Chapter 3 The new transfer students

Hamuko: Heya, new chapter!

Me: Yeah, those two weren't here last time because Hamuko won a bet about how much attention this project would get and guess Minato owed her ramen. Where's the emo anyways?

XXX

Akihiko felt suddenly the warmth and peace of the spell. A green light was emitting out of Minato and waving over everyone.

"Dude what was that?" asked Junpei.

The male Arisato grinned towards the boxer. "What?" Akihiko asked.

"So what was that about an injury?" he asked.

"Huh? What...?" Akihiko moved his arms.

"Akihiko! Move one more time and I-"

"No pain! It's alright!" exclaimed Akihiko. He did some shadow boxing. "Yeah, everything is fine."

"Well, at least you weakling can train now properly." Minato grinned. Akihiko growled. "I'll show you what I got." he said and stormed off the room, probably training.

"Akihiko!" shouted Mitsuru.

"And there he goes." said Minato.

"You!" exclaimed the red head. "What EXACTLY have you done?!" she asked/ screamed.

"I healed his injury?"

"But healing spells are NOT capable of doing this kind of thing."

"Just shows how weak you all are. I mean, how long are you fighting shadows now and how much progress did you really make? OW!"

"You calling me weak?" asked his sister in a sweet venom tone, after hitting him on the head.

"As far as I can see your strength" said Nyx "you are indeed."

"Wait until you see me in action! Hey senpai, wait up!" screamed Hamuko and ran after Akihiko.

"Nice, my sister turning into a gym junkie." Minato deadpanned.

"A what?" Nyx asked.

"Someone who excessively trains as if it is a drug."

"A drug?"

Minato face palmed.

"A drug is something that makes you feel good, but has terrible side effects. You cannot get away from it easily and it can end deadly if you take one too much. They're illegal by the way. And illegal means not allowed."

"Ah." The goddess nodded. Minato let out a heavy sigh.

"You seem to know a lot for someone who has been locked away in Tartarus for ten years." commented Shuji.

'Crap, the bastard got a point.' thought Minato. He tried to think of something. You could find a lot of things in Tartarus, but not something like news magazines.

"You have your secrets and I have mine, that's how it is." he finally said. The bastard nodded with a slight grin. Minato had to restrain himself again.

There was a slight tension in the air. Mitsuru cleared her throat. "In any event, since you two are going to stay here, you two will have to attend Gekkougan High. I will make sure of the arrangements."

"Sweet! Another hot girl in our class!" cheered Junpei.

"Urrrgh, this is all you ever think about, right?" asked Yukari. Minato wasn't sure how to explain the next comment to Nyx, without endangering Junpei's life.

XXX

Nyx looked around in her new room. A desk, a bed, a chair, a window, nothing she wasn't familiar with, just she knew these things in a complete different way.

There was some kind of thing at the wall. When she pressed it, the thing from the ceiling started emitting light everywhere into the room.

"Practical." she said to herself.

Mitsuru had organized some clothes to change into. Nyx tried on the so called pajamas and was surprised how comfortable they were. "Perfect to sleep."

Beside the school uniform, there were some clothes for days without school. Minato said a school was there for humans to learn things. There were around thirty students in one class.

"Things have changed over the centuries. The last time I was in the human world, I cannot remember exactly."

She decided to explore the rest of the room the next day. She turned off the lights and put herself under the blanket. She then remembered she had to activate her alarm clock. According to Minato School started early. However, she had no idea how to do so.

She tried different buttons until the dark hour struck.

"Let me help you." said a soft voice. When she looked up, she saw a young boy in black white striped clothes. He gently took the alarm clock, pushed some buttons and reset the correct time.

"Here"

"Thank you." she said and placed the clock on the night stand. She couldn't help but smile at the boy. Did she know him?

The boy smiled back. "Shouldn't you sleep? You have school tomorrow, don't you?" he asked.

"How do you know?" Nyx asked. The boy smiled. "I'm happy you have decided for this."

"For what?" she asked.

The boy looked troubled. "I don't know myself. It just feels right to say it. Why are you hugging me?"

"It just feels right." she said and closed the little boy within her wings. Why did it feel like the right thing to do?

XXX

Morning came way too early for Nyx. When she looked into the mirror, she saw her hair in a complete mess. After some effort her hair was in its original order. After some difficulties in putting on her uniform, she was about to head out, when someone knocked on her door.

