(April 13th, Early Morning)
Aiko moaned a bit, rubbing her eyes as she woke up. The skylight had been positioned to serve as an alarm clock for her, and the bright light hitting her eyelids had managed to wake her up. "I've got about a half hour before I need to head out to class …" Sighing, she looked around her room, sitting up. Her walls were a pale lavender color, the light overhead resembling a six-pointed star. Over the years, Aiko and Conan had painted small stars on the ceiling in glow-in-the-dark paint, so the light that reflected off of her walls went to power those. The sheets on her bed were dark, and an old wolf plush sat near her pillow.
A desk occupied the wall across from the bed, covered with school supplies, a laptop, and a few figurines her cousin had given her. The window it was in front of was open to let in the cool air, showing the mist-covered river. A bookshelf was near the desk as well, and the closet was close to her bed, the dresser tucked inside of it. It was a rather neat room, but only due to Aiko liking to be able to find her stuff when she needed it. Her school bag was slung over her door's knob, and her uniform was hung up on a coat hook mounted on the wood, the full-length mirror covered by it.
"… Might as well take a shower and get dressed." Getting up, she rubbed her eyes. "I wonder if Dad left for work already, or if I'll be able to sit down and have breakfast with him before going to class." Reaching for a towel, Aiko quietly left her room and walked down the hall a bit, only to sigh when she saw that her father – a heavier sleeper than her – wasn't in his room, the bedroom door open. "Guess he had to get called in early today …" Shaking her head, she went into the bathroom to shower.
Re-emerging ten minutes later and walking back to her room, Aiko glanced at the uniform while tying her hair up quickly. 'I'll have Conan braid it before class starts; that way I don't have wet hair all day.' Getting dressed, she found herself muttering. "What was up with that weird dream? Why was I on the moon, and what was that light thingy-talking to me? It sounded like a woman."
Shaking her head, she glanced at her drawers before pulling out a violet, button down shirt to wear under her uniform jacket. 'Thank you non-mandatory shirts until summer uniform; you have saved me from constant laundry day.' Pulling the shirt on quickly, Aiko glanced at the uniform for a moment as she grabbed socks to pull on her feet. "I tried you on yesterday, so I know you fit …" Grabbing the uniform, she pulled the skirt on and zipped it up, making sure her shirt wasn't tucked in.
Stopping to look herself over in the mirror as she grabbed the uniform jacket, Aiko couldn't help but smile faintly at herself. Her father had been serious about her staying in school, saying that he hadn't even gotten through it himself. He wasn't overbearing about it, but from the way he acted about his teenage years, Aiko figured he wasn't too happy about it.
'Heh, second year … here's hoping that things aren't going to be too miserable from here on out.' Nodding to herself at the sight of the golden II pin on the uniform's collar, she smiled and grabbed her school bag. "Guess it's time for breakfast. I still got a few minutes before I have to head out."
Downstairs was nice and clean, the den empty apart from the few cushions and the coffee table, the television mounted on the wall near the windows to prevent a glare. The back door was open to let the air in through the screen door, the smell of blossoms in the air as Aiko set her bag down and got some food, spotting the note from her father on the fridge.
"Aiko, sorry I had to head off so early; Tatsuya called in sick at five this morning, and I'm the first person on the job roster to get called in. I should get home around five though, same as always, and I watered your mother's flowers before I left for work. I bought some Ramune for the three of you too; do NOT go breaking those bottles, you hear? And don't worry, I know how picky the boys can be about some of the sushi, so that's in a separate part of the bento. Have a good day at school, and don't give your teachers any headaches on the first day back. –Dad"
Laughing at the last part of the note, Aiko sat down and smiled at the small nook where her mother's photo was kept. "Morning Mom; school starts today …" Relaxing a bit while she ate, pale grey eyes glanced up at the small note board that served as the weekly calendar. 'Okay, I do have cooking duty tonight; I wanted to try that beef stew recipe I found a day or so ago.' It wasn't really something she needed to worry about too much; her and her father alternated cooking duties between the two of them, with the weekends being take-out to give them both a break from cooking.
It got lonely at times, being the only child.
