I woke up easily to the sound of the good-morning announcement from Nekouro. Not only was I sleeping lightly, but I was also extremely well-rested from going to sleep so early. Immediately after the announcement, I heard a knock on my door. Knowing they wouldn't hear me call, they opened the door themselves and walked in. I recognized the sound of the person's shoes, though.

"You awake?" they asked quietly. It was Miles.

"Yeah, I actually feel pretty good," I responded. I got a good look at Miles... and I noticed something. There were very clear dark circles under his eyes.

He yawned. "That's good... I'm kind of exhausted..."

"Did you not sleep well?" I asked.

"I didn't really sleep at all..." Miles sighed, yawning again. "I got the final shift..."

"Shift?"

"Yeah," Miles explained. "Mitsuo, Aki, and I agreed to stand watch outside your door overnight. I wasn't sure I could wake myself up so I just drank a bunch of coffee and stayed awake all night."

"You guys did that... for me?" I asked, touched. If I'd known I had people watching out for me, I wouldn't have been worried at all.

"Anyway, how's your foot doing?" he asked.

"It still hurts... But I guess it could be worse," I said with a nod. "I don't think it's broken, at least."

"That's great news!" Miles grinned. "I'm going to go back to my room and go to sleep... But I'm glad you're feeling even a little better."

"Thanks, Miles," I smiled.

Shortly after Miles left, I heard someone else come in. This time, I recognized their heavy footfalls as Mitsuo Hagakura.

"Hey," he greeted. "It's just me. I brought you some things."

"Like breakfast?" I asked jokingly.

"Even better," he answered. As he walked through the entry hall, I got a full view of him. He was carrying something large under his arm... "I brought you a pair of crutches that I found in the nurse's office. And some pain medication, too."

I couldn't stop myself from grinning. "Really?"

"Here, I'll help you get into them," Mitsuo said. He helped me get out of bed and get the crutches under my armpits, all without bothering my foot at all. He adjusted the height of the crutches, and suddenly I could walk again!

I hadn't been bed-bound for more than a day, but still, this was such a relief! "I feel so alive!" I exclaimed.

Mitsuo chuckled, flashing his sharp teeth in a grin. "It's good to hear. Come on, we can go meet up in the cafeteria now. Did you want my help?"

"No, I should be all right," I answered.

"All right. I'll go on ahead, then," he said before making his leave.

It was a little difficult getting used to walking with the crutches, but it was better than not walking. I stumbled my way from my room to the hall. As I was walking to the cafeteria, I was quickly reminded of something that I hadn't even thought of before... There were stairs leading to the dorm area... I had to be extra careful, and take extra time, making my way down the stairs...

Thankfully, it worked fine, and it didn't set me back all too far. I continued on my way to the cafeteria, and made my way over to one of the circular tables. It was the same one that Mitsuo was sitting at, since I was kind of getting close with him.

"Ishiki," he greeted. "I'm glad you made it all right."

"Me too," I chuckled.

"So then the last one we're waiting for is Miles..." Lysandre sighed. "Even Ishiki has an excuse for being this late. Are international students always this... tardy?"

"That's a little bit rude..." I noted with a stern frown.

"Would you like to vouch for him, then?" Lysandre asked, putting his head into his hand in mock-intrigue.

Ignoring his rude demeanor, I explained. "Miles was watching my door to make sure nobody, you know, tried to kill me."

"He shouldn't have taken such a responsibility if he could not handle it," Lysandre scoffed.

"Ishiki is right..." Mitsuo sighed. "That's really rude. Why would you say that? I stood watch too, but I had the first shift of the night. So I still got an almost-full night's sleep. Miles is clearly tired from being up all night."

"That... That isn't my fault," Lysandre said. "So why should I pity him? He did that entirely to himself."

"Master Sakamura!" Shinyou greeted me with a cheer. "So good to see you out of your room. Are you well?"

"I'm... better, after taking some painkillers," I chuckled.

"And Masters Kirijiro and Hagakura," Shinyou said, bowing.

"Good morning, Shinyou!" Mitsuo smiled.

"Would you get me a tea?" Lysandre asked. "Black. With extra cream, and no sugar."

"Right away, sir," Shinyou said, and bowed, and then retreated to the kitchen to prepare Lysandre a cup of tea.

"You didn't even say please." I scowled at the Ultimate Hypnotist.

"I don't see why that matters," Lysandre replied without even needing to think.

"Sorry..." Mitsuo sighed. "He's not used to... pleasantries."

"Do not apologize on my behalf," Lysandre asserted. "If I were sorry, I would say it myself. But I have nothing to be sorry for."

"Right..." I scoffed. I got up and moved to a different table. Aki was sitting there, with Kaiya, Alice, Yuki, and Iida.

"Ooh, you're out of your room again!" Aki smiled and waved. "Good to see it!"

