General Note: This fanfic is a collaboration between myself and SoldierG65434-2.
CaptainYoruichi's note: Follow our fandom Tumblr at TeamYoruSoi . tumblr . com (no spaces)
SoldierG65434-2's note: Get Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown
The screeching and lurching of the bus as it came to a stop woke the young woman from her sleep. Groaning, she sat up, straightening out her back and working out the kinks in her neck.
She brushed her hair out of her eyes and looked around. The bus had picked up more passengers since she fell asleep shortly after leaving the airport. The low hum of excited chatter hung in the cabin as the bus jostled forward. A few of the other passengers caught her eye between their conversations but quickly turned away. She gave a light chuckle and turned to towards the window.
Passing by outside was a small city. None of the buildings were particularly tall and the streets and sidewalks weren't especially crowded, but the life in the city was still readily apparent. She had scoffed when the brochure had said "big city style with small town sensibilities," but seeing it first hand, she conceded that it was an appropriate description of Karakura.
She turned away from the window and towards the obnoxious technicolor upholstery of the seat in front of her. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her cell phone. Her expression soured when she opened it and saw that she hadn't missed any calls or messages. She closed the phone a tad roughly and shoved it back into her pocket.
Pulling her backpack out from underneath her seat she grabbed the map and pamphlet out of the side pocket. The map was of a college campus on one side and the surrounding area on the other. She had looked over the map hundreds of times already, but she wanted every part of it engrained into her memory. She had come too far only to embarrass herself by getting lost and begging for directions.
The bus quickly pulled off to the side and came to a stop. The driver announced, barely intelligible over the old speakers, that they had arrived. The other passengers quickly stood up and began to file out, carrying their few bags with them.
"I have luggage underneath," she said as she reached the bus driver, her Japanese carrying a thick Chinese accent. Giving her the same scowl her had when she had boarded, the driver unbuckled his seat and got out of the bus. His cramped and stiff legs carried him over to the side hatches, which he threw open carelessly. The woman retrieved her belonging, two duffel bags and a rolling suitcase, and was just able to extract herself before he slammed the hatch shut.
Karakura University was a somewhat smaller school, having started its life as a community college and having only recently become a proper four year University. It occupied an entire city block and was home to the tallest buildings in the area, necessary since they had to fit so many dorms and classrooms in such a small space. Despite its humble beginnings, they were doing what they could to make the school inviting. There were many planters around the walkways and outdoor areas filled with lively flowers, bushes, and small trees, and the buildings themselves all looked as if they had been freshly pressure washed.
Even though the campus was small, her luggage made the trek across much more difficult. She was funneled along by the flow of students and the occasional parent or two until she eventually made it to the student housing, which was a large four-story building in the back of the campus. In front of the entrance there was a table with one person behind it and a long line in front. The young woman took her place in the line and waited patiently, exchanging the rare pleasantry she received but mostly standing in silence shifting the bags on her shoulders.
"Name?" The young man behind the table asked curtly once she reached the front of the line.
"Shaolin Feng," she replied in kind. He flipped though his papers then reached into the box. He retrieved two keys and handed it to her. Engraved on one was the number "312." The other was unmarked.
"You're on the third floor," he said after handing it to her. "Your roommate's already checked in. There's going to be a meeting with the RA this evening at 6. Attendance is mandatory." She nodded and left, readjusting the straps on her shoulders.
Luckily, the building had an elevator. She quickly found her room and unlocked the door. The dorm was more like a small apartment, with a common area and kitchen. On either side were doors that lead to rooms.
"Hello?" She called out, walking in slowly.
"Oh!" The door to the right popped open. The voice belonged to a quite voluptuous blonde woman. Weighed down by her bags, she was unable to resist the hug she was pulled into, the blonde's enormous bust making contact well before her arms. "You must be Shaolin!" She squealed.
"P-please, call me Sui-Feng," she stammered, half from embarrassment and half from a lack of air. She was quite surprised by the sudden hospitality.
"Well, Sui-Feng." The buxom woman let go of her. "I'm Rangiku. I just love your hair!" She grabbed one of the wrapped braids that ran down to the small of her back and ended in a golden ring. Sui-Feng pulled back, fidgeting under her bags and the contact. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'll let you get settled in first. The rooms here are so much nicer than what I was expecting!" Rangiku moved out of the way and Sui-Feng walked to the opposite room, unlocking it with the second key she had been given.