Shaking her head and stamping the thought into the dirt, Aiko finished eating and slung the school bag over her shoulder. Going into the fridge, she pulled out the group-sized bentou and the bag with ramune in it. 'I'll take care of the trees when I get home; they probably need to be watered.' The thought crossed her mind as she grabbed the peach flavored drink, knowing it was Jiri's favorite. Nodding when she had everything she needed, Aiko smiled at the picture one last time as she got her boots on. "See you later, Mom."
The outside of the house was calm and quiet, letting the girl take a breath to calm herself as she locked the front door. 'Dad always locks the screen, so that isn't an issue.' Chuckling a bit, Aiko lifted her head at the voices she heard coming from the direction of the shopping district.
"Aiko-nee! Aiko-nee! Hold up a second!" A girl a few years younger than Aiko ran up to her, wearing a blue middle school uniform. The plaid skirt and necktie were bright against the white stockings and pink undershirt the girl wore, her storm-grey hair tied up in a miko's sidelocks and ponytail, the ribbons in her hair as pink as her undershirt. Behind her was a boy of the same age, walking slower, his uniform the same shade of blue as hers. His hair was as black as his and the girl's eyes. He was on the lanky side, and had what was clearly a bow slung over his left shoulder.
Behind even him was Conan, wearing the boy's uniform for Yasogami over his typical blue undershirt, his striped tie still around his neck. Spotting Aiko, he waved a bit, prompting Aiko to wave back as the younger girl reached her.
"Hey Panda, what's up?" A smile crossed Aiko's face as the grey-haired girl gave a polite bow. "I thought you guys would have headed off to class already; the middle school starts earlier than Yasogami."
Shaking her head, the grey-haired girl giggled a bit. "We've got a few moments, Aiko-nee. Besides, Hoshi-nii and I wanted to thank you for helping us out as often as you do." Smiling, she looked over her shoulder as the dark-haired boy and Conan reached them. "We ran into Conan-san on our way here, and he said you'd most likely be at your house still."
"Good morning Aiko-nee." The dark-haired boy smiled as well, carrying something small in his hands. "Tsuki and I were hoping we'd run into you before it was too late." Tsuki giggled a bit as Hoshi extended the small package to Aiko. "H – here! Enjoy our thanks, Aiko-nee! You've been a big help the past few weeks!"
"… How long did it take your mother to teach you two how to do that?" Conan's eyebrow arched, a small amount of mirth in his voice. He took the small hit from Tsuki with a chuckle as Aiko took the package and opened it, revealing a good-sized manga volume. "… You guys got the dual pack of the final Innocent Sin volume and the first volume of Eternal Punishment? How did you manage that?"
Hoshi turned to respond, but the second his mouth was opened, the twins were pulled into a hug by Aiko.
"You two didn't have to get me this~" The tall girl was oddly tender, and neither Hoshi nor Tsuki were struggling to get away. "I would've been happy with a box of sweets."
"… B – but we wanted to …" Tsuki blushed a bit, voice getting quieter as she kept talking. "You're always so helpful, and Hoshi-nii said that you didn't have the last volume of Innocent sin yet…"
"And then we were looking in the manga café and saw that the first volume of Eternal Punishment was out." Hoshi continued. "It even has a fold-out poster in the box set; Medea-san must have been ahead of schedule to make that poster too."
Aiko's only response was to hug the twins more.
'… Well, she's in Dere-dere mode now …' Conan felt a trickle of sweat run down his neck. 'At least she won't be too big of a problem the rest of the day …' Coughing to clear his throat and get the other's attention, he nodded. "I hate to ruin the mood, but we probably get to school before the first bell sounds. Aiko and I still have to grab Jiri anyway." Nodding, the twins pulled away from Aiko, the group of four walking a bit. Aiko had pushed the two volumes of manga into her school bag, knowing she'd run into people if she read while she walked.
"So why you got your bow on you already, Tora?" She asked Hoshi, nodding at the wooden weapon the younger boy was carrying. "I didn't think you had a meet for a month or so."
Hoshi shifted the bow a bit, chuckling. "I still have practice, Aiko-nee. We're going to be working with Yasogami's archery team later on today, so I figured it'd be smart for me to grab my bow and not accidentally grab one of the school's." Gripping the bow a bit tighter, the raven-haired boy looked up. "Oh, your crow's following us again."