"Indeed," Yuki nodded. "Everyone was concerned for you."

Iida nodded. "It's true. At least, I can certainly speak for myself. If I were stronger, perhaps I would have helped you more. But I really was concerned for you."

"It's all right," I reassured. "I had plenty of help already."

"Did you hear that the second floor of the classroom wing is now open?" Kaiya said almost giddily. "And the fitness wing too!"

"Oh, the fitness wing too?" I asked. "Nekouro forgot to tell me about that."

"We all banded together to investigate the two areas," Alice explained. "It felt like I could finally touch a distant dream that had been only a fingertip beyond my mind's reach until now."

"Whoa... Was it really that cool?" I asked.

Kaiya responded, "I mean, it was kind of fun! There's a music room, a sculpting classroom, a photo developing room, and even a forge!" She thrust up her right hand with excitement, which happened to have a Nekouro-shaped puppet on it. "But... touching a distant dream?" She thought for a moment. "Actually, now that I've heard it put that way... It did kind of feel like that."

"Exactly!" Alice smiled. "Now you see."

"I want to touch a distant dream..." I sighed.

"Why don't I show you what you missed out on yesterday?" Mitsuo asked, getting up from his seat with Lysandre and coming over to me.

"Wh-?" Lysandre gasped, watching as Mitsuo just walked away from him. "How dare you!" he called out after Mitsuo, but it seemed to get drowned out in everyone else's cafeteria conversations.

"I'd like that," I smiled. I said goodbye to my friends, and Mitsuo and I went towards Fate's Smile School of the Ultimate Arts' classroom wing. A music room... A sculpting classroom... A photo developing room... And even a forge! I could only assume Kaiya had been talking about a metalworking room, which was also an exciting thought! I was eager to see everything!

Mitsuo helped me climb up the stairs leading to the second floor, which thankfully allowed things to go much smoother. "Where would you like to go first?" he asked.

"Hm... how about the music room?" I suggested.

Mitsuo and I headed into a room with a musical note painted onto the door. It seemed pretty obvious that this was the music room. When we got inside, I noted everything that I saw. There was a row of bleacher-style seats arranged theatre-style along one corner of the room. The classroom was kind of a keyhole shape, I guess. There was a square area with the bleacher-seats and some desks, as well as a cubby embedded into the wall. And on the other end of the room was a rounded stage that had stairs leading up to it. The stage had a row of instruments already laid out on it, with seats next to them. There was also a maestro stand facing in the same direction the audience would be facing. As I scanned along the wall, I also noticed two doors. There was a door leading to a small room with what appeared to be a one-way window facing out into the classroom. That must have been a sound studio! And the other door looked like some other doors I'd seen. Namely, storage room doors. I assumed that meant it also must have been a storage room. But I decided it was worth taking a look anyway. I didn't particularly think there would be any clues to our escape in a music room storage closet, but... If they were going to be anywhere, wouldn't they be in a place people wouldn't think to look?

Mitsuo and I went into the storage closet. It was on the bigger side, compared to the other storage rooms we'd seen so far. "I took a look through here earlier," Mitsuo said. "There's mostly just spare instruments and chairs in here. Oh, and some microphones and stuff."

"I see..." I said, nodding subconsciously. "And the sound studio?"

"We can check that out, yeah! It's pretty cool, honestly!" Mitsuo exclaimed, and we crossed over into the sound studio.

It was small, but it was bigger than the storage closet was. There was a big control panel along one wall that I quickly realized I had no idea where to even begin with. I'm sure it was used for synthesizers or voice modification, but just thinking about all of the different sliders, buttons, and dials kind of made my head spin. There was a microphone with a half-circle cover over it which was hanging from the ceiling, and I noticed that all of the things in the room were either red or black, aside from labels and buttons on the control panel. There was a wall that was completely taken up by music awards, many of which seemed so prestigious I hadn't even heard of them before. One of the walls was also dedicated to hanging up foam-lined headphones like they were fancy jackets. I really felt like a commoner in something like a castle, and the feeling only became stronger the more of the school that I saw.

"So, what's next?" Mitsuo asked, waiting patiently for me to catch up. He cracked his knuckles a lot while waiting, which was a bit intimidating, but I knew Mitsuo was actually very kind and gentle.

"Why not the sculpting classroom?" I asked.

"Sure. Follow me," he said, and gestured for me to come with him. The sculpting classroom was directly across the hall from the music room, which made it easy to find.

When we walked in, I tried to commit the room's layout to memory. There were several rows of counters all parallel to each other. Each counter had several work stations set up on it, in even intervals. And along the wall, there were a whole collection of sculpting tools, ranging from mallets to chisels and smaller items like carving implements and texturing tools. This was no elementary-school art classroom, that was for certain. There were some carved sculptures along one side of the room, which were all on display behind a sliding glass wall. There was one counter facing all of the others. This one had a slight half-moon curve to it. I assumed it must have been the instructor's work station. Not only was there a projector behind it, but there was also a mirror hanging from the ceiling which hung over the counter. It reflected the surface of the counter, which would have been useful for students who needed to see what the instructor was doing from a certain angle.

