He finds himself awake and aware sometime between the rising of the sun and the beginning of the day. He lies in bed, blinking up at the room around him, unwilling to disturb the covers cocooned around him. The preparations took days to finalise, his activities interrupted at every possible opportunity by the elders, by everyone in his counsel. They all said the same things, all drilled the same points into his head so hard and so frequently he could feel the warnings still swimming in the back of his mind. Headaches, dizziness, nausea, hunger and unholy pain – he knew the signs well enough, he knew what it felt like to go without akuto. They didn't have to tell him, and yet, they did. He knew they had only the best intentions in mind, but he was not the child he once was. He is a King, not a fool.

He untangles himself, pushes himself, knowing that the day will go on with or without him to witness it. He must move.

The uniform is black and blue and slightly too short and too big and he doesn't like it one bit – it clashes - but he supposes he must get used to it. He supposes if all else fails, he can just have it altered, but that would require time, effort, and knowledge of how to sew.

Or he could use magic.

He could feel people staring as he flew down, gawking at the calm manner in which he held himself, as if he flew around like this every day. Which he did, but that's beside the point. He allowed himself to stare right back for a bit before landing, trying not to notice the continued gazes as he walked along, resisting the urge to just fly to the school and save himself the walk. It would have been so easy to just jump away from the surface, away from the awkward looks and whispered words of the humans. It would have been so easy. Instead, he readjusts his uniform – it clings in all the right places, perfectly tailored to flatter his slim form without drawing unnecessary attention, but still his shirt rides up. This annoys him, but he can't magic it in place, not now. He had made a promise to himself that he would only use magic when absolutely necessary – transporting himself to and from school, eluding the press, saving small creatures from trees and so on. Anything else he would have to do the 'human' way, whatever that entailed. After all, he couldn't very well attempt to understand a people if he did not at least make an effort to live like them.

Yet, perhaps his efforts would prove unnecessary. From the small bits of Yumemi's memory that had made its way into his awareness, Humans and Heavenly beings didn't seem all that different at the end of the day. Seemed being the key word, of course. After all, she was human – goodness knows she knew more about them than he did. He could only hope that he actually did learn a thing or two from her memories, if only to reduce the inevitable culture shock.

Naturally, in a grand effort to prove all his early attempts at understanding completely wrong, the universe promptly introduced him to high school girls. In addition to the usual stares and hushed whispers, there were giggles, titters, and glances at places he was not entirely comfortable with. He wanted to walk away, wanted to pretend that he couldn't hear them, but it was too late.

"Hey, isn't that-" Lord Munto, King of the Magical Kingdom, pleased to meet your acquaintance.

"He's kinda-" Kind of what?

"That hair-" Was there was a problem with his hair?

"Do you think he-?" Did he what? Glue his ears on in the morning? That seemed to be a stunningly common theory.

"Probably, but…" Munto glanced behind him, pretending to be examining the grounds. Were they really gossiping about him? They were really gossiping about him. He had been witness to people actually gossiping about him. There was always gossip, sure, but really now. He was looking right at them.

"Those ears! Do you think they're fake too?" It was around this point that he realised that, yes, they were definitely talking about him. He still couldn't understand why they thought his ears were false, or what the problem with his hair was though.

"Na, can't be. The school wouldn't…" Wouldn't what? Allow his ears?

"The school shouldn't in the first place…" It seemed almost like they thought he shouldn't even be here. He might have almost been offended if he wasn't already used to it.

"But those eyes!" Okay, so that sounded more like a compliment than an insult. This was getting weird.

"Those legs!" Legs, he could deal with the leg thing. He liked his legs. They served him well.

"That butt!" Now, that was a bit awkward. He hardly had an arse in the first place. What were they so excited about?

"Those eyebrows!" Okay, now that just crossed a line. A thing for legs was understandable, as was having a thing for eyes, and even a thing for barely existing rears, that was true even in the Heavens, but eyebrows?