"Gah!" Looking up, Aiko spotted the familiar bird. "I forgot to feed her – she's not my bird, Tora!" Blushing anyway, the auburn didn't protest as the large crow landed on her shoulder. "You have to go to a tree when we get to school, you know that. Right, Sumizome? The school would freak if I walked in with a big bird on my shoulder."
Sumizome just cawed in indifference.
Further conversation was stopped at they neared a large house at the far end of town. As the group walked forward, the door burst open, a girl of about ten in an elementary school uniform and baseball cap darting past them with a peach in her mouth. "Smell ya later Jiri-nii!"
"RIN! That last peach was mine!" a split second later, a tall, well-built teenage boy burst out of the house. He stood taller than Aiko and Conan, his shaggy hair an odd autumn-brown that framed clever hazel eyes. He wore the same uniform as Conan, an orange and goldenrod sweatshirt on underneath the uniform jacket. A simple pendant shaped like the Comedy mask hung around his neck, and his backpack was equally bright. "You know those are my favorite you little twerp! I'm gonna let Jillian loose in your closet again!"
"Hello Jiri." Aiko and Conan deadpanned in unison, with Tsuki giggling behind them. They were used to this sort of thing. The orange-haired youth froze and then gave his friends a shaky smile.
"Oh, hi everyone." Smiling brightly, Jiri gave a flourish. "And even Sumizome graces us with her presence! Such a wonderful sign to a horrible day~!"
"It's just the first day of school, Jiri-kun." Hoshi felt a trickle of sweat run down the back of his neck. "It's not like it's a funeral …"
"That'll change when you get to high school." Jiri shrugged. "Seriously though, I'm surprised you guys are here too. Doesn't Sorario-Fu Middle School start a half hour earlier than Yasogami?"
"We wanted to say hi before heading off, and the road is right here." Hoshi nodded at the side street. "But we probably should go …" Nodding at Tsuki, the twins said their goodbyes before heading off down the road that lead to the west. Waving goodbye to the younger teens, Aiko, Conan and Jiri started walking towards their school, Aiko pulling out the first of the manga volumes and reading it.
"Ah, so our fearless leader decides to bury herself in her book." Jiri let out a dramatic sigh, draping his arm over Aiko's shoulders. Ignoring Sumizome's squawk as he upset the crow's spot and drove her to Aiko's head, the autumn-haired youth smiled. "Alas when we cannot entertain her so much as to get a smile out of – ow!" rubbing his head where Aiko tapped him with the book, he pouted, clearly just hamming it up for the fun of it. "What did I do to earn that?"
"Being so hyper so early in the day." Conan shook his head with a light smile. "Besides, it's the last volume of Innocent Sin. She's not going to pull away from that until we reach school or the first bell rings." Curious, he glanced at the bag she was holding. "The group bentou?"
"Yes. Don't touch or I'll ask Sumizome to guard it." Aiko didn't look up from her book as she spoke, but Conan knew his cousin would ask the crow to do so. 'Guard' usually meant a wing smack, and Conan didn't want to get bruised up. "… So what class do you think Uncle Minato's teaching?" Aiko's question made Jiri jolt.
"Your uncle's teaching here now?" Groaning in mock misery, Jiri sighed. "Great, now we have someone else supervising us all the time. Then again … after what happened last year …"
All three teens fell silent at that, not wanting to bring up the bad memories from that.
The silence lasted until they reached the school campus. Looking around, they were surprised to see several students milling about, some of them in small groups. Putting her book away, Aiko spotted some boys surrounding a girl – a transfer student, since Aiko didn't recognize her in passing like she did with everyone in Inaba – and stared at them. One of the boys noticed her and panicked, pulling several of the others out of the way. The girl – surprised – looked at Aiko in gratitude, her grey eyes oddly large in her face. After flashing the other girl a thankful smile, she darted off, not giving Aiko any time to question who she was.
"C'mon, let's find our rooms and get a good seat." Conan nodded at the door to the school. "If we get the seats in the back again, Jiri'll fall asleep and never wake up."
"Not my fault classes are boring …" Jiri muttered and shook his head at that.
