Author's note: Back with a new chapter…Though it won't be anything quite exciting, but because of the somewhat rushed pace in the 1st chapter, I'll be doing a few boring explanations here and there. As for pairings…We'll see. Hehe.

Master and Chief and Arbiter: Sorry, but I don't even know what's DMC3. The names just popped up in my head and I just wrote them down. You flatter me. It's not even beginning to be a story just yet! I hope I live up to your expectations. As for FaytxMaria…We'll see.

Miss Nox: Don't worry. The other mains will come in soon enough. It will be silly to leave them out like that. As I said with the pairings, we'll see.

Before we proceed…(Should have done this in the first chapter but what the hell…)

Disclaimer: Don't own Star Ocean, any of its characters and Tri-Ace or whatever company involved in its creation, so please don't destroy my bright future with the name of a female, got it?

Chapter 2

Academy

Fayt Leingod sighed. It was not turning out to be as good a day as he thought it would be. The student who was supposed to guide them around was sick, so someone from their class volunteered-a male student, and it was almost obvious why he would so eagerly stick his hand up, though from the skeptical expressions on some students and the Homeroom teacher herself told him that he would rather be sleeping in a field of daisies than be a volunteer guiding stupid transfer students around.

Well, his mind probably changed thanks to her…Not that I'm entirely ungrateful, but… He sighed. It's weird being left behind like that. Fayt was somewhat amused, though, that while walking behind them and being ignored by the guy, it was painfully obvious to see that Maria was simply looking around by herself, observing the landscape and landmarks around her instead of simply listening wholeheartedly to the half-baked descriptions of the various places from the poor, enthusiastic fellow trying so hard to impress. Fayt chuckled; He can't really blame him though…

"…And finally, here's the cafeteria, where students and staff alike go to for their meals and relaxation. That's the end of our tour of the Infidenis Academy." The male youth grinned (it almost seemed smug to Fayt) as he turned to Maria. "Would you mind if I err…eat with you? Considering now that it's our lunch break…"

"No thanks. I'll manage by myself-no, I believe both of us will be able to do well on our own from here on. Isn't that right?" The blue-haired girl corrected herself and turned to Fayt for confirmation, who nodded promptly. She turned back and gave a tiny smile to the student who had hid his slight disappointment quickly. "Thank you very much for your time, Lieber."

"Anytime…Say would it be-" He did not even have time to finish as Maria briskly turned again and walked off towards the counter with a flick of her head, causing her silky locks to swish about in turn, leaving Lieber standing there with a strange look, as Fayt would so willingly call it. He too, made for the same place, but felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Is she, by any chance…?"

Fayt sighed. He had been asked the same question several times already. "We just met today. There's no way we can be twins. Besides, aside from the hair and eye color, we don't look the same, do we?"

"Come to think of it…" the bluenette was about to leave when the same hand stopped him in his tracks again. "Thanks for the information…"

"…Fayt Leingod. Thanks for showing us around." He smiled, although slightly annoyed at having been left out of his little tour and for the fact that their ever so helpful host had forgotten his name.The least he could do was to offer his thanks. He probably would not have had time to go around exploring the school alone, anyway…

"Leingod. Got it. You're welcome." The curt reply was not exactly friendly, but neither could Fayt feel animosity radiating from it. He turned; ready to sate his unreasonably demanding pangs of hunger…

…When someone flicked his forehead painfully, causing him to wince and take a step back. 'Ow! What's the big-' He opened his eyes and froze. Oh.

"Good afternoon, Fayt Leingod." The reply was stuck somewhere in the abysses of his mind and he smiled nervously. Sophia Esteed, all of a sweet seventeen, beautiful brunette locks and a pair of green eyes filled with a startling innocence glared at him. "Were you late?" The tone she used was dangerous, as though she was an irritated cat, ready to pounce and scratch the life out of someone when rubbed the wrong way. Fayt knew it too well; He had to choose his words carefully (something which he never really did) or he would be bearing the brunt of her fury as usual.

