Disclaimer for the series: I own nothing except my insanity and my weirdness.
Author's rant corner (ARC): I'm baaack with some chibi. Tinkered with the canon a bit too. He-he.
The four-year-olds, now wearing identical black robes and pointy hats, were ushered into the main hall towards the high table at the end. The little ones blinked in awe at the walls, which featured prancing unicorns, dancing trees, and flying fairies. The ceiling showed a bright blue sky dotted with fluffy clouds. Four long tables lined the hall where the older students sat and stared at the little ones.
"Hey that's a dragon! There's a dragon flying! Look Yohe! Look!" Little Hanamichi excitedly pointed to the sky while tugging at his friend's sleeve.
The two were near the end of the line.
"I saw it! Jeez! Stop pulling my clothes!" Little Youhei complained.
"That wasn't a dragon, you moron," a small bored voice piped up behind them.
The two boys looked back to see Little Kaede with his stuffed fox still under one arm.
"It was too a dragon! My dad has pictures!" the little redhead fumed, stopping to squarely face his rival. "And who're ya callin' a moron, you stupid—!" he took a deep breath "Fox!"
Youhei stopped too and looked on in amusement at what could become a fight.
"You're stupid," Kaede replied calmly, holding his toy closer. "And it wasn't a dragon. It was a 'dactyl!"
"It wasn't a duck! Ducks are yellow! It wasn't yellow so nyah!"
Kaede opened his mouth to retort when Teacher Ayako suddenly materialized in their midst.
"What's this? Fighting on the first day of school?" she asked, frowning.
"He started it!" Hanamichi pointed at Kaede who just scowled at him. "He called me a moron!"
"That's cause you are," Kaede muttered.
"See?" Hanamichi shrieked.
"Now, now," Ayako held each boy by the scruff of their necks, "stop that and move on. Look everyone's waiting for you."
Sure enough most of the people in the main hall were watching them. Hanamichi flushed as red as his hair while Kaede just sighed.
"Now be good boys and walk, okay?"
The three boys saw a glimmer in their teacher's eyes that told them they should behave for the moment or else.
"Okay," they piped in unison.
They joined the other students standing in front of the high table where three old wizards were seated.
"Hey, I know what was flying," a very fat boy whispered beside Hanamichi when the two friends stood at the back row. The two grinned as they recognized their friend. "It was a flying fried chicken," Little Takamiya said seriously.
Two more boys appeared and bopped their fat friend.
"You're always thinking of food!" they yelled.
"What else should I think about?"
Hanamichi and Youhei giggled at the three's antics. Then Youhei nudged Hanamichi and pointed towards the big oak doors at the side of the hall. The redhead blinked and saw several eyes piled atop each other blink back at him. It seemed that the parents couldn't resist peeking into the sorting ceremony of their kids. Near the bottom of the pile were brown eyes laughing back at the two. Hanamichi grinned and waved. Above the brown eyes, sleepy blue eyes were peering at the small dark hair of Kaede.
"I think mom's at the top," Youhei muttered looking up. "Guess that weather spell she blew up in the house was just for practice."
A witch stood up from one of the tables and acted as an emcee. She introduced herself to the newcomers as Teacher Aida. Then she pointed out each of the old wizards as the heads of three of the four sections of the SD School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: Professor Anzai of Section Shohoku, Professor Taoka of Section Ryonan, and Professor Takato of Section Kainan. The professor in charge of Section Shoyo was sick so she introduced the head boy Kenji Fujima, who was in charge while the professor was out.
"He looks like a girl!" Hanamichi whispered to Youhei who nodded his head.
They saw Fujima frowning at them and they gulped.
"I think he heard you!" Youhei whispered.
"Nah!" Hanamichi whispered back, but his voice was several notches lower.
They turned back their attention to Teacher Aida who was conjuring up something in front of them. It turned out to be an inflatable playpen done in the school colors of red, green, blue, and white with a sea of colorful balls inside.
"Children, you will now go inside and try to get a ball, just one ball. Whichever color the ball you get will be your section. Each ball will also transform into your wand, which you will use for the rest of your lives."
The kids eagerly piled into the playpen and soon forgot what they were supposed to do. Several of the balls would magically slip out of their hands so they had fun catching after their favorite colored orbs. Hanamichi and his friends just decided to bury each other under piles of the stuff while some of the kids decided to dive into the mass. Kaede just waded into a corner and promptly fell asleep.
The teachers let the kids play for several minutes before Teacher Aida reminded them to retrieve a ball each. Several kids managed to find a sphere that would stay put and soon they were sorted into their respective sections. Hanamichi captured a red one and whooped in delight when Youhei got the same color as he did. His three other friends got different colors each. The redhead pouted for a while when he learned that only Youhei would be with him all year round.
"That's okay," Little Shuiichiro said.
"Yeah, we can still do our pranks together in the yard," Little Ookusu agreed.
"And during recess!" Takamiya added with a big grin.
Hanamichi finally smiled as they were led to their different tables. His smile instantly turned into a frown when he glimpsed Kaede holding a red ball in his hand, which the other boy had just snatched out of nowhere when he was awakened.
"Oh man! That stupid fox kid is gonna be with us!" Hanamichi moaned.
"So?" Youhei asked, eyeing all the food laid out on the table.
"So? So? He's gonna ruin all our plans! Bet we'll see him sleeping wherever we go!"
"So? We can always just paint his face with funny stuff and laugh at him," Youhei answered practically as he sat down.
Hanamichi looked at his friend in awe.
"Youhei…you're a genius!"
Hanamichi looked back at Kaede who was being helped out of the playpen.
"Yeah…this year is gonna be so much fun!"
ARC: Thanks for the reviews! Sorry this update took so long. I couldn't find a good enough method for the sorting until the playpen idea hit me.