The school building was among the oldest in town. A large rectangular shape, two floors tall, painted a faint green and grey, to seem natural and not overtly shining into one's eyes. Another two-story extension was built at the structure's back a little later, only slightly smaller and in a more friendly bright, light blue and yellow. It served as an elementary school, although its students were sometimes able to use the same facilities, or classrooms. All was kept in order by the luckily competent-enough teachers, managing to not cause and even quell most incidents. Still, everything was pretty calm most of the time.
The duo arrived at the school's front entrance still with a few minutes remaining, just enough to get to their classrooms and not hurry needlessly in the process. It was not only a few times that they realised they had arrived a tad later than expected, only for starting a mad sprint to their classroom, which they believe was on the uppermost second floor in the far right part on purpose. Of course, it was not like that today, and so they walked calmly and spoke a bit amongst that, occasionally giving a small nod to some of the classmates they recognised. After the oh-so-hated-by-everyone stairs at the school (They weren't even many or steep or anything, there was just something about them so easily despicable), they walked down the correct hall, opening the familiar door and seeing the familiar faces of their classmates.
A good number of them were just your average...but there were those that stood out, as they knew either by experience or sight. Or both.
There was one guy with his back to the others as he faced the rear wall, eating some sushi. He wasn't large, by height or weight, with very short black hair and a pretty calm and absent expression, wearing the usual white and grey school uniform. He was quite possibly having a late breakfast. Or one as an addition. Heiko Fukushu wasn't really the most outspoken, and nobody seemed to mind. Besides, he wasn't the only one.
Hidari and Migi were quite similar, after all. Two almost identical twins, they sat at the front desk only a bit away from the teacher. Quite a disciplined bunch, they even apparently ran a small dojo at the town, quite good with a bokken (wooden sword). You could also rarely tell them apart, as with the exception of some unavoidable anatomical differences (even though Hidari was what some would call "pretty flat-chested" before getting inevitably glared and beat) there was just the hair to discern amongst them, with Migi having his short black hair to the right and Hidari to the left. Even their clothes, their school uniforms were the same.
On the other part of the spectrum, though, was Ninki Rei. She was rarely seen without at least two other people around her, often smiling or laughing as she talked. Or it could be because of her good looks, the green eyes and long, blonde hair, even the girls' school uniform fit her so well. Or the fact that the words "Speedwagon Foundation" was sometimes heard with correlation to her family. Who knows, really.
And then there was Oto Tsukaite. As Hidari and Migi gave a simultaneous nod of their head when Hanchiro and Ray came, most others ignoring their entrance, she was one that smiled a little and waved. She was a local as well, having known Hanchiro for a bit already and befriending Ray quickly too. Her hair was short and blue, her left hand wearing a fingerless glove, and a denim jacket over a black shirt, her usual.
"Hey, Oto. Hope we didn't keep ya waiting long."
She shook her head to Ray's greeting, relaxedly sitting back with a small, almost mocking yawn as the two sat at the desk in front of her. She didn't really respond much by words. She rarely did. Probably she was just mute for whatever reason, everyone thought, but when they asked why she didn't talk she just made a quiet chuckle and wrote "Because i'm a mute". Questions about that often lead to the answer "Because i can't talk", or at most, revealed an accident with hellishly hot cake. Which seemed a bit far-fetched.
"Yeah, try not to fall asleep now. It's Graves-sama's lesson. I heard he once played Russian roulette with a student who thought his lesson was too boring. Dunno where he got a gun..."
Hanchiro's comment made both his friends chuckle a little, but the smile froze in that way that only people whose ice cream had fallen onto the ground were thought to know. Or it was similar, at least. Graves-sama, or Mr. Graves, was a teacher of history, math and physics at the school, and their class' homeroom teacher. While undoubtedly good at his job, there was always that menacing air around him, that seemed to as if appear physically around him, like a sound effect of sorts. It certainly didn't help that he was even a bit taller than Ray.