Indeed, the room was much larger than she had anticipated. All she had expected was enough space to sleep, but there was a desk, a small closet, and a shelf unit along with a bed. Sui-Feng dropped her bags and sat down on the bed. There wasn't much in them, mostly just clothes, some sheets and a few personal affects she had grown particularly fond of. One tended to travel light when they left the country.
She extracted her cell phone again and checked, and again she frowned when she saw she hadn't missed any messages. Sui-Feng sighed and dialed, holding the phone up to her ear. After a few rings, the call was answered.
"Hello?" An older man replied, his voiced tired and somewhat thin.
"Father," Sui-Feng answered in Chinese.
"Shaolin?" There was some energy in his voice now, "You've made it safely?"
"Yeah, I'm in my room now," she replied. "I don't want to run up your phone bill, I just wanted to make sure you knew I got here fine."
"Be careful, Shaolin." The energy drained from his voice noticeably. "We're both very worried about you."
"I know," Sui-Feng answered, a little more morosely than she had meant to. "I'll write when I get the chance." They said their farewells and she hung up. Sui-Feng hesitated for a few moments, and then dialed another number. The phone rang for about twice as long before the call was answered.
"Hey babe." The voice on the other end was that of a much younger man and was smooth, almost condescending. Yet it still was able to elicit a small smirk from Sui-Feng.
"Seems like an odd thing to call someone when you don't call or text them for almost ten hours," she reported, somewhat pointedly. There was no real malice in her words though; this type of verbal sparring was normal for them.
"I'm sorry, I've just been busy is all." He apologized in a manner that made it difficult to tell if he was sincere. "You get in alright?"
"Yeah, I'm in my room now." She nodded to no one but herself.
"That's good," he replied quickly. "Listen, I'm still kind of busy now, and I'm sure you've got stuff to do. I'll call you back later, 'kay?"
"Yeah, fine." Sui-Feng scowled. They said their goodbyes and he hung up. Falling back on her bed, Sui-Feng stretched out her stiff muscles. She had a few hours before the meeting. She was still tired from her trip, which had started with an early morning flight at 6 AM. It was only mid afternoon, so she decided on a short nap before the meeting.
In a room down the hall, a woman, finished with wiping her glasses, set them back upon her face.
"Shouldn't you be getting ready to meet the latest crop of poor souls you'll be blue-balling?" she teased her roommate.
The other occupant of the room, a dark-skinned woman with long, purple hair, grinned.
"I could ask you the same thing, Lisa."
"Touché," Lisa replied. She eyed the box of pizza sitting in the kitchen area. "May I?" Without waiting for an answer, she nabbed a slice for herself. Then she frowned as she picked something off of it. "Ugh, gross. Really Yoruichi, how can you eat pineapples on pizza?"
"Hey, it's good! The sweet taste compliments the saltiness of the pizza." Yoruichi defended herself. "Instead of picking it off, you should try it sometime. You might like it." Lisa opened her mouth for a retort, but shook her head.
"No, it's too easy." She bit into the slice now that it was free of pineapple. "But seriously, do you know what you're going to talk about? How can you just sit there eating pizza?" Yoruichi gave her a flat stare.
"This isn't my first year as an RA. I'm going to use the same spiel as I did last year."
"Oh, that's right. I forgot about that," Lisa said. "In that case, carry on with your pineapple pizza. But let me know when it's time so that I can scope out likely candidates." Yoruichi rolled her eyes.
"For yourself, I hope." Nevertheless, Yoruichi let Lisa know when it was time for the RA meeting, and they headed to the common area together. Before anyone noticed their approach, Lisa inconspicuously pointed someone out.
"I see one already." Yoruichi followed Lisa's line of sight. A young man stood awkwardly against one of the walls, nose buried in a book, occasionally readjusting his own pair of spectacles.
"Isn't he a little young for you?" Yoruichi ask. Lisa shrugged.
"He's here, so he can't be that young," she rationalized. Yoruichi just shook her head.
"Well, he's all yours if you want him. I'm not interested." They entered the common area proper. Though it was a fairly large room, having everyone there at one time made it crowded and noisy, and they went almost unnoticed. Yoruichi put her fingers to her lips and issued a shrill whistle, quickly getting everyone's attention.
"Thank you everyone for coming. My name is Yoruichi, and I am the Resident Advisor for this floor." The few murmurs left quickly died down. "I'll make this as quick as I can so you all don't have to stay cramped in here for too long. There are only a few rules, so they should be easy to follow."
"No drugs anywhere at any time. If I or anyone else catches you with them, there will be immediate disciplinary action up to and including expulsion." She looked around the room at their faces. It was usually pretty easy to tell who was going to be a problem by their reaction.
