"La dee doe, going on an adventure~" The security here is really lax, if they let perfect strangers waltz in and walk wherever they want, but whatever. "Doop dee doop, searching for great treasure~" Hmm, a strong presence directly in front of me, I suppose I should step out of its way. (While I'm perfectly capable of analyzing someone's strengths and weaknesses by looking at them, searching for someone with the rough description of 'strongest,' and therefore high probability of being important, requires me to use my 'sixth sense' so to speak, which functions best when my vision isn't interfering.)

Step left, keep walking. " Dee da doe, having-" How odd… I seem to have hit something I couldn't sense, but it wasn't a wall. …Unless the walls here feel like people, in which case I need to get the hell out immediately.

"Watch where you're going, punk." Oops… looks like I accidentally ran into someone. I guess the larger aura next to him overshadowed his? (Said aura belonging to a pretty girl with pink hair, more evidence that females are more competent than males, I guess. Ha… I really wish I had sis's talent for sword techniques.)

"Sorry," I offer him my hand to help him up, "No harm done, right?" He batted my hands away, stood up, and laid a hand on my shoulder. Hmm… wonder why the hallway became so silent all of a sudden?

"…Are you mocking me?" The brown haired …teenager (that's my guess, at any rate, the guy's even taller than sis!) looked like he's trying hold in the need to go the restroom, "You better make this up to me, you little squirt." He increase the pressure on my shoulder.

Hmm… similar uniforms… everyone around the same age… labeled rooms large enough to hold classes… my gods, I'm in a school! (This would be an amazing deduction were it not for the fact that Yokai Academy was written on a sign I saw on the way in.) Of course, that means…

"Oh I know what this is!" I raised the arm that isn't being held down, "I'm being bullied, right? I suppose you want my lunch money?" Good thing sis told me all those stories about school, or else I never would've figured this out. I smiled cheerfully at my amazing deduction.

He punched me in the head.

No damage.

"Errm," I squinted my eyes, confused, "Aren't you supposed to threaten me with violence after I refuse to give you my lunch money?" I mean, it's not like he can do anything, since he needs at least five more points in strength before he can even hurt me if he's going to use his bare hands.

Hmm… wait a second, this guy has Transformation as a skill. Does that make him a Manakete like Nah? But Nah doesn't have a skill, she uses Dragonstones. Hmm… Didn't one of the books I've read about Ike mention something like this? Something about Beorc (or was it Laguz?) being able to transform without the aid of Dragonstones. So I guess this guy is one of them? Actually… doesn't everyone in this hallway (aside from me, of course,) have that skill? (There's some individual differences in other skills and base stats, but they all share this one skill.) So… I guess I fell into a place similar to where the Radiant Hero fought?

I took another punch to the head. (I'd comment on the definition of insanity, but I'm the one taking punches like a chump.)

No damage.

Well, I guess I might as well fight back. Punch to the stomach, kick to the knees. (I'm not using my sword, since I have this sneaking suspicion that killing someone for punching me is going a bit overboard.)

"We done here?" I ask the idiot who's currently lying on the ground.

…Guess not, since he's trying to transform. I kick him twice in response, sending him into single digit hit points.

"If you really want to keep going," I laid a hand on the hilt of my sword, (hmm, it feels different… I'll investigate later,) "I can go ahead and cut your head off right now, spare us all some time," I offered.

"…"

"Thought so." I stepped around his prone form and continued on my way.

"Not that I don't appreciate the company," I turn towards the girl who indirectly caused the earlier fight, "But is there any reason that you're following me?" She stepped into the space in front of me.

…Fast. I just barely managed to follow that with my eyes. "Ah, I just wanted to thank you for earlier." She bowed.

"I have done nothing which requires thanks." Especially considering the fact that you're far stronger than I am.

"Do you… not like me?" She looked like she was about to cry. Ugh… I have no idea how to deal with this. Ah well, honestly should work out, right?

"I neither like nor dislike you," I continued after a shrug, "Well… I guess it's closer to like than dislike, so make of it what you will." Smooooooooooooth. (In retrospect, spending the last five years with only dead people for company might not have been good for my people skills …If they even existed in the first place.)

