine," Rin acquiesced to Miku's words, trying to smile reassuringly, but failing miserably at it. "It's not so easy to trouble the Kagamines!"
Hearing the determination in her voice, a weak chuckle escaped from Len's lips. "Yeah, we can handle this."
"That's the spirit!" Miku added enthusiastically, patting their shoulders. "Now, let me show you the way to the high school building."
The tealette took another glance at the board, to make sure she had the right classes: 1-A for Rin, 1-B for Len and 3-C for herself. She had no reason to be bothered by her class placement; by now, she knew everyone in her year by name at least and was on friendly terms with most of them. She didn't have a particularly close friend in her own year: having Rin and Len was plenty enough.
The three of them hurried across the campus. At Kaion Academy, the elementary, middle and high school section each had its own building and facilities, like club rooms, sports fields and a gymnasium. There were also shared buildings, like the library, the cafeteria and the main auditorium.
The school buildings each had three floors. On the ground floor were the lockers for their indoor shoes, the teacher's office and a couple of storage rooms. The second floor had the regular classrooms. The third floor was reserved for the special classrooms: the science labs, the computer lab, the home economics lab and so on.
They walked through the open glass doors of the high school building. The lockers were arranged in columns according to class, so at that point they had to split up. The school took care of transferring their shoes during the break, so they simply had to find the compartment with their name on it. Their indoor shoes were a cross between sandals and slippers. They had a thin, rubber sole; the upper part was made out of a durable fabric and had an elastic strap. It was white, with a coloured stripe, according to their year, near the toe. Shoes changed, they met up again and Miku guided them upstairs.
"Here we are: 1-A and 1-B right beside it," she declared, stopping in front of the classroom's door. "And mine will be at the end of the hallway."
"Thanks, Miku-chan," the twins said at the same time.
"Ganbatte, Rin-chan, Len-kun," she encouraged them. "We'll meet up for lunch at the usual spot."
They both gave a quick nod. Rin turned towards the door. She took a deep breath and straightened her tie; after a second of hesitation, she firmly gripped the doorknob and opened the door. Head held high, she stepped inside and carefully closed it behind her. Only then did Miku and Len walk over to the next door. A feeling of déjà vu came over the tealette as she watched him repeat the exact same movements. It's almost scary just how perfectly synched they are.
She walked to her own classroom at a quickened pace; it was probably only a matter of minutes before the teacher arrived. She casually threw the door open and went inside without a trace of uncertainty. To her, it was honestly no different from a regular day, to walk into her classroom; for a moment, it even slipped her mind that today was the first day. She was sure that familiar faces would be present on the other side of the door.
The interior of the classroom held nothing new. Sunshine flooded through the large, glass windows; the apple green curtains pulled to the side. Wooden pegs on which to keep their coats lined the back wall, with a row of wooden compartments below it to store their P.E. equipment in. Several posters were put up to serve as decoration. The blackboard was at the far end of the room, a clock diligently ticking away above it, with a podium in front of it and the teacher's desk off to the side. Five neat columns of desks, six in each, sat in the middle.
However, the students themselves were not in a "neat" arrangement. Most of them flocked around the last desk of the last column: also known as the best seat, since it was the farthest away from the teacher's desk and right beside the window. Miku opened her mouth to greet them and closed it right back as she noticed the abnormality, coming to an abrupt halt. The individual at the center of the commotion was a new student.
Well, this is sort of unexpected. A transfer student now, in our last year? If they're here on a scholarship for the music program, must be quite the talent, she mused to herself. She tried arching her neck to catch a glimpse, but it turned out to be impossible, due to the crowd. Miku settled for ignoring them for the time being and taking her seat. The last free spot was in a decent place: the second in the last column. She began to make her way towards it through the maze of desks.
"Hey, you. Your hair's very cool. It looks like the sky," a voice suddenly called out to her when she was halfway across the classroom. It was a feminine voice with a hint of maturity to it, coming from the center of the crowd.