"Yeah, and i heard that Toko from class 3-B is a vampire. You can't believe every-"
Suddenly, the school bell rang, as the murmur around seemed to slightly cease. And then it vanished completely, as seconds later, the doors opened, and in walked a tall figure of a man with black hair only a few centimetres long, glasses with such a glint at this angle that they seemed to hide his eyes and the expression of a stone. One could almost literally see the atmosphere of respect, as if he could flick his wrist and execute them. "Damn", thought Ray, "whatever he is always doing, it never stops working." And it doesn't.
"Good morning, class" he addressed then as everyone stood up and bowed. He did bow back, soon continuing in that dim, as if an unemotive tone. After everyone sat back down, he continued. Or rather, started "So then, on today's lesson..."
The school wasn't really that difficult. Or long today, actually. Still, it was about 2 in the afternoon, when they all could walk out from the building. Some homework and stuff to learn that they should probably take a look at, but it was still a bit too soon for that, anyway. Right now, Oto, Hanchiro and Ray were walking down a Seijo street, mostly empty as they looked around for something to do. Maybe even a metaphorical hornet's nest to poke. For now though, Ray and Hanchiro were chatting with Oto listening and sometimes reacting either via expression or some gesture, or in very few cases a small paper and pen.
They were just passing by Mazu. Mazu was a homeless, mostly either begging, looking through trash or living out for some periods, in the forest out of town. He probably stayed here both because of the lack of competition, and the fact that people were mostly indifferent to him. Besides, the bounty was plenty here. And he was actually pretty decent. He didn't intrude much, knowing when to better remain ignored, and when to ask for change or something. Occasionally, someone would take pity, and so he went on. Each of the three had at one point dispersed some spare change in the mug down before the man, who wore a long, dirty and somewhat torn coat, a plain shirt and trousers underneath as he sat by the street corner, gaze downwards. He almost looked as if asleep, except he wasn't. Besides, he could well-hear their footsteps and conversation.
Hanchiro was just in the process of telling a long joke, as the group neared to pass Mazu. It was as if he wasn't even there, unnoticed, possibly even deliberately. The joke was finally getting to the point, when Ray found himself glancing slightly to the side of Hanchiro. They were just about passing by the homeless man, so he was visible enough to Ray. But so was something else.
"...with a hook for a hand, and now an eyepatch too. And the other guy just..." Hanchiro stopped, just at that point, as he saw Ray's expression. The smile of anticipation with which he was looking at his friend was gone, as the tallest of the three was now looking a bit startled, strangely, in Mazu's direction. Obviously seeing something unexpected. So Hanchiro decided to take a look, Oto soon following, having deduced that something was amiss.
It was just Mazu sitting on the ground though, with an empty mug. Nothing to be so surprised about, either he wasn't lucky today or he just pocketed all the change he got. But Ray looked, for some reason, as if he did see something else, blinking a few, to try and adjust his vision. It then turned to slight confusion as Hanchiro and Oto had similar expressions of their own, the former asking "...You okay? It's just Mazu-san, not some shinobi in disguise...i hope."
Ray soon turned to look at his two friends, eventually shaking his head a bit and sighing as he replied "Yeah, it's nothing. Please go on with the joke before a band of rogue ninjas actually do decide to jump us." He added with a smirk
"That would certainly spice things up, though...but true, it's bad enough to get cut off once during a joke. Now, the guy, he sighs and..." and so with the easing of the atmosphere and return of their smiles and anticipation, they walked on, leaving the man behind. He barely even moved when they passed, but still, Oto shot a quick glance at him, as if just in case. But he looked little more than an ordinary homeless guy.
And despite all that, Ray had doubts, as he went with the other two around town, doing whatever they did after school, which often meant just whatever they decided. He still wondered a little, whenever he would remember what he saw near the man sitting on the ground. A dark shape, like a six-legged spider, slightly bigger than a regular human hand. He wasn't afraid of spiders, but something about it just made a shiver run down his spine, a small, faint one but one nonetheless. But eventually, he had successfully blocked it out for at least a period of time. It was probably nothing more than shadow play anyway.
He did not realise how wrong he was until the evening.