"It's Yukari. Are you awake?"

Nyx opened the door.

"Morning, are you ready for the day?"

"I think so." she said. Her stomach growled all of the sudden. Nyx blushed a little. Yukari suppressed a snicker as she was still wary of the shadow girl.

"Okay, let's head down for breakfast."

...

"Where is Minato?" Nyx asked.

"Oh, Hamuko-chan already took him to school. She's an early riser and dragged him along with Mitsuru-senpai."

"Mitsuru too?"

Yukari shrugged. "I don't know, she insisted on coming along. Normally she uses the limousine to get to school."

"I am sorry, but what is a limousine?"

"Oh right, have you seen the cars out there?"

"Yes."

"Well, a limousine is a car, only pretty long and only people with a lot of money have them."

Nyx nodded.

"Oh yeah, did Minato explain to you how to behave in school?" Yukari asked.

"He wanted to do it today."

"Oh well, I guess I can do it now. Just be quiet during lectures and don't talk to other students during class or you'll be in trouble. If others break those rules, you better don't do so too."

"Sounds logical."

XXX

Nyx was watching the view over the ocean, blocking out everything else. Yukari meanwhile felt uncomfortable with the shadow girl.

"Yukari-san."

"Y-yes?!" she almost shrieked.

"What is a little boy doing at the dorm?"

"A...boy?"

"He visited my room yesterday during the dark hour. He wore striped clothes."

"H-huh? Hey, is this some kind of joke?"

"Of course not." Nyx let the issue drop and looked outside the window again. She saw the small island coming closer.

XXX

"Yo..." Minato let out a yawn as he greeted Nyx. "Never thought Mitsuru would manage to get us to school so early. You know, I'm officially dead." he chuckled.

"Mhm. Why did she want to come with you?"

He sighed. "I'm gonna be honest: she thought that I was under shadow influence, your influence to be precise. I think she's scared the shadows could infiltrate SEES and destroy the group. Oh and I'm not supposed to tell you anything, so don't tell anyone else, okay?"

Nyx nodded. "You under my influence? I hate to admit it, but with the universe you are stronger than I am."

"Yeah, anyways, let's go to the faculty office before others start any false rumors."

"Rumors?"

"Stories, like we're in love or something."

"This would be ridiculous."

"Yeah, but the rest doesn't know you aren't human. Anyways, we're here."

Minato knocked at door. A few seconds later a voice called them to come in. They were greeted by Minato's old homeroom Ms Touriumi.

"Oh are you two the last minute transfer students?"

"Yeah, after last minute decision." Minato joked. "I suppose I can't help it. I was officially declared dead ten years ago."

"Oh yes, I've read about it. But why were you declared dead in the first place? I'm sorry if I-"

"Don't worry sensei. It's really simple. I was found during the accident. I don't exactly remember the details, but I was too shocked to say anything. My step parents moved to Greek, where I met my friend here. Then a week ago I found my sister via facebook. Crazy story, right?"

"Wow, you must have had it hard."

"Well, things are going up now."

"Ah, an optimist I see."

"Do not let his charm fool you. He is only happy to see his sister. He is normally really boring."

"Hey!" 'Never thought a gods humor was that low.'

"Fool me? You certainly have a special way to express yourself."

"...I was raised this way."

"Mhm. Oh, look at the time. We have to get going or we'll be late. Let's see, you two are in my class 2-F."

XXX

"Class, we have two additional transfer students. It was a last minute decision, so there'd been problems with the papers. In any event, please greet Kuraiko Nyx and Minato Arisato." announced the homeroom of 2-F.

Minato and Nyx wrote their names at the blackboard and gave a short greeting.

Reaction of the females:

"Oh, look at him."

"A looker."

"He's so mysterious."

"Ah, he looked at me."

"Psst, quite you, he'll hear you."

Reaction of the males:

"Dude, she's hot."

"I'm gonna ask her out."

"That eyes, I have dreamed of her."

"Gimme one week and I got her."

"Oh man, that lucky bastard."

Reaction of the transferees:

Sighing with rolling eyes.

"Here we go again." Minato muttered.

"And I thought Erebus is annoying. I have to apologize to him." Nyx said loud enough so Minato and Touriumi sensei could hear him.

Since the two came to school on the very last day, they had to take seats on the last row near the windows. Good for Minato, so he could sleep even more during lectures. However since he had to be a role model for Nyx, he stayed up and actually listened.