Miku turned around to look at her; the crowd had opened up slightly, giving her a good view of the new student. The first thing she took note of was her long, silky, pink hair that had a light brown headband in it, decorated with a gold design. She wore a cheery grin and had a generally friendly ambiance about her. The tealette involuntarily smiled back. I'm gonna like this girl, she deduced, based on the comment about her hair.
"Thanks. Your hair's really pretty, too. Just like the sakura petals," she reciprocated the compliment.
"Wanna sit beside me?" the transfer student asked her. The current owner of that desk was about to protest, but she innocently batted her eyelashes at the boy, combined with a sweet smile. Needless to say, he grabbed his bag without any further complaint.
"Uhm, sure, why not?" Miku agreed to the sudden seat change. If a chance at a better spot in the room handed itself to her on a silver platter, who was she to not take advantage of it?
The bell rang just as she arrived to her seat, so the crowd around the new girl dispersed as the students took their seats as well. Within moments, the door opened and the teacher walked inside.
He was the kind of person you'd look at and immediately guess his profession. Rather than his short, chestnut brown hair, paired with rectangular, black-rimmed classes and a dark grey suit, it was the gullible, kind smile he wore that gave the man the blatantly obvious air of a beginner teacher. The young man made his way to the teacher's desk, carrying the navy blue class notebook and a stack of papers.
It was always the person sitting in the spot closest to the teacher's desk who had the task of leading the bowing.
"Stand up!" the girl announced and the students followed her order.
"Attention!" she gave the next order and respectful silence filled the room.
"Bow!" she instructed them and they did so, more or less properly at the same time.
"Sit down!" she said the last command and they all took their seats.
The teacher nervously cleared his throat before he began his speech. He attempted to hide his insecurity behind a confident smile.
"Good morning, class of 3-C. I'm Hiyama Kiyoteru and I'll be the homeroom teacher for this year and also the math teacher. I recognize some of your faces from the past few years. This'll be my first time as a homeroom teacher, so I hope we'll all get along," he told them.
"Now then, there's still some time left before the assembly, so let's get started on taking care of a few class things..." he said as he began to rummage through the papers.
From that moment on, Miku stopped paying attention to the happenings; she was distracted by the folded paper note that landed in the middle of her desk. She glanced to her left and saw Luka smiling at her, pointing at the note. She hastily unfolded it and found a message inside, written in elegant characters.
Forgot to ask: what's your name? I'm Megurine Luka, but call me Luka-chan. Nice to meet you.
Miku scribbled her reply underneath it. Her handwriting was much messier, to the point it even felt like a crime to have her scrawny characters show up on the same piece of paper. She tried erasing and rewriting, but it didn't really help.
Nice to meet you, too. I'm Hatsune Miku, so Miku-chan is fine.
She refolded the note and threw it back to Luka. She almost missed the desk, but the pinkette expertly caught it before it landed on the floor. She took a quick look towards the teacher and luckily, he was busy with writing something on the blackboard, so their note-passing remained unnoticed. Writing a response on the note, she threw it back to Miku.
Well then, Miku-chan, wanna grab lunch together today?
A frown appeared on the tealette's features. What would Rin and Len say if I suddenly brought along a third person? I can't really ditch them on the first day, either... She pondered for a while before giving her answer.
Sorry, today's a no-go. I'm sure there's a ton of people in class who'd love to join you, though. But tomorrow is fine ^_^
She reread her message before tossing it back. Hopefully, that doesn't seem too rude. And thank gosh for the mood-lightening power of smileys!
Shortly afterwards, the note returned to her with an answer.
Oh, okay. It's a promise for tomorrow! :)
Miku let out a soft chuckle. She turned to Luka and gave her a friendly grin, accompanied by a thumbs up. The girl mirrored her gestures.
I... think I just made a new friend. And from the looks of it, it's going to be an interesting last year of high school with her around.