We made our way into this room's storage closet. There was a sink, and some unfinished projects back there, as well as several, several boxes of clay packed in air-tight plastic. I poked it, surprised to find that it was still malleable like clay should be. On the other side of the storage room, there was a small stack of stone slabs. Probably used for chisel-sculpting, I presumed.

"I think that's everything there is to see here," Mitsuo said, standing in the doorway and watching me investigate with a look of deep intrigue. "You know, it's fun to watch you investigate things. You're so thorough, and so... intrigued."

"Uh..." I blushed, not really sure how to respond. "Thanks, I guess."

"Let's check out the photo lab," Mitsuo suggested.

"Yeah, I'd be down," I said, and followed him back out to the sculpting classroom itself, then into the hall. It was a bit of a walk, since both the music room and the sculpting room were so large. And Mitsuo walked so fast... Thankfully, he was patient, and when he noticed he was getting too far ahead from me, he would stop and wait for me to catch up.

"Here we are," he said, holding open the door and waiting for me to enter before closing it.

"It's so much darker than I expected," I noted.

"I think it looks kind of cool, to be honest," Mitsuo chuckled. "I bet Miles would get a kick out of this room."

"Yeah, he so would," I laughed. "I wish I could see his reaction. So this is what a dark room looks like..."

"Well... yeah... Have you, like, never turned the lights off before?" Mitsuo asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

It was a bit relieving to finally know something that someone else didn't know. "No," I explained. "A 'dark room' is the name for a lab used to develop photographs." I chuckled at the situation.

Then, I continued investigating my surroundings. There were some shallow basins, and the room was bathed in a red light which was coming from above. There were some jugs of chemicals on top of the counters, which I assumed were used in the photo developing process. Otherwise, it seemed like that was all there was in this room... Aside from some insignificant chairs and stuff, that is.

"So then the metalworking forge is the last place to check out here, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, but it's really interesting!" Mitsuo grinned. "Come on, you gotta see it!" With that, he rushed off into the hall to show me the metalworking forge. I guess he forgot I was still walking with crutches...

I noticed as I was stumbling through the classroom wing's second floor hallway that there was a widening in it, which led to a seating area. There was a cute round planter in the middle filled with plants which appeared real. And surrounding the planter were some sectional chairs. It would be a nice place to chat with fellow students between classes... if only this were a normal school. I could see that there was more in the direction of the seating area, but Mitsuo was waiting for me in the forge...

I walked in, and was greeted by the powerful smell of metal. You know, the smell of metal that makes you think you're tasting salt when you're not. Mitsuo seemed pretty enthused about the forge. It was way bigger than I expected.

"Normally these spaces are supposed to be vented..." I said.

"Yeah..." Mitsuo sighed. "Those are some big metal plates against the wall though. The windows in here must be huge! I bet they let in so much natural light! And so much cool breeze!"

"Heh... you didn't strike me as the type to like natural light and cool breeze," I commented.

"Uh... did you miss what my talent is?" Mitsuo asked. "I'm the Ultimate Survivalist. Nature is where I thrive, man! I kind of prefer hunting and gathering my own food to having it just... there, honestly. You know?"

"No..." I said, without having to think about it. "I don't think I do. If I had to survive in the wild, I think I'd last... maybe a few days."

"Right..." Mitsuo chuckled, starting to blush. "I forgot everyone doesn't think like I do..."

"So... Mitsuo, what got a guy like you to come to an arts school like Fate's Smile?" I asked, suddenly interested.

"Um... the invitation, I guess," he answered after a brief bit of thought.

"Do you ever feel like you don't... belong here?" I asked.

"Honestly, yeah," Mitsuo sighed, and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm really out of my element here..."

"I can relate to that, for certain," I assured, nodding with understanding.

"I really did think I would enjoy it here, though," Mitsuo said, a smile returning to his sharp jaw. "It's not that I don't like the arts. In fact, I'm quite fond of them. I'm a huge classical art history buff."

"R-really?" I stuttered.

"Yeah... Survivalism doesn't make much of a hobby. I always wanted to learn how to paint like Van Gogh, or how to tell a story with unconventional means like American artist Warhol."

"I'm... shocked!" I admitted.

"Heh... yeah, most people are when they hear that about me." He sighed, and looked down. "I'm not very coordinated when it comes to things like that, though... I'm worried I might not ever achieve those dreams..."

"You know, you're surprisingly sensitive," I said, and chuckled. "I thought you'd be rougher."