"How could they not?!" they ended together, sighing and clutching each other. Munto was left to stare openly at them, confused and slightly afraid before he remembered his manners and went back to getting away from them as quickly as possible. He could not grasp the concept of his eyebrows being attractive enough to warrant the screeching they now seemed to garner from the girls out front. Maybe it was just a human thing? Then again, Yumemi and her friends never seemed terribly enamoured with his eyebrows…. He supposed he had to be thankful for that, if this really did turn out to be a common thing amongst humans. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to have to deal with whatever the heck that was from the girls for longer than a minute.

Yet, he supposed he wouldn't have minded so much if Yumemi was the one doing that. It would still be annoying after a while, but he didn't think he would end up walking away very, very quickly after two minutes. Huh.

Lost in his thoughts, it didn't take him long to find himself far out of hearing range of the girls. It only took him only a few seconds more to find himself standing awkwardly in front of the main office, waiting to be allowed in. This would be his first time in the building as a student instead of a monarch. He had passed the entrance exam as a monarch, had spoken to the principal as a monarch, chosen his courses as a monarch, and even set out some ground rules as a monarch. Today, he would enter that room not as Lord Munto, but as Munto the exchange student who just happened to live in a magical kingdom in the sky.

It felt a little bit odd, to say the least.

His thoughts drew to a close as the door opened, inviting him into the richly furnished room. He thought it clashed quite horribly with the rest of the school, but he decided to keep his mouth shut on the matter as he stood, not daring to sit down without the principal's consent. That was how it was done in his country - that was how he would act until informed otherwise.

"Ah, Lo-" The short man coughed, attempting to cover up the slight slip. "Munto-chan, how lovely to see you again. Please, have a seat." Now hold on, did that child of a principal just refer to him as Munto-chan? Not even Munto-san, but Munto-chan, as if he was something cute and innocent and… Munto had to remind himself to breath.

"Haninozuka-san." He nodded, sitting in the directed seat. It was quite plush.

"Tea?" The small man asked from behind his curled moustache, gesturing to a tacky statue of a man holding a tea set.

"No, I-" Heavenly beings couldn't exactly eat human food, not to his knowledge.

"Oh, but I insist." The blond chirped, waving at the statue to come over. "Takashi makes the most excellent Earl Grey, don't you Takashi?" The principal's voice jumped an octave, sounding more like a child's voice for a moment as he looked to his statue. Munto swore he saw small flowers radiating from the strange man. He was beginning to question the principal's sanity, if not his own.

The statue moved.

Now, there were several plausible outcomes at this point – the first involved Munto applauding the human's skill with robotics, the second involving taking the tea and pretending to not mind the alleged robot, the third involving screeching like a little girl and fleeing for his life.

He chose to instead to let out the most dignified squeak he could muster, take his tea, and try to let the heat of the cup calm him. He never did have the greatest experiences with machines larger than himself.

"Thank you, Takashi." The principal nodded his approval, allowing the robot to go back into its corner. "Now, then…" the small man said, turning back to the royal-turned-student. "What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Well…."

They spent the next half hour talking, going over basic societal rules, norms, and taboos, what he needed to know on his first day, and the options available to him should he want to continue on after high school, and other subjects you of little significance.

It was only vaugely interesting.

As he left, Munto wondered if all authorities on the surface had robots. Principal Haninozuka just turned to his alleged robot, scratching at his curly moustache.

"Takashiiii, it itchesss. You be principal next time." the small man whined, pulling at the offending article until it detached itself from his face. The alleged robot just nodded, picking up the fluff of blond before moving to the back room.

"Takashi! Takashi, can I have the strawberry cake? Pleassee?"

"Aa."

A/N: Next chapter, things actually may start happening (maybe), so don't count me out just yet. Oh yes, that reminds me, how am I doing? Logic still sound? Character still good? *EDITED 12/31/09*