Author's Note: Hello, all! I'm super excited to have the opportunity to do a collaboration story with one of my favorite authors, Miss Hanamura! This story is an Alternate Universe story, incorporating the P4 and P3 characters, as well as a couple of original characters that Miss Hanamura and I have used/are currently using in some of our other stories. I've never written anything like this, before, so it should be a lot of fun! I hope you enjoy it as much as I'm planning to!
Sincerely and Enthusiastically,
Ari Moriarty
Chapter One: Welcome to Tenjin Academy
Momoko hadn't been entirely sure what to expect, when her mother had announced that they'd be moving to another part of town, and that Momoko would subsequently be enrolling in local high school quite far away from the one she'd expected to attend. Tenjin Academy didn't even seem to have a website, and neither Momoko's guidance counselor nor any of her friends professed to have any information about it at all.
For most of the short summer vacation, Momoko had amused herself by imagining all the wonderful friendly people whom she'd meet, and all the different and exciting teachers who'd be jumping at the opportunity to share their hard earned knowledge with their brand new, eager students. In Momoko's mind, Tenjin Academy was something of a magical learning environment where she already knew she'd be unconditionally happy.
Now, that she was standing in front of the main Tenjin building, however, things didn't look exactly the way they had in her imagination. Tenjin was, in fact, a relatively tiny school. It seemed to be made of a ramshackle combination of recycled, run-down building materials, and it looked sort of like an oversized version of an old witch's hut from a children's fairytale. There was no trace at all of the glistening concrete fortress of knowledge that Momoko had expected to find.
It was disappointing. There was no getting around that. It definitely didn't look magical at all from the outside. Still, Momoko wasn't ready to give up just yet.
I know I'm going to love it here, she told herself. It isn't very pretty to look at, but there's still lots to be excited about. After all, this is my favorite part of traveling to new places! Meeting new people and making new friends is always something worth looking forward to!
Momoko had never been the type to let the little things get her down. Besides, she added internally, it really does look like something that a witch would build in a fairy story, and fairy stories are magical, aren't they?
Firmly entrenched in her determined and whole-hearted optimism, Momoko took a deep breath, hoisted her backpack a little bit higher on her shoulders, and walked up to the school steps.
"No way," muttered a scrawny, dark-haired boy as she passed by. "Hey was that what I think it was?"
"You mean, was it a girl?" asked the dark-haired boy's friend. "Uh…yeah, definitely a girl. You don't think…nah, that can't be. Wait, can it? What do you think?"
Several other boys, all of them in dull grey uniform slacks and jackets, were beginning to crowd around Momoko now. They came around corners and stared at Momoko through the first floor windows, whispering, nudging each other, and pointing.
Oh, thought Momoko. I guess they noticed that I'm not wearing the uniform. I can't help it, though…mine got lost in the mail! Maybe I can buy one at the school store? Oh, do they have a school store? I hope so.
One spiky-headed blond boy, Momoko noticed, was standing on his own, away from the rest of the gawking crowd. He had his hands shoved into his pockets and was staring studiously at the ground, apparently and quite pointedly not noticing Momoko at all. As she moved closer to him, he almost seemed to shy away from her, shrinking back slightly and pressing his chin even harder into his chest.
He, too, was wearing the school uniform, although he had gone out of his way to stand out in the way he accessorized it. His jacket was open in the front, and Momoko could see that he was wearing a black t-shirt underneath, instead of the usual white regulation button-up. The t-shirt had a skull on it.
Ooh, thought Momoko. A skull. Scary. And cool! Scary, and cool. I like it!
"Excuse me!" she trilled, tapping him on the shoulder. "Um…I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a bother, but could you tell me if this school has a store? I want to try and buy a new uniform. Mine got lost, and…now everyone is staring."
"…the hell?" asked the blond boy, blinking down at Momoko in surprise. "Uh…school store? Nah, we ain't got a store."
Momoko sighed. "Oh…that's no good. Oh well, I'm sure I'll think of something. Maybe I can get a uniform in town, or I guess I could order it again. The teachers will probably understand. I bet this kind of thing happens all the time."
"Wait," muttered the blond boy, giving her a very dubious look. "You saying you're a student here? Uh…you sure you have the right school?"
Dutifully, Momoko consulted the little map on her smartphone screen. "Mmhmm!" she announced, nodding. "This is Tenjin Academy, isn't it? I'm a first year! I'm starting my first day of high school today."
She beamed at him, hoping to share some of her excitement. The blond boy gave her an uneasy smile, as though concerned that he might be dealing with someone who didn't have all the lights on upstairs.
"So um…I figure you probably know this already, but…this is a boy's school. You, uh, get that, right?"
That took a moment to sink in. Momoko frowned and bit her lip.
"Nope," she retorted after a moment, shaking her head. "Can't be. Because, you see, I'm not a boy."
The blond boy snorted out a laugh. "Uh, yeah, I know," he agreed.
"Hey!" shouted one of the other students, still keeping an inexplicable distance from Momoko and the boy. "Seriously? Tatsumi's picking on the new girl already? What the hell is up with that? He's gonna scare her away before she's even had her first class."
"What the hell did you say?" snarled the blond boy. Suddenly, the talkative student apparently had somewhere else to be. He backed off, fast, and then ran into the school building.
"Tch," muttered the blond boy. "Whatever."
Momoko took a look at her watch. It was already almost nine o'clock. "Oops, I'm going to be late for class!" she announced. "I should go! Oh, are you coming? It'd be so nice if you could help me find my classroom. I get lost really easily…pretty much everywhere. Um…looks like I have Algebra first. Uh oh…'m not very good at algebra. I wonder if I'll have a nice teacher…"
Still mumbling to herself, she, too, wandered into the school building. Moments later, the blond boy hurried in behind her.
"Do you have Algebra first too?" she asked.
"Uh…no," muttered the boy. "But, you said you might get lost, so…"
Together, they found their way to the first floor stairwell.
