Samus in front of the school as her suit counted down seconds until midnight, reading a book she had bought from an old couple to pass the time.

Part of her felt like she should be out there experiencing the history of her people, but another part of her said this was enough. She hadn't grown up around humans, and she hadn't grown up around human culture. However, there was something fulfilling about being around her own kind in times of peace like this. She supposed it was a part of the human psyche to want to be with other humans.

Yes, she had spent time with humans in her time. However, that was mostly business. They were at war and she had a knack for winning. This though, it felt like humans in their natural habitat. Cozy houses, tons of social interaction, organized schedules that even the children were adhering to, it truly was a world built for humans, by humans, free from alien influences. Even her sitting by herself here felt normal, like she was supposed to be here. It honestly felt like the world the Chozo were trying to give her in her upbringing, but the species gap kept it from actually happening.

Humans were such fascinating creatures.

The world shifted as her timer reached zero, and the earth began trembling as the school began raising into the air. Other seemingly man-made structures rose from the ground, although it was more of a cancerous conglomeration of buildings melted together with no regard for structural integrity.

She patiently waited for it to stop before she began approaching it. Something in there was going to be useful.

Minato walked through the halls of his school, trying to decide his plans for the day. It was a friday, so Yukari was unfortunately going to be busy. Perhaps he should spend his time with Mamoru, he felt his time with him was well spent. He was also pleasantly low maintenance and relaxing to be around. He was the type of friend he really wouldn't mind being around once all this was over.

If it was all over. That was a tough one to wrap his head around. All the more reason though, if it was over, Mamoru was someone he wanted to keep around. Well, not that he didn't want to keep anyone around, but once things slowed down and he didn't have to juggle people, he would like to keep a core friend group.

He supposed he could spend some time to find the foreign woman again, but that seemed to be more trouble than it was worth if he was being honest. He had no connection to her, had no interest in her, and she seemed to be the type that would take a lot of effort.

He heard a muffled crash from a supply closet on his right, making him pause. People in the halls continued past him, ignoring the sound, but something about it seemed off. Sure, the janitor might drop something now again, but that was a full crash.

A couple more crashes came from the closet and curiosity got the better of him. He opened it, only to find himself looking at an extremely tall woman looking just as surprised as he felt.

However, she seemed to have the worst deal. He was supposed to be here. He was wearing a school uniform. She on the other hand, was a non-faculty adult wearing a skin tight blue jumpsuit hiding in a closet. Furthermore, she was holding a mop, was still carrying a couple items that seemed to have fallen off the racks, and was standing in the middle of a puddle created from a sideways bucket.

Their eyes met and her surprised disappeared. What replaced it was an icy glare that would have made a shadow recoil in fear.

"Door. Close. Now."

The door was closed so fast the

He glanced at his phone. Twenty more minutes for lunch. He sighed. Well, he'd never made progress on a social link during lunch before, but lets see if he could make some magic happen.

Samus could have died from embarrassment.

She put the mop back in its place and softly placed the cleaning products back on the shelves. She couldn't even determine the worst part of the situation. The fact that she was lost, the fact she was seen without local clothes, the fact that she was found, the fact that she had knocked the equipment down, the fact that the kid had surprised her, the fact she barely got out of her suit in time for him to not see it, or the fact that she had no idea how to react to the situation.

She heard a knock at the door.

"Stay out," she said slowly in English, trying desperately to hide her accent. It was difficult trying to speak old-timey, everyone pronounced things like they were still in the Great Gatsby or some other archaic text that children needed to have translated. She hoped that the kid took it as trying to help with translation.

"You need help?" he asked from the outside, making her pause. Is there a reason she should reject his help?

She looked at the air duct she had just come out of. What kind of archaic place didn't have air flow based on the Magian model? It was literally engineering 101. Forget the inefficient air flow, it made finding her way around the place in morph ball nearly impossible. Even space pirate junkers were more intuitive than this sorry excuse for a building.

"Can you get me the schematics for the air ducts?" She asked, hoping she said everything right.

"Sure."

No questions? That seemed strange to her. Of course, she didn't know the social norms of the time. Of course, it was the same boy as last time, so maybe it was the kid being oddly tolerant of her.

Well wasn't this a great day. The great Samus needing help from a primitive high school student. Next thing she knew she would need a ten year old's help killing something.

Pride sufficiently damaged, she got to work removing evidence of her presence. Towels were luckily plentiful, so she managed to wipe the floor from the bucket without issue. However, there didn't seem to be any water to refill it.

She sighed, and took a seat facing the door. The closet was small enough that it was difficult to do so without touching the supplies, but she managed.

How was she supposed to know that staying in the tower after the temporal anomaly was going to land her in the school's basement. It seemed just as likely that she would stay in it, and simply skip the next day from everyone else's perspective. Maybe she would have if it weren't for her suit.

Regardless, she was back to sitting around. She was doing an awful lot of that recently, and she wasn't happy about it.

Several agonizing minutes passed before a paper was slipped under the door. A quick glance told her the ins and outs of the airways, and she slipped it back to indicate she was done with it.

"Thanks kid," she said through the door, "I owe you one."

Minato took the paper back in surprise. Had it actually only taken her ten seconds?

"Thanks kid, I owe you one."

He briefly considered asking what on earth she was doing, but let it go. He felt a rush of energy as his social link increased, telling him no questions was going to be the way to go with her.

He kind of hoped she was just an old pervert who liked high school kids or something. She wouldn't be the first, and it would certainly make their relationship a lot easier. At least, it would make it a lot easier than if, as he assumed, she was investigating the school for more supernatural reasons.

Maybe he should let Aigis meet her. He trusted her judgement for some reason. She was the reason he was keeping the distance he was from Ryoji at least. Plus, he could trust her to keep a secret.

Besides, they both seemed kind of inhuman, maybe they would get along.