"…"

Okay, moving on. "Actually," I try to forcibly change the course of this train wreck, "Would you happen to know where the headmaster's office is?" It's a good bet that the headmaster would also be the most important person here, and thus likely the most powerful. …And I should probably get permission to be here anyway.

"Um," She gave me a quizzical look, probably because something like this should be common knowledge, "Yeah, follow me!" She pointed towards a nearby stairwell before grabbing my hand and dragging me towards it.


Barrier? Insight? Mastery of the Dark Arts? What the hell kind of skills are those?

"Hmm, it's not often that a student would visit me of their own violation," the hooded headmaster began, "What brings you here?"

"Unless the trip through the glowing magical portal caused me more brain damage than I thought…" a fair possibility, given that I'm apparently carrying my sister's sword around, "I'm not a student at your school."

"…A portal, you say?" How odd, I can't seem to see his face even though it's right in front of me, "Would you care to describe it to me? Location, how you found it, stuff like that."

"It's like, right off the coast of Ylisse, gigantic, purple, glowing." Not exactly something that can be missed, "Not sure how that's relevant though, since I'm fairly sure it's not even in the same universe as this place." Well, that is what happens when you get pushed into the Outrealms without a specific destination in mind. "Speaking of which, do you have any idea how I can get back to my own world?" Or a parallel thereof, "It's kind of important." I mean, I've got time, since the Outrealms allow time travel, but trying to fight mother without the Falchion is like trying to survive Lethality without Miracle or Dragonskin. (Hint, it's impossible.)

"…Hmm." …Why do I have the sudden impression that he's giving me an evil grin? "Of course I do! But can you pay the price?"

"I've got gold." Measured in units of metric fucktons, because I've honestly stopped counting after the eight thousand seven hundred and twenty sixth bar the Risen found in the middle of goddamn no where. "Convoy: Items: Bullion(L) * 10" …In retrospect, summoning something as heavy as gold in a chair probably wasn't a good idea. "So, uh, I really hope you accept payment in gold, because I doubt you guys accept Ylissian coinage here."

"Oh no," the headmaster laughed out loud, "This will cover your enrollment to the school… and the repair of my chair quite nicely, thank you." He waved a hand, and the stacks of gold bars (and the fragments of the chair) disappeared.

"What."

"You didn't expect dimensional travel to be so easy, did you?" …Okay, he's definitely leering at me, even if I can't see it. "I mean, I could just open a portal and have you walk through, but then you could end up god knows where. And possibly worse off. So, until I'm done with the preparations, why don't you become a student at my school for a bit? The admissions office is right down the hall to your left as you exit, they'll get you set up."

"That seems… logical." I turned to leave.

"Bawhahahaha."

Ignore it, Morgan, just ignore it. Happy thoughts, go to your happy place, there's no way this could end badly. I mean, there's no way Falchion's going to be stranded here, right? (I mean, sure, it got lost once or twice in the long history of Ylisse, but it always ended up back in the hands of the royal family …Meaning I'd need to die for that logic to work. Dammit.)

Compared to my meeting with the definitely not evil nor psychotic headmaster, whom I have no reason to worry about what so ever, the admissions process was rather straightforward. …Though it might be better to say that it's non-existent, considering they actually accepted 'Castle Ylisse' as my address, 'heck if I know' as my age, and 'Dragon' as my blood type. (What the hell is a blood type anyway?) Time to go check out my room, (can't believe no one took room 359 yet,) before getting some training in. (While it would be far faster to train by fighting some of the stronger people in this school… I've heard enough stories about the absurdly powerful student councils that usually run a school to not want to antagonize them. By, say, going around and beating other students senseless.)


Well, this looks like a nice place to train for a bit, hopefully the fact that I remember what it was like to be ridiculously strong means that it won't be as hard getting there the second time. (I'd chug a bunch of energy drops and the like, but apparently the only things left in my Convoy are two hundred and sixty seven vulneraries. …Which is odd, to say the least, considering I had enough supplies stocked to fight a war in there.) Oh well, given that I'm probably stuck using a sword for the time being, I might as well do some dry swings with it.