"Ah, there's the three of ya." A woman with a Kansai accent spoke up from behind the three, making all of them jump. "I was wonderin when ya three would show up." Aiko turned around slowly, looking down a bit to stare into a pair of brilliant scarlet eyes. "You gonna behave for the first day of school there Aragaki? I don' wanna hafta pin ya to a wall again, mmkay?"
"Y … yeah, I know Labrys-sensei …" Aiko nodded and bowed a bit. The woman gave a wry smile; shorter than Aiko by about a head, Labrys's silver-blue hair was up in a high ponytail, bangs framing bright scarlet eyes. She was dressed in the Yasogami gym uniform with a teacher's ID, the jumpsuit hiding most of the mechanical parts that gave away her status as an android.
"That's good to hear." Smiling, Labrys gave Sumizome a sharp look. "And your birdie's gonna hafta sit in a tree somewhere. I know she ain't gonna make a mess in the building, but she's a darn big bird, and I don't think many of the new kids would find it very welcomin' if an upperclassmen was walkin' around with a crow on the shoulder."
Sumizome cawed once in annoyance, but seemed to listen to the android as she hopped off of Aiko's shoulder to a window sill. Waiting for Labrys to open the window for her, the crow preened and then cawed again, flying up to the roof. "There, she'll be waitin' for you when it's lunchtime."
"… You're looking for us because you're our homeroom teacher, aren't you, Labrys-sensei?" Jiri shifted a bit; it was odd for the P.E. teacher to come looking for students unless something major was going on. Labrys gave him a wry smile and shook her head.
"Nah, I get to terrorize th' seniors and keep 'em from gettin' too distracted in their last year." Giving them a grin that was all teeth, Labrys laughed. "But I think I managed to get everyone else to figure out it was smartest to keep the three of ya in the same class. Much less headaches thataway."
"Well, that's good at least." Conan gave a small smile, reappearing from where he had gone to check the class roster. "I've got our class; 2-C … and Uncle Minato's our homeroom teacher."
Jiri's shout of agony was heard outside the building.
Whapping her friend lightly, Aiko shook her head. "Drama King. He's not that bad …" Sighing, Aiko pulled out her watch. "But we should go and claim seats now, elsewise we're gonna be stuck in the back of the classroom again … I'd rather not be stuck there, because if he's anything like Aunt Nao …"
"Flying chalk." Conan groaned.
"That makes my head hurt just thinking about it. Let's go." Jiri laughed a bit at that. Giving Labrys a polite farewell, the trio headed up to the second floor, seeing more students milling about. A few of the classrooms were still closed, but for the most part, students remained in the halls, clearly not wanting to enter the classrooms just yet.
Finding the classroom for 2-C, Conan entered first. "Nobody's in here yet; probably all trying to avoid having to sit down until the first bell rings. Not even Uncle Minato's in here." Slipping into the room, he settled into a seat, with Aiko and Jiri following suit soon after. Aiko flopped into the seat in front of Conan, with Jiri sitting beside her.
"Dammit, that weird-ass dream screwed up my sleep schedule." Aiko groaned, feeling a faint flicker of fatigue tug at her.
"Did you eat something that didn't agree with your stomach?" Conan asked, taking a hold of some of Aiko's hair to play with it.
"I don't think it's that, Conan." Jiri shook his head, sitting sideways in his seat so that he could better talk with his friends. "I mean, think about it; we all know how Aragaki-san cooks; that man could make a feast for gods. I don't think there's anything unhealthy or something of that sort in their kitchen under pain of the garbage disposal." Aiko laughed at Jiri's comment, although it was rather accurate to how her father handled their kitchen. Conan also let a chuckle escape him, pushing his glasses back up on his nose before resuming his braiding.
"Nah, it wasn't that." Aiko shifted slightly, not wanting to budge too much as Conan continued. "And it certainly wasn't as weird as the Hamlet-quoting Jiri-Eggplant dream I told you about." Jiri let out a loud laugh at that, making Aiko shrug. "I don't think anything will top that one, honestly, but this one came pretty close. For starters, I was on the moon."
"The moon, eh?" Conan asked, finishing one braid and starting on a new one. "I never really took you as much of a moon person, Aiko. You're much too down to earth for that sort of thing." Aiko shrugged at that, and Conan went on, "What happened while you were up there? Martians tried to abduct you?" Aiko let out a snort at the suggestion, making Conan grin at her. "Yeah, good point; you'd beat the snot out of them before they even tried to carry it out."
