After years of fighting, the Ronin warriors were looking forward to being something close to normal teenagers-which, unfortunately, meant high school. Toma couldn't be happier, and grinned at Shu's obvious dismay.
"It won't be as bad as you think," Shin said, trying to comfort his friend.
Seiji grinned wickedly. "Oh yeah. You'll only have to remember that 1+12 while 1x11."
Shu snarled and took a swipe at Halo, who nimbly dodged. Ryo watched, amused. Although he actually, secretly, couldn't wait to start some semblance of normalcy, he would miss spending time with his friends.
Shin sighed and stepped in to stop Shu from rampaging any further and turned both him and Seiji in the direction of the school.
"Walk."
Toma quenched a snicker as Seiji and Shu meekly obeyed Torrent's command. Toma fell into step with Seiji and Shu, stopping his teasing after a warning look from Shin. Though he might be the most gentle of the group, you did not piss Torrent off without a damn good reason.
The days slowly took on a pattern after that first awkward day. After all, it had been a long time since they had had any interaction with people their age outside of themselves. Shin woke up first and made breakfast. That brought Shu to the kitchen, dragging a groggy Ryo with him. Seiji would appear shortly afterward, smelling strongly of hair spray. They took turns waking up Toma. Shin was spared this duty since he was the cook. When Shu, in a desperate attempt to get out of Toma Duty offered that everyone should switch off cooking too, Shin politely reminded him of the last time Ryo had tried to cook something. No one questioned the system beyond that.
Toma sighed. He knew it was winter now and that being such it was prone to snowing. But that didn't mean that he had to like it.
"Don't be a grouch and help me with this! You promised," Shu snarled as he threw done his pencil in frustration and gave the force diagrams he was supposed to be solving a murderous glare. Toma sighed and resigned himself to helping Hardhead with Physics. Outside, a dark figure was perched in a tree, looking down in amusement at the household that comprised the Ronin Warriors. He wanted to see what it was about the Ronins that had been able to defeat so many perfectly good bad guys. He sighed. He would never get an idea of their fighting skill unless he 1) fought with them, which he was too lazy to do, or 2) somehow work his way into their lives. The second option required more effort buy didn't incur a chance of serious bodily harm. That decided, he disappeared into the shadows and snow. Ryo looked up from his English textbook and out the window, feeling as though someone had been out there a few moments before. But who would be stupid enough to travel in this blizzard? When only hazy light and snow met his eyes, he shrugged and went back to studying.