He tried as best as he could to block out the gossip going around the students.

"You think they're together?"

"Nah, I'm sure she would have given the girls at least a few dirty glares."

"They act pretty similar. Could be they're best friends. Best friends are never together, it doesn't work."

"What do you think what kind of music she likes? Metal? Rock?"

"Oh man, didn't miss that." Minato muttered.

Nyx meanwhile had problems staying awake. However she would endure it, she was a god after all. From the corner of her eye, she could see Minato having the same problems. Now she knew why he wasn't looking forward to school. Half of the lecture they heard how Touriumi sensei didn't like this or that author.

xxx

During lunch Hamuko showed them around school. Apparently clubs were opening this day and Minato considered joining boxing this time around. Hamuko already signed up for Tennis. After listening to the different club activities and hearing it could help getting to her goal faster, Nyx decided to join Tennis as well. She mainly did it because of Hamuko, so there would be someone to explain things to her.

Minato and Hamuko bought the melon bread stock. Nyx had some too (because she was first in the row).

They decided to eat at the roof. "Hey, Hamuko-chan!" greeted a girl with black hair stuck up in a long ponytail.

"Oh hey Rio-chan. These are Kuraiko Nyx and my brother Minato."

"Y-your brother? But-"

Minato simply repeated his story.

"Wow...I'm Rio, nice to meet you. I'm the leader of the tennis club."

"Yeah and guess what? I got ourselves a new recruit." Hamuko gestured towards Nyx.

"Ah, nice to hear. So, have you played before Kuraiko-san?"

Nyx shook her head. "No."

"Ah, don't make that face. We don't mind if you're new to Tennis, just give your best." Rio pumped her fist up.

"Just be warned she's almost as tough as Akihiko senpai." Hamuko grinned.

"Oh yeah, did you manage to catch up to him yesterday?" Minato asked.

"You bet."

"Huh, what happened?"

After some more small talk, class was about to resume, when Hamuko suddenly stopped the two. "The next teacher is Ekoda."

'Oh great Erebus, if you succeed, please kill this person first.'

"I don't know why, but he's scared of me for some reason."

"Scared?" the two in front of her asked.

"Well he' a jerk. And as a jerk he is, he thought I was some kind of lazy transfer student, just because I had my head placed on my arms. After he got my name he ran away from class."

"That is something else." 'I wish he had done it in my world.'

"But why is he afraid of you?"

"Beats me, but when he gets on your nerves, you just give our last name and you say you're our best friend."

"You're evil sis."

She grinned devilishly. "I haven't even started.

Minato shuddered, but went into class Nyx following him. Hamuko's face fell. 'I wasn't able to tell him. I'm such a wimp. But, will he even understand my actions? No, because it was unforgivable. Who wants a murderer in their family?'

xxx

Ekoda's lessons were exactly like Minato remembered, only he would excuse himself for a few minutes, when he looked at Minato or Hamuko. Everyone noticed and started gossiping.

This time Minato shut it completely down.

"This is strange. He must have some kind of reason to fear you." said Nyx during one of the breaks.

"Well, he didn't act this way in my world. Just what is up with that?"

"Maybe it is the butterfly effect?" Nyx suggested.

"You mean how one single detail can cause a whole wave of events?" asked Minato.

"Yes, exactly like a single butterfly can cause a whole storm. Maybe one, just one of her actions as a girl caused all this."

"Well, seeing as how different we're I guess it is a possibility. Still, I think it is something else."

After school the juniors walked outside. Minato gave Nyx the tip to stay in a group, so no fanboys/fangirls would annoy them.

Outside the building they found fangirls squealing because of Akihiko.

"Man, can you belief this. He's one lucky guy." said Junpei.

"He doesn't look happy to me." said Minato.

"Hey, are you free today?" the boxer asked the juniors.

"Yeah, what is it?" asked Minato.

"I want you to meet me at the police station later."

"Why not now?" asked the boy.

"Uff, Mitsuru wants me to run a checkup, although I'm feeling better than ever." he said.

"Oh well, I guess we'll be heading to Hagakure first."

"You know Hagakure already?"

"Hamuko showed us around. Laters."

XXX

"Hey senpai, what about our weapons?" Minato asked outside the police station, while the rest of the juniors (excluding Nyx) were picking their weapons.

"Well, Mitsuru is still wary of you guys to be honest."

"I can't blame her." Minato said.