"Why do you both keep talking like I beat up people for a hobby?" Aiko pouted jokingly, making the boys burst out laughing.
"The fact that my mother – and all of the Inaba Police Force, for that matter – knows you by name." Jiri chuckled, kicking back in his seat. "Garbage Girl and all that." Laughing at Aiko's scowl, he folded his arms behind his head. "Not that it's a bad thing, really; it means I have someone to spar with without getting bruised."
"Like how I broke your nose the first time we met?" Aiko chuckled, shaking her head. "Goof."
"Only because you threw me into the garbage can." Jiri leaned over and prodded her, only to get prodded back. "I bet if we sparred again, I'd be the one who wins."
"How much money you willing to put on that, Hanamura?" Reaching out, Aiko snagged Jiri and put him in a headlock. "You and I both know that you're easily distracted."
"No fair, Aiko-chan! That was cheap!"
"… What did I miss?" Minato had chosen that moment to walk into the classroom. Standing there baffled at the sight of his niece holding a brunet boy in a headlock - with Conan not even bothered by the events as he kept braiding Aiko's hair – the man began to wonder if he should have had coffee instead of his normal cup of tea.
"Oh, hello Uncle." Conan waved at him. "Has the first bell rung yet?" His comment seemed to catch Aiko and Jiri's attention, because the two broke apart and settled themselves more. Dreading what this could mean for the rest of the school year, Minato put his books down on the desk.
"No, but I figured it would be smartest to head up here and settle in before that happened." Looking the teens over, he sighed. "And here I thought Naoto was joking when she said I'd be looking after you three … Hopefully it won't be too much of a hassle compared to some of the stuff that happened while I was teaching in Osaka."
"Ah, we won't try to cause too many problems then." Jiri piped up, still chuckling a faint bit. Minato turned to him and nodded, making the orange haired boy grin as well. "Well, it's good to meet you then; if you're anything like Naoto-san, I don't think the three of us will be able to get away with anything." As he spoke, Jiri gave Aiko a knowing glance; she ignored him in favor of pulling out Innocent Sin to start reading. "Ah, she always does this when I'm winning the argument."
"What argument?" Aiko didn't bother looking up from her book as she deadpanned, making Minato sweatdrop; that was something Naoto and Shinjiro had been good at … About ready to open his mouth, he heard the bell ringing, and the three teens came to semi-attention at the sound, and Minato headed back to his desk. The moment he reached it, the rest of the class came pouring in, some of them still half asleep and mumbling.
"Alright, well, it's back to the daily grind." He spoke up after the students got themselves settled, looking at them with a knowing set of blue eyes. "Trust me, I know how boring class can be, especially with weather this nice." Propping one hand on the side of his desk, Minato gave the students in front of him a dangerous smile. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to be a blow-off class. Not only do you have me for homeroom, but you'll be seeing me for English Composition as well."
That got him a collective groan, and it took all of Minato's strength not to laugh at them. "And now, with that out of the way, I am Arisato-sensei. This is my first year at Yasogami personally, so you might know the ropes better than me. But don't think that means you can try and sneak anything past me; I'm a quick study." He eyed a set of students behind Conan, who seemed to perk up at the notion of a new teacher. "While I'm new here, I've been teaching for twelve years now, and the past ten of them were in Osaka; that should explain my accent before any of you are tempted to ask about it." That got a snort out of Aiko, who had put away her book.
Minato made a mental note to keep an eye on the students in the back before giving the class a knowing eye once again. "Alright, now that you know who I am, it's time I figured out which students I'm going to have to keep my eye on." With that, he picked up the ledger that had student names on it. In front of him, Aiko muttered something about 'going back to hell' before paying attention; English was one of her weakest subjects, and the last English teacher had put her to sleep during the lectures. Shaking his head in amusement, Minato began to read off the ledger; this sounded like it would be an interesting school year …
Well, this chapter doesn't have too much to comment on apart from it being Labrys's introduction. It really just is the old chapter revised and edited to flow better. (And Labrys-sensei is awesome.)