"I could still kill a bear with nothing but a rock off the ground," he reminded me. "So don't go thinking I've gone soft. I just learned to appreciate the art world."

"Gyah! N-no! I wouldn't d-dream of thinking that!" I stuttered, suddenly kind of nervous.

"Why the face?" he asked, seeming to genuinely not know.

I shook my head and shifted my focus to investigating the forge, and memorizing my surroundings. It was laid out kind of similar to the sculpting classroom, with work stations laid out parallel to each other along the length of the room. Most things were made of metal. Suiting, I thought. There were small blow torches at each work station, as well as other metalworking tools like mallets and pliers. Along the inner wall, the one with no windows on it, there were larger tools, like larger torches and metalworking implements. Even the floor was made of metal, which made me kind of self-conscious of the sound of the crutches on the metal floor.

If anyone wanted an easy murder weapon, this would be the place to get it... N-not that I would ever be looking for such a thing!

"Hey... there was more down the hallway outside," I said, breaking the momentary silence. "On the other side of the seating area. Has anyone checked that out?"

"Yeah," Mitsuo said with a shrug. "Nothing interesting. Just a dance studio and another iron wall with caution tape."

"Oh..." I said, a little disappointed. I thought I was being clever. "Well, can we check out the dance studio?"

"I mean, I guess," he answered. Then, we went together to the dance studio. "See? Nothing special."

He wasn't really wrong... It was just a regular dance studio, with a mirror along one wall, and a railing against the mirror. There were some exercise balls on the floor in one corner, but they didn't strike me as important. One of them was sky-blue with white stripes, though. It reminded me of Alice's outfit. I went over to take a look, and what should I find to my surprise...? I held it up victoriously!

A bundle of cat tokens!

"And that's all," Mitsuo said. "At least, that's all for this section."

"Huh?"

"Did you want to check out the fitness wing next? It opened up too," Mitsuo asked.

"Oh, that's right!" I recalled. "Sure! Let's see what's there."

Mitsuo and I headed to the fitness area. The first area we checked was the first one we could get to. The gymnasium. It sure was big... But then again, all school gymnasiums seemed to be dauntingly large. Otherwise, it had all the markings on the floor, and it had a row of bleachers against the far wall. There was a storage room to the back, with regular gym equipment. Otherwise, it was just a big, empty gymnasium, with basketball hoops pre-installed into the walls, and a score keeper hanging from the ceiling.

We checked across the hall, where we found a workout gym, with lots of big equipment meant for working out. "I'm probably gonna spend a lot of time here," Mitsuo chuckled. "I don't wanna start looking like a fat bear."

"You're really athletic, huh?" I commented.

"I guess it was a result of necessity," Mitsuo explained. "It's true what they say about 'survival of the fittest,' at least in the wilderness. I needed to become athletic, or else I would have totally died during those four years I spent living in the mountains."

"It sounds like such an interesting story!" I couldn't stop my true feelings from coming out through my mouth. "I'd love to hear about it from you sometime!"

"There's a surprising amount of documentaries on me," Mitsuo blushed. "I've never been good with accepting attention, so doing interviews for documentary producers was honestly more stressful than my time living in the wild."

"I'd never guess," I said. "But I'd like to hear it straight from you. I think it would be more interesting that way."

"Well..." He chuckled, and ruffled his hair. "I do kind of like telling people about it. Hang out with me later and I'll tell you."

The next room we checked out was the sauna. It was pretty much exactly what you would expect. It wasn't turned on when we investigated it, but I imagined it would be a great place to relax when it was turned on. It was a traditional sauna made of wood and stone. Frankly, I was really impressed. And, I should mention, there was a small changing area outside it, with lockers and wooden benches.

The next room was the most shocking, by far. It was at the end of the hall, and there were a pair of dramatic French doors leading into it. Mitsuo helped me open the doors, which was difficult because of my injured foot and needing to use crutches. I noted that the doors were dark blue and had white snowflakes painted on them. But what was inside really took me by surprise.

"A skating rink!?" I shouted in shock, not caring who heard me.

It had all of the markings of a hockey rink, complete with a scorekeeper hanging from the ceiling. Furthermore, there were bleachers on both sides of the rink. There was also an area for what I assumed must be judges. The rink was probably used as both a hockey rink and a figure skating rink.

"What kind of school has a skating rink in it!?" I was completely in shock. I wasn't even bothered by how cold the air was.

"Fate's Smile, apparently," Mitsuo chuckled. "It's okay, I was shocked when I saw it too. Isn't it so grand?"

"Y-yeah... I guess..." I wasn't really sure what to think.

Anyway, that was the last area that had been newly opened up to us. Mitsuo helped me get back to my dorm room, and then he went to do whatever the Ultimate Survivalist does in his spare time. I had some Free Time now. I wanted to spend it with other students, but who...?