Noroi Teki donned her new school uniform in front of her bedroom mirror, taking a look at herself. She looked... Normal. Her uniform was neat and tidy, her dark hair was in it's usual sleek style. There was nothing noticably out of the ordinary about her.
Good. The teenager allowed herself a moment of smugness. She would fit in at Akademi High, no problem. She was used to a less prestigous school, but she hoped she would adapt easily enough. Her father had taken his last savings out of his old bank account to pay for her to transfer for her second year of high school, after all. He had taken some persuading, but it was finally her first day of Akademi.
So she had to adapt to the new school fast. She had to go and she had to settle in.
Was she ready? She wondered briefly. But it was a stupid question. Of course she was ready. She had spent so long preparing... Noroi nodded to herself in the mirror, an acknowledgement of today's importance.
She walked over to her treasured computer and lifted something from the printer beside it. The papers she had worked on for so long. She grabbed her rucksack and shoved the papers in. Everything else she knew she would need was packed neatly inside.
Time to go, then. She swung the bag over one shoulder and hurried off into Buraza town. She didn't bother to get breakfast before leaving, nor on the way. What was the point? She wasn't hungry, simply preoccupied.
She walked quickly and purposefully. Soon, Akademi loomed in front of her, a big white building with a huge clock face on it's highest towering point. Up on the roof, she could vaguely make out figures. She must be later than the other students, but she supposed she couldn't be truly late, not if they weren't in class yet.
She had time enough.
Hurrying inside, she located her locker and changed her shoes over. Then a thought crept into her mind, a thought she knew wasn't right. But one that she knew she would follow through anyway. She was past caring for concepts like wrong and right now.
So, Noroi walked over to the locker directory on the walk and took a look. Every student was set out there. It didn't take her long to find who she was looking for. The only student at Akademi that she had any knowledge. She was new here, but this was a figure from her past. Ayano Aishi.
The directory didn't tell her anything special about Aishi-San, just her class number and locker placement. But it brought her comfort. She was in the right place after all.
Aishi-San was in class 2-1. She was too. There were only two second year classes, after all. Well, then she would see Ayano soon enough. Noroi decided it was time to head to class. She clearly wasn't alone in that. As she made her way up the stairs to her classroom, other students hurried by her, all in various directions. Down to the first year classes, up to the third year classes, by her to the second floor as well.
The students were all unique, with brightly coloured hair, different styles and a whole range of different mannerisms as they conversed with one another. Noroi, by contrast, had no one to speak to, she alone was indiscint, monochrome with her pale skin and dark hair. Only the uniform marked her out as an Akademi High student.
She had thought it would be easy to blend in. She had been wrong. These students weren't like people she dealt with. They were, of course, the special kids, with fee-paying parents who cared for them, and with friends here as well now.
Noroi didn't have that. Her father was a caring man in many ways, but their world, her world, was many miles different to this one. She saw just one other student like her. A quiet girl with dark hair and pale skin walking to class by herself. It was easy to recognise her. It was Ayano Aishi.
Aishi-San did not see her. She wasn't looking. Of course she wasn't. Ayano was doubtlessy a preoccupied girl. That made sense, from what she knew of the girl. She didn't attempt to attract her attention. They would meet soon enough anyway.
Noroi stepped into the classroom and walked to her seat in silence, sitting down and watching as the other students did the same. There was a girl with long orange pigtails, a girl with a similar appearance, but shorter hair, then Aishi-San. She didn't watch the others, she was too busy noting the venom in Aishi's empty grey eyes as they settled on the girl with long, sweeping pigtails.
She didn't make a remark on it, nor overthink it, just noted it in silence as the Sensei entered the room.
This was the beginning.