I shook my head again, bringing myself back to reality. That's why I was here. It didn't make sense at first, in fact it was a completely nonsensical situation. I just figured the rabbit was some kind of animatronic and I shrugged it off. I looked up and realized the girl was still clinging onto me. I moved my hands around her back and patted it gently. After a few moments her sobs ceased and she loosened her grip around me, loose enough for me to wiggle out of. I poked her shoulder and she released me completely. I took a step back and a sigh left my lips followed by a gentle smile.

"Hi, my name is Chiaki Nanami." I said gently, extending my right hand for a handshake. "What's yours?"

It took a couple seconds for the girl to respond. She just stared at me, as if she was unsure if she should reply. The girl gulped audibly, her eyes not leaving mine.

"M-My name is M-Mikan Tsumiki…" The girl said timidly. Mikan gripped my hand and squeezed it tightly. "I-I hope we can get along!" She said loudly, maybe a bit too loudly.

I nodded in response and she released my hand. The girl quickly put her fingers to her mouth and began mumbling something to herself.

"Hey, Mikan." I said trying to get her attention. "If you're here you're an Ultimate right? What's your talent?"

The girl placed her hand back at her side as quickly as she put it there and returned her focus towards me.

"R-Right!" The purple hair girl exclaimed. "Nurse… I-I'm the Ultimate Nurse. T-That's my talent…" Mikan said with a smile. She seemed proud of herself, that was clear to see even through her naturally timid demeanour. "I-If y-you're Chiaki N-Nanami y-you're the U-Ultimate G-Gamer right?"

I nodded in response.

"Right, I am, but how did you know that?" I asked curiously.

"W-Well, I looked up everyone o-on a forum online b-before I c-came here." The nurse said softly.

"Oh, right. I've seen a couple those." I replied.

Suddenly we witnessed the appearance of a rabbit, the one from before to be exact.

"Love, Love!" The bunny exclaimed.

"Kyaa!" Mikan screamed as she jumped back in fear.

The nurse stumbled a bit before ultimately ending up on her rump in a compromising position with her legs spread wide apart. I covered my eyes with my hand and extended a hand to help her up. She gripped it firmly and using all my weight, I pulled her up from the sand.

"Are you alright?" The rabbit asked.

Mikan nodded in response and the rabbit seemed to sigh and placed its paws on its hips.

"Well, that's good." The bunny said happily.

"Hey, what are you?" I asked curiously.

"Well, I'm Magical Girl Usami." The rabbit exclaimed proudly. "I'm your teacher."

Part of me wanted to gag at the mention of 'magical girl'. Those types of shows were never my favourite. Then it hit me. The rabbit was our teacher? The only logical assumption was that our real teacher was piloting this animatronic. It was still pretty hard to wrap my head around all of this. Why all this? Was this a normal HPA welcome?

"Alright, Usami right? How do we get out of here?" I asked as I looked around my immediate field of view for a boat or plane.

"You have to collect all the Hope Shards." Usami replied.

"H-Hope… Shards..?" Mikan asked timidly as ever, still visibly terrified of the appearance of Usami.

"Hope Shards. You get them from meeting the other students on the island." The bunny replied, this time in a softer tone in an attempt to sooth Mikan.

I let out a yawn. It was still early and I was kind of tired, but if we had to meet other students to get out of here so be it.

"Alright, we'll do it." I said somewhat lazily.

Usami nodded and just as easily as she appeared, she vanished. Mikan shrieked once more and fell backwards in my direction. Luckily for her, I caught her by the armpits.

"Easy girl." I said, giggling a bit.

Mikan's face turned a slight shade of crimson.

"I-I'm sorry! Please forgive me!" She begged.

"It's fine, really." I said softly, trying to not make her feel worse with my usual 'don't care-ish' tone. "Maybe a little less loud next time."

The nurse nodded frantically in response.

"So where to now?" I asked curiously.

"Well, t-there's an airport, o-over that way." The nurse said pointing to the direction of the airport. "D-Do you want to go there?"

"Sure." I replied.

I began walking in the direction Mikan had pointed me in and she hurriedly followed.

I wasn't really enthusiastic about meeting everyone, but if it was something had to be done, I suppose I'd have to do it. Mikan seemed nice though, a bit strange, but nice nonetheless. Maybe we could become friends? I couldn't think about that right now though. I needed to collect these 'Hope Shards'. Every step I took I was hit by the breeze of the island. Hopefully I'd be out of here soon.