Maru wandered into the passing crowd aimlessly, going against the flow of traffic. The next-door classroom marked 3-2 appeared empty, and he ducked inside. He winced as he realized he was not, in fact, alone.

With him in the room was a blond girl. Her fingers traced down a sheet of paper as her eyebrows came together in concentration. As he watched, her head rose, and turned in his direction. Her eyes were closed. Blind?

"Ah, excuse me," he said. "Didn't realize anyone was still in here." He looked closer at her, and realized she was very tall. Almost as tall, if not taller than he was, and his height was slightly above the average. Between that and the blond hair, he realized she probably had a western parent. Her features however, were Japanese. Probably mixed breed, then. Know that feel.

"Oh, hello there," said the girl. "May I help you?"

"Ah, probably not," he admitted as he took a step back to try to find another room. "Just sort of looking for refuge from the lunchtime hustle. Sorry to disturb you."

"It's quite alright," she replied. "I was just trying to finish this before I go to lunch myself."

"Ah..." He gave into his better nature and strode toward her. "Something I can help with?"

"I'm about done," she admitted with a smile. "But thank you for offering."

"Hey, not a problem," he replied.

"I take it you're a new student to Yamaku?" She removed her finger from the article in front of her.

"Hole in one," he admitted. "Maru's the name."

"I'm Lilly Satou," she said with a smile and a restrained bow. "Pleased to meet you, Maru."

"Likewise, I assure you," he replied as he nodded his head in return before pondering the futility of the action. He shrugged it off. "Heh, it's actually Maru Kobayashi. Don't usually use the last name, though."

"Then I shall continue to call you Maru," she replied as her smile widened, "if you will call me Lilly in return. There's no need to be too formal"

"That's quite alright by me," he admitted as he took a seat. He scratched his chin. "Say, are you from around here? That is, if you don't mind my asking," he added as an afterthought.

"My my, is it the hair?" Lilly asked with amusement.

"As a matter of fact...," Maru admitted with a chuckle.

She giggled. "As a matter of fact," she repeated, "I was born in Scotland."

"Well, that answers that," he replied. "You don't have much of an accent, though."

"I have lived here for most of my life," she replied. "On the subject of accents, yours is most unusual, if you don't mind that observation."

He gave a barking laugh, which made her wince. "Ah, sorry."

She waved her hand at his apology. "It's alright, I was merely surprised at the volume." She frowned. "Though I feel I should be used to it by now."

"Eh, even so." He thought about asking about the second part, but shrugged it off. "I can be a bit loud sometimes, I'll try to avoid it in the future." He scratched the back of his head. "Anyway, the accent... You know, I don't actually know how it came about, honestly. All I do know is that it tends to follow other accents into alleys and mug them for phonetics."

"My my, such unusual phrasing," she said with an amused smile. "Should I be worried?"

"Naw, you'll be fine." He grinned. "After all, you don't have an accent!"

"That's reassuring..." She frowned. "I think."

"Ahh, don't mind me, I'm harmless," he said and shook his head. "Though I will admit that I enjoy playing with people's heads sometimes." He cleared his throat. "Uh, anyway, what was that about my accent?"

"It's most curious," Lilly admitted. "In ways, it reminds me of that of a native English speaker, or at least someone from a western country. It's quite hard to place; it has traces of Russian, German, some American," she smiled, "and even a rather familiar Scottish tinge."

"Well," Maru replied in English, "my English is pretty good, if I do say so myself."

"Indeed it is," she replied, also in English. "So I return your question to you: Where are you from?"

"I am from a little town near Osaka, actually," he replied, this time in Japanese. "My English is... well, I can't properly explain it. It's a very long story."

"Maybe you can tell me another time then?" She frowned and put the sheet of paper she had been working with in her bag. "Unfortunately, I am expected, and I'm already running a bit late." She stood up, and retrieved a collapsible cane from under the table where she had been working.

"Ah, then I won't keep you," he said. A thought occurred to him. "Oh, one thing though! I don't suppose you know where the library is, do you?"

Lilly smiled. "As a matter of fact, I will be going right by it. Shall I show you where it is?"

"Now that's convenience," Maru replied with a smile of his own as he shrugged off his previous plan to get some lone time. "Please do. I leave myself in your capable care."

She nodded as her smile widened. "Then follow me, please."

Maru did as instructed, as she led him down a flight of stairs. He had to slow his pace down to match hers, and watched with interest as she descended the stairs. He took the other side of the stairwell, which was perhaps fortunate as in his inattentiveness, he stepped poorly on his prosthetic and tripped down the remaining three steps of the flight. He sighed, thankful at least that the crowds had already dispersed.

"Are you alright?" Lilly asked. "It sounded like you fell."

"Oh, just fine," he replied as he pulled himself up. "Never better. Just reminded that my prosthetic is cheap." Yeah, that's the ticket, blame the prosthetic for your own clumsiness. Though it really is cheap...

"That would be why you are here at Yamaku then?" she replied.

"Just so," he confirmed. "I tell you, this place is expensive. Really costs an arm and a leg!"

She smiled at the joke. "It's good to see that your condition has not affected your sense of humor."

"Not hardly," he replied with a chuckle. "If anything, it's given me ample opportunity to make puns."

"Even so, not everyone adjusts readily to such a condition," she replied as she continued down the stairs.

"Doubtlessly," he admitted as he followed, a bit more carefully this time around. "But I think it helps to be philosophical about such things. Sure, not having my hand anymore is a bloody pain, but it could be worse."

She walked through an open set of double doors at the base of the stairwell, and he followed.

"I'm quite right-dominant anyway," he continued, "and it's my left hand. And really, the foot loss doesn't really affect things much either. Well, except for the limping, but I can always blame that on the prosthetic."

"It is good to see that you have taken things in stride, then," she said.

"Hey, it always helps to put my best foot forward." He grinned. "Or, you know. My only foot."

She giggled before coming to a stop in front of a double door. "This is the library, by the way."

"Ah, thank you kindly," Maru replied as he took note of the room number. He thought of going inside, but he decided to just head back to the classroom and eat his lunch. At least he knew where it was now. "Well, I'll leave you to it, then. Take care!"

"You too, Maru," she replied before walking down the hall.

He nodded to himself, and retraced the path to 3-3.


Before anyone calls shenanigans on the accent, well... listen to this:

cinco .ly / !AguC8cKcKIth

Due to the unfortunate way FFN handles links, you'll have to remove spaces to use that. Anyway, as Maru's based considerably on myself, well... yeah.

I'd like to thank Alpha Centori, FrostEmma, and Narutoexd for reviewing me. Thank you guys so much!