"Err…Good afternoon, Sophia…?"

"Grr…I was almost late waiting for you in the morning! Where the heck did you go?" She placed her hands on her hips huffily, burning two holes in Fayt's head as though it would bring her answers. He responded by laughing nervously. The familiarity of the scenario came back to him and he could feel tension draining away.

"What's so funny, Fayt?"

"Oh, it's nothing. I'm sorry…I really am. I was lost for a little while there and…Never mind." He decided that informing Sophia about his little run-in with a certain blue-haired girl in the morning was not that important to her, though she would probably meet her sooner or later.

As he expected, Sophia's frown turned into a pout as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh well…I had it coming anyway, having you as a childhood friend. What was it other than being lost that got you late?"

"Oh, it's nothing…Is the cafeteria fare good?"

The brunette raised an eyebrow, but decided to play along. She did not want to be seen as a busybody, and there are things which she would find out eventually anyway. "It isn't too bad. Have you gotten a tour of the school already?"

You mean, following two people around like a dog? "Yeah, more or less. Let's go meet up with Cliff and some food. I'm hungry."

"You always are." Fayt laughed at her derisive remark even as she punched him in the arm. "Well, Cliff won't be here anyway. I don't think you really knew about his antics, so it's you and me today." She smiled and took his arm as she led him towards the counter.

"Wait…" But before he could stop her, he found himself next to Maria in the queue. She glanced at him, her gaze going from the feminine hand on his arm to the brunette girl beside him and back to Fayt. A ghost of a smirk appeared on her lips, but disappeared soon enough.

"…I see you've wasted no time in making friends." However mild it was, Fayt could sense a small amount of amusement from it. For some reason he was disinclined to agree with her implication.

"No, no. You got it all wrong. She's just a childhood friend-"

"Who's your friend, Fayt?" Maria liked her voice. It reminded her of wind chimes caught in a small pleasant breeze, all of the clarity of her innocence and cheerfulness caught by the ears of those who heard it. She had no doubt that whoever she was; she might certainly be a very nice person to interact with.

"Oh…She's-"

"Maria Traydor, 5th year, class 1. Nice to meet you." That small smile, full of courtesy and civility appeared once again and vanished as quickly as it came. "And you are?"

Sophia hesitated at once. She was not entirely comfortable around strangers, even though they might have sort of connection with her childhood friend. She looked at Fayt hesitantly, who knew fully why she was a little afraid to introduce herself and experience 'that' again.

"I'm sorry. She's a little…shy around people she meets for the first time. Sophia Esteed, 4th year, class 3. A 'Mageia' class student." He stopped, a mischievous glint showing in his eyes. "Loves to sleep, bilge on ice-cream whenever she's unhap-Yeow!" He grimaced as the heel of a certain girl landed on his foot heavily.

Maria raised an eyebrow, but was secretly glad that the mood had somehow lifted, thanks to Fayt. She did not want to make someone feel uneasy, even though she might barely know them at all.

She cleared her throat, sparing Fayt's feet from an inevitable massacre of the Esteed heels of Doom. It took a few tries, but eventually the friends managed to focus their attention on her. "Well…Nice meeting you, Sophia." Then, turning slightly to Fayt, she continued. "You can call me Maria. Most people do anyway." Hoping that he got the hint, she gave a small and awkward wave before making her purchase.

Fayt could only look at her back. And here I was thinking that we wouldn't be able to get along with each other. Surprises bite me where I least expect them to…

"Fayt, the queue's waiting…"

"Oh…? Oh! Right, right…" He gave a silly grin to Sophia and covered the gap quickly, hearing a few indignant grunts behind him.

History was not half as bad as he thought it would be: Dry, boring and sitting with a classroom full of bespectacled people hell-bent on digging up ancient events to be recorded for the future generations as a cure for any possible cases of insomnia. It was the first lesson though, even if Professor Alexander Remington seemed like someone who could keep a student's attention on the subject at hand.