One… Two… Three… Four…

Eight thousand seven hundred and twenty three… Eight thousand seven hundred and twenty four… Eight thousand seven hundred and twenty five… Eight thousand seven hundred and twenty six…

Hmm… the sun's going down, better go get some food before the cafeteria closes. (Good thing meals are covered under enrollment costs, because I have no idea how to pay for food otherwise, haha. Come to think of it, maybe that's why the bully got mad at me for offering him my lunch money earlier.) I hope they have apple pies for desert.


…I want to marry the chef. Apple pies, apple cupcakes, apple gravy, (to dip roasted apples in, presumably, don't know why it was next to the pork shoulders, but whatever,) apple butter, apple salad… (there's some other, less important components as well, but it's apple salad,) I must've been a great person in a past life, a saint, possibly. Ah… I'm so happy I could cry.

Let's see... I'll have two slices of pie, three cupcakes, some pork cutlets on the side to go with the apple butter and apple gravy, some roasted apples, and a glass of apple juice to wash the whole thing down. I wouldn't mind staying here for a couple of years if all my meals are going to be like this, I'm sure time travel will ensure that sis gets her sword back in time.

After finding an empty table to eat at, I dug in.

Munch, munch, munch, munch, take a swig of juice, munch, munch, munch, munch. Hmm… excellent, though the taste of pork was a bit heavy, I should get some more apples next time. Well, time to go to bed, I'll need to be fully awake to catch up on all my classes tomorrow. (Luckily, I landed here on the first day of classes, so hopefully I haven't missed much.)

Bump.

"Oh, sorry," this needs to stop happening, "Are you alright?" I offer a hand to the blue haired girl I accidentally knocked down.

"Ah, thank you." Luckily, she seems rather more amiable than the person I crashed into this morning. "I'm Kurumu Kurono, please be a good friend to me, okay?"

I break eye contact with her, "Please don't do that…" I sigh, "While talismans can prevent minor magical effects like mild hypnotism, they do use up some of their stored power in doing so, and the ones stitched into my robes are rather irreplaceable." Not because of their value, or probable difficulty in finding replacements in the world, but because who stitched them into the clothes I currently wear.

While I posses a passable aptitude for magic, accidentally singing myself, and my robes, was a common occurrence before I got a fair amount of control. It got bad enough at one point that sis started stitching in talismans in hopes of ameliorating the damage. Considering she ended up using about twenty talismans… I'm not sure she succeeded. (Part of it might've been my fault, of course, since my raw magical power increased at a faster rate than my control. And, given that I tend to be the type to learn by doing, I was doing a lot of zapping targets, trees, the occasional Risen, and, of course, myself.)

"Really…" She shot me a dark look, "And I suppose Moka Akashiya has nothing to do with why my allure didn't work?"

"…Who?" Huh, so that hypnotism trick was Allure, good to know. Come to think of it, the pink haired girl had that ability as well, hmm... "Wait, are you talking about the pretty pink haired girl I met earlier?" Oh god, a frown, recover, Morgan, recover. "…But she's not as pretty as you are?" Which is true, since the only way two people can be equally pretty is if they're identical clones or something. (Or maybe parallel versions of themselves? Hmm… I wonder if I'd be able to meet myself in the past. It's not like time paradoxes are going to be a problem, considering the entire point of sis heading back was to change the past.)

"Glad to see you have good taste," Kurumu smiled beatifically at me, "Of course, that also means you're no longer interesting. Goodbye." Errm, okay.

Well… crisis averted, I guess. (I mean, a guy can't win when fighting girls. Either I beat her up, and everyone thinks I'm an asshole, or I get beaten up, and everyone thinks I'm a wimp. While the latter designation might be useful at times, for pulling off certain plots and such… it's not something you want hanging over your head for years on end.)

Well… hopefully I can get into bed without another random encounter today.

And then I did. (After showering and brushing my teeth, of course.)

Good thing my luck isn't bad enough to trigger events just from thinking them. (Saying them out loud… is a different matter.)


A/N:

Not much to see here. Though a note on the damage from the Lucina v. Morgan fight from last chapter:

It makes more sense if you pretend neither of them have Limit Break and calculate damage as if Falchion was at 36 MT.