"She would be a fool, to trust us this early." Nyx said. "The rest needs to train. As they are now, they cannot succeed the tower."

"Oh yeah, that reminds me, senpai, do you have a free place in boxing club? There we could spar a few times."

"Heh, sure thing. I'll organize everything. By the way, your sister sure has stamina. I want her to be the leader even afterwards. She has potential and even Mitsuru agrees with me there."

"Sure thing. I guess Nyx and I will stay on the side lines and intervene if anything goes completely wrong. The shadows on the later floors are tricky. Oh and have you seen the door on the first floor?"

"Yeah, but we didn't manage to open it."

"I can do it, but we better let it closed. The monad block." Minato shuddered. "The shadows down there are over the top. I don't go there very often and it's as exhausting as hell. After we manage to get up the whole tower, I can show you the block that leads downstairs. Not funny I can tell you. So how was the checkup?"

"Well, even the docs haven't seen something like this and they know about personas and shadows. Thanks for that by the way." Akihiko said.

"No problem." Minato scratched the back of his head.

"Alright, I see you guys later. I have to catch up some training."

"Good luck senpai." Minato shouted after the boxer.

Nyx had mostly observed the conversation. Minato found himself reminded of Aigis of how she would watch the dorm members interacting with one another.

"Why are you grinning?" she asked.

"Oh, you just remembered me of another friend we're going to meet later."

"How so?" the goddess asked.

"She's an Anti-Shadow weapon, a robot. She's the one who sealed Thanatos within me or in this case within my sister. She slowly started developing emotions, now that I look back, it was actually funny to see her doing this, even if she got me more than ones in trouble."

"What exactly is a robot?" Nyx asked.

'You'd think I should be used to this already. Oh man, at least Aigis had access to a database full of information.'

"You know a robot is a machine, like those cars. Only a robot looks a bit more human and has a mind of its own, depending on its AI: artificial intelligence. However Aigis awoke to more than just emotions. She became a living being who needs food, water and sleep like every other human." he explained, still amazed by that fact.

Nyx absorbed the information like a computer herself. Minato found himself more and more reminded of Aigis.

Hamuko and Junpei stepped out of the police department.

"Found anything?"

"Hell yeah!" both cheered.

"So any ideas for the rest of the day?" asked Minato.

"Game panic!"

So Hamuko and Junpei spend the rest of their money at playing arcade games. Nyx preferred to watch, but was soon dragged by Hamuko and Junpei to play along. She wasn't very good. Minato offered her some karaoke, maybe that was more her thing.

She shrugged and went along with him. She didn't understand these video games anyways. Minato gave a quick explanation on how karaoke worked.

Inside they looked for a free karaoke machine. The stage was empty at the moment. Every Saturday and Sunday there were little tournaments.

The only machine that was free at the moment only contained love songs.

'Funny coincidence. I just hope fate doesn't play any tricks on me.'

The two of them spent the rest of the day at this very machine. Nyx was a pretty good singer Minato had to admit. When they chose 'duel mode' on the machine, they ended up in a par.

XXX

"I didn't know you could sing."

"Of course not. We barely know each other." she stated as a matter of fact.

"Yeah, anyways, we still have to do our homework. You think you'll be okay or do you need any help?"

"Do you think I am a fool?" she snapped.

"No, no" he waved his arms in defense. "I just thought you'd need help since this is all new to you."

"...I will consider your help if I need to." she said in the end.

The two headed back to the dorm. They were greeted by Yukari and evilly eyed by Mitsuru.

Both headed upstairs.

XXX

Minato was finished with his homework in less than thirty minutes, leaving him enough time to catch up with his sister. Her life had been pretty similar to his, only she made some good friends.

"Where's Kuraiko?" asked Hamuko at one point.

"Doing homework or maybe already asleep." Minato suggested.

"Maybe she needs help."

"Nah, I asked her already. She said she would ask if she needs help."

"Ah, okay."

Hamuko leaned her head against her brother's shoulder. "I'm glad you're here."

"Me too, sis. Me too."

Hamuko heard the familiar sound of crashing glass and the voice in her head. She blocked out most of it and waited impatiently for the-

"Universe Arcana?" she whispered to herself. She knew about tarot and in there the world was the last card. She thought her brother would be maybe death or hierophant, maybe judgment, but universe? This card doesn't even exist in tarot.

If anyone says I'm a bit quick with Pharos, he won't appear for quite a while.