"Let's see…the next class is…" Fayt opened his file to take a look at the trusty timetable and carelessly spilled the rest of the contents inside.

"Oops…" He bent down to pick them up, when he heard a pair of feet stopping near him. Maria Traydor was soon on one knee, helping him pick up what he dropped.

"You really are bothersome." There was a noticeable hint of irritancy in her tone, though there was no hesitation in her movement as she handed the documents back to Fayt.

"Thanks." He left only that one important piece out. "So…The next class would be-"

"Symbology with Professor Synthia Lightfield." She was fiddling her hair such that it those few irritating locks were behind her ear when she turned and saw Fayt's surprised expression. "What?"

"Well…I didn't really tell you my schedule, did I?"

"Not really…I-I just had a feeling, that's all." Maria hurriedly replied, as though she was trying to hide something. "Come on, let's go. We'll be late." Her hand swept up (and dangerously close to his from his point of view) as she walked briskly down the hallway. Realizing that he was not following, she turned and gave him a glare enough to freeze one or two arteries in his bodystiff."Are you coming?"

"S-Sorry!" Fayt hurried after her and nearly bumped into a burly student coming from another hallway. "Sorry about that-Hey!" the blue-haired youth could feel that someone grabbing him in a stranglehold and giving him a noogie. "What's the big idea?"

"You're the big idea, Fayt! Why didn't you tell me you were coming today? I could have made a welcome party or something for you." The familiar voice caused Fayt to struggle harder. Not that it was painful or anything, but-

"Cliff, let go, damn it! I'm going to be late."

" It's 'cause of your new girlfriend, eh? I'm going to tell Sophia about this!"

Fayt could feel his cheeks getting slightly hotter. "Wha-What the heck are you talking about? We just met today, and what makes you think telling Sophia will do you any good?"

"Hehe…You do forget that she can get somewhat temperamental over such details-" Fayt felt his grip release as Maria walked into view. Puzzled, he looked up to the taller blonde and was amused by the sight of Cliff's jaw literally dropping to the floor, though the expression on his face was more of shock than anything.

"Ah…I just remembered that there's a Herbalogy lecture I need to attend-Gack!" Cliff Fittir the Klausian, all of six foot two choked as he felt his collar being pulled tightly.

"Hello, Cliff. Nice of you to drop by. I didn't know you studied Herbalogy."

He laughed nervously, an act which caused Fayt to look on in amazement as well as amusement. Cliff Fittir, the one man who was deemed as being a masochistic person, was apparently afraid of a girl shorter than him by a head. He just had to watch this. Besides, he did not feel like going to class by himself.

"M-Maria! What fair winds blew you here? I thought you were supposed to be somewhere else!"

"I did inform you of my arrival sometime ago already, idiot. After two years, I still can't believe you are the same idiot I've seen before. Didn't Mirage teach you a thing or two?" She countered lazily, letting go of the collar and dropping him on the floor. "I'm going to need a place to stay."

"Yeah, yeah…I got it. I go ask Mirage help me later after school…Geez, can't you erase that violent streak off? You're gonna scare all the guys away like that…Even someone patient like Fayt-Oof!" His sentence was cut short by a fist in his gut.

"You don't get it, do you?" She sniffed derisively, a smirkfinding its way to herfull lips.Turning to Fayt, who was by now shocked beyond belief withhis mouth hanging open slightly, "Let's go." Like always, she turned imperiously and walked off. The Swordsman recovered as quickly as he could and followed after her, leaving a dazed Pugilist behind lying on the floor in a sorry heap.

"You know the both of them?"

"…More or less. I got to know them when they got into a little fix. It was a little troublesome, but we got out of it somehow." She stopped in front of a door. "Here we are." She made to slide the door open when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "…What?"

"Well…Is Cliff going to be all right? I've never seen him in that much pain before." Despite his best efforts, Fayt simply could not hide his amusement at the thought of the almighty Klausian beaten by a mere punch from a girl. It seemed completely ridiculous somehow.