"No smoking in the building. You can either go down stairs or to the roof, but take it outside." There were more obvious signs of distaste for this rule than the last.
"If you're going to engage in sexual activity, keep it confined to your rooms, and try to remember that the walls aren't very thick, so be considerate of others." She shot Lisa a quick look, who just shrugged.
"Don't put up anything on the walls if it requires nails, tacks, or putty. Basically, don't do anything that will mess up the paint. We've taken an inventory of all the rooms before you moved in, so we'll know if you do and you will be charged for the repairs."
"Do not use extension cords. Your rooms are not very big so you shouldn't need them, but if you need more outlets use a power strip. I'll be coming around periodically to check for them and any other potential fire hazards."
"And the final rule: quiet hours are between midnight and six AM. Not everyone has the same schedule as you, so please be respectful to those that need to get up early. And that's pretty much it. If you have any further questions, you can find me in room 302. But before you go, please see me to pick up your roommate contracts. Not only are they mandatory, but they help me if there are any problems I need to mediate. If you do not fill one out and sign it, I cannot help you if you are having issues with your roommate. Once you have one, you are free to leave."
Yoruichi stood in the middle of the room handing out the contracts. Most took them while barely looking at her, but one, a male with long, red hair, and tattoos running up his arms and on his neck, came right up to her, grinning in a cocky manner.
"Great job with the speech," he said, taking a contract for himself. "You been doing this long?"
"This is my second year as an RA." Yoruichi turned away, instead making sure that she was handing out the papers to everyone.
"Second year?" he repeated. "Anyway, what are you doing later? Because I was thinking you and-"
"Not a chance," she said, continuing to hand out the contracts. She thought for a moment that she was being unfair, assuming so much when she cut him off, but she could hear the guy's friends mocking him, and knew that she had made the right choice.
Once she finished handing out the contracts, she headed back to her own room. When she got to her room, she noticed Lisa hadn't followed.
Probably stayed to chat it up with that guy she was interested in, Yoruichi thought, closing the door behind her. She walked to the refrigerator and opened it, staring dismally at its contents. Except for a single carton of chocolate milk, there was nothing in it. Chocolate milk was not food, and she was allergic to chocolate anyway. With a resigned sigh, she grabbed a piece of paper and sat down to write up a shopping list. About halfway through, she was interrupted by a knock on the door. Knowing that it couldn't be Lisa since she had a key, Yoruichi stood up to answer. The person on the other side of it, a young woman that looked a little like she had just woken up, was not someone Yoruichi had seen at the meeting.
"Can I help you?" she asked. Yoruichi noted that the woman had gray eyes, which weren't very common.
"Are you Yoruichi?" the young woman asked. Yoruichi nodded in the affirmative. "I'm sorry. I fell asleep and missed the mandatory meeting. I hope I'm not in too much trouble," the woman continued, slightly embarrassed. She met Yoruichi's eyes and then looked away. Yoruichi couldn't help but smile.
"Don't worry about it. I'll fill you in on what you missed, which really isn't much, to be honest. But first, why don't you tell me your name?"
"Oh, right. My name is Sui-Feng." She smiled sheepishly, her eyes downcast. "I'm in 312," she added.
"Well Sui-Feng, it's nice to meet you. Now, what you missed is just an explanation of the rules." She proceeded to repeat her spiel to Sui-Feng.
"Sounds easy enough," Sui-Feng said after she had heard everything. Yoruichi had noticed that Sui-Feng's gaze had been rather shifty though the explanation. She leaned forward a bit, moving her face directly in front of Sui-Feng's wandering gaze.
"I'm sorry." The faintest blush crept up Sui-Feng's cheeks. "It's just that you're the only other person I've met besides my boyfriend with eyes that particular shade of gold. It's kind of weird for me," she confessed.
"Would you like me to get some colored contacts?" Yoruichi asked. Sui-Feng was startled enough to look directly at Yoruichi, wondering if she was being serious. A slight grin and a playful sparkle in her golden eyes hinted at no. Sui-Feng chuckled.
"No, that won't be necessary. I'm sure I'll manage," she said. "Anyway, I should get going. I still have some unpacking to do. It was nice meeting you, though. Have a good night."
"You too," Yoruichi replied. She shut the door and paused, smiling a little. There were times when being a Resident Advisor was tough, but most of the time, it was very interesting. She enjoyed helping people out, and didn't regret her decision to be one again this year. As she sat back down to finish her shopping list, she wondered what the year would bring for everyone.