"…He's got a body tougher than what you think. Don't worry about that blockhead. Let's get in before the Professor's here."

"If you say so." Fayt smiled. The beautiful bluenette never ceased to amaze or surprise him.

Symbology: The study of the mysterious signs all over the world found in ancient ruins, pattering artifacts, infrastructure, apparel and weapons. It was a subject of history by itself. It was a subject that would bore people to death had they no interest in it. It was also a subject (which Maria observed, to her surprise) that Fayt Leingod seemed to pay the most attention in the classes they had attended together so far. It had even seemed, to her bemusement, that he was actually somewhat ahead of the syllabus. He had answered several questions posed by the Professor perfectly without batting an eyelid…or flipping the brand new course book in front of him.

She looked at her own course book, already littered with a few notes at the sides of the pages and sighed resignedly. It was not as though she could be excellent at every possible subject, and she could take comfort in the fact that through the History, Bestialogy and Geography lessons they had coincidentally taken together so far, she was well ahead of him.

"You need any help?" He whispered to her over the cheery voice of Professor Lightfield, who had proceeded to explaining what the number of lines on a peculiar symbol represented. "I didn't think the Prof would get started so quickly, so…"

"I'm fine." She replied listlessly, halfway between copying blindly and listening to understand what the Professor was talking about. "I don't need your help." Or anyone else's, for that matter.

He looked over skeptically at her writings, winced at her frosty glare and backed away. "All right…Just tell me when you need help." He smiled and returned to sketching some random character Maria could only guess was from his figment of imagination. She hated that smile sometimes. It confused her; how could someone who was practically hinted to 'back off' be so persistent just to help? The innocence from his smile just made her feel bad at having told Fayt off as though he was a mere busybody with nothing much to do.

"…All right."

"Huh?"

She glared at him. "I said…I'll tell you when I need h-help. Got it?"

"Y-Yeah." Fayt blinked at her flustered countenance. Was it really so difficult to ask someone for help? Nevertheless, he simply smiled back. "Yeah, I got it."

"Mr. Leingod, would you care to tell us what's so interesting that you need to keep it secret with Miss Traydor?"

He jolted, a deer caught in the headlights. "It's nothing Ma'am! I was just asking her a few questions about what we went through so far."

"Well, you could've raised your hand and queried about it, Leingod."

"Sorry Ma'am." He smiled sheepishly in return and the class turned back their heads to pay attention once more. What he did not know, though, was that a pair of eyes was still upon him, and they were not burning with friendliness and amusement.

"Idiot."

"Hey! I resent that. It wasn't just my fault that we were both pinpointed by Lightfield."

"Hmph." Was her simple reply and Fayt slumped to the other side, frustrated. He hated taking all the blame for others, especially when it was not his fault entirely.

"You're a bright piece of sunshine, I'd say."

"…."

The rest of the day went by like a breeze, more so probably since it was the first day of the new term, though attempting to talk to his new acquaintance yielded as little results as the amount of clouds in the clear blue sky. It seemed like a hopelessly normal first day, until he overheard two female students talking about the last lesson of the day.

"Have you heard about the last period?"

"Yeah! It's unusual, though. Usually the Classification comes a little later. Why would they want to rush it?"

"It might be because of the increase in monsters and last year's incident…"

"Yeah, I heard rumors about it. They said it was something like a rebellion or something…"

Fayt had heard enough. He had heard from Cliff (in the infirmary, who was probably still flirting with the young school nurse) that the Classification was something which groups people with similar abilities and preferences together in terms of combat. The Classes included Swordsman, Mageia, Beastspeaker, Pugilist, Spellblade, Mechion and Gunslinger. Aside from that, he was told that once they were integrated into the different classes, they would be attending different lessons depending on the nature of their classes.

"I recalled that the Classification was supposed to happen in the second week, though. Don't know what the rush is about." Was what Cliff had said, and it tallied well with what Fayt had heard. He had not taken to the northern forests yet, so he had no idea how accurate those rumors were. The blue-haired youth did know that he would love to test his skills against the other Swordsmen. Aside from the basketball, Symbology and video games, the one other thing he fully had confidence in was swordsmanship. He had forgotten when the last time he had any real practice was. The Classification could help him with that.

"Fayt!" The teenager of eighteen years turned to face his childhood friend, who had apparently been running to catch up with him. "I've been looking all over for you! Where have you been?" She pouted. Fayt smiled at her actions.

"I was exploring a little bit for myself."

"Then let's go home together, like we always used to."

Fayt scratched his head. "Sorry to disappoint you, Sophia. But you heard of the Classification?"

"Yeah...What about it?"

"Well, it might notbe there on the timetable, but it seems that its today."

"Eh!"

Fayt gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Sophia…Maybe tomorrow?"

She shook her head stubbornly and shrugged. "Well, I guess I can't help it. You'll probably need someone to cheer you on. You won't be able to fight well without that." She smirked at him. Fayt laughed, accepting the statement without another word.

"But honestly, I don't know what the Headmaster is thinking…Classification this early in the year? It's usually done-"

"-In the second week, I know. Cliff informed me of that already." He replied thoughtfully, wondering about the decision himself. "I've overheard some rumors-"

"H-Hello." Fayt turned his attention to the azure-haired girl and was puzzled with her awkward expression, and even more so by the fact that she had actually tried to initiate a conversation.

"Maria." Fayt greeted simply while Sophia looked on in slight apprehension. "Is there anything you want?"

"Actually…" She paused, not liking this at all. There was hardly ever a time she needed to ask a favor of someone, but a little bit more research into the Classification gave her the information that eventually, she would need a group with three more people, each of a different preference of their Class. Considering the fact that she did not know anyone well enough, the only logical thing was to look for those she knew…sort of.

So why did it become so hard and awkward for her to ask a simple question?

"Yes?"

"The answer, of course, lay with Fayt Leingod himself. Despite her cool countenance, Maria felt somewhat bad for giving him the cold shoulder treatment almost throughout the whole day. It was not as though he was similar to the several suitors who tried in vain to arrange a date for a 'friendly meeting after school.'

"W-Well…" She frowned, looking anywhere else except for him. "…There's a group event in the Classification, and I was thinking if you would join in."

'That came out better than I thought.'

"Group event?"

Maria sighed, her awkwardness forgotten for a moment. Why was he so inquisitive? "It's a trial of some sort, pitting one group against another by using their various strengths and abilities to achieve victory. They won't allow people of the same class in one group. We need four people in a group to be actually qualified for the trial."

Fayt blinked. He never heard that one from Cliff. "But how about the others who can't find a group?"

"The groups that participate have a slight advantage when we go on exercises. That is, we probably will have a group to go along with already, rather than look around to form or join one."

"Oh…" After a moment's thought, Fayt grinned. "Sounds good. I'm in. The only problem is with the other two members."

"I think we can solve one half of it with a blockhead."

"You mean Cliff?" He received a stiff nod as confirmation. "That reminds me, would Mirage be in this as well?"

Maria glared at him. "You know, Mirage and Cliff are both Pugilists."

"Oh…Sorry."

"Hmph." Somehow, the conversation allowed her to revert back to her calm and collected self, putting her at greater ease. "I guess we just have to look for another at the Infidenis' Field of Glory."

"The what?"

"It's a place where they hold their competitions, I believe." Maria replied off-handedly, flicking her hair back in place as Fayt nodded.

"That would make sense…But I have one question."

"Yes?"

Fayt laughed embarrassedly. "When's it held?"

Maria let out a frustrated sigh. And I thought Cliff was the only idiot in my life right now…

Gah…Done in a nutshell. The pace of the story's a little slow in this chapter due to some introduction of certain terms as well as this so-called AU (though I admit that the introduction itself was a little slip-shod). Don't worry about the action. I'm planning to add in some things for that in the next chapter as well as a few more of the favorite mains. Till then, dear readers. Please do R & R, and thank you for reading. Cheers!