Yukari caught me on the way to school the next day. I hadn't got back to the dorm yet, so I was still carrying my guitar, but no schoolbag.

Hey, at least I have my priorities straight.

"Morning," Yukari told me, reaching into her schoolbag as she set into my stride. "You seem to be doin' pretty well."

"Like you said, I was just exhausted. Takoyaki?" I offered, showing her my breakfast. Hospital food sucked, no matter where you were.

"Thanks." She replied, taking one as she offered me some books. "Thought you might be coming in today, so I went into your room and got today's books for you."

"Thanks," I replied, shoving the books under my armpit for now.

Yukari and I were in the same classes for everything, which was a small blessing in this whole mess.

Oh, that reminds me. "Hey, um, I'm sorry for forgetting the –San yesterday-"

"Hey, don't sweat it," She replied with a smile, "You weren't brought up Japanese, so I'm fine with you just dropping it all together."

That was a relief. "Same goes for you then, Yukari."

She smiled. "Sure, Minato."

"NOOOOO! IT'S NOT POSSIBLE!" A rather distraught chap ran past us, crying his eyes out. Apparently he'd just overhead that last bit.

"Odd fellow."

"Complete weirdo more like. Oh, Mitsuru senpai wants to talk to you today, so come to the fourth floor of the dorm after school, okay?"

"Sure." A thought then came to mind, probably not the most tactful question, but it would save me a lot of bother later. "Hey, how are Akihiko and Mitsuru Senpai on the whole honorific thing?"

"Probably like that actually. Akihiko senpai thinks the world of you, and Mitsuru senpai's… well…"

"Mitsuru?" I used her name as an adjective, rather than a noun.

Yukari giggled. "Yeah, that's a good description."

So, yeah. Me and Yukari had a decent conversation on the school, both of us avoiding what we really wanted to talk about (probably monsters, but I'm no mind reader), until we got to class. Mr. Ono, the samurai guy from before, was teaching about the stone man. Apparently his 'fires of youth' only burned for Japanese history, and it was boring as hell.

"Psst. Minato-kun..."

Buh, what?

"Watashi ha, anatawo taikutsu saseru desuka Arisoto-kun?"

Wide awake now, and I slowly lifted my head,

"I asked if I was boring you Arisoto-kun." a samurai in a suit asked me, a sillouette from the light he blocked out as he loomed over my desk.

"Erm… No, Ono Sensei." I replied, sitting upright and trying very hard to look interested.

"Don't lie, I'm boring everyone." He sighed. "This Stone Age is nothing to the Sengoku era, but I get paid to teach you this, so the least you can do is pay attention."

"I'm sorry sir." I told him, nodding.

Yukari raised her hand. "Sir, he just got out of hospital this morning." Hey, I'm being defended. That's a nice change to what I usually get. It also doesn't involve punching anyone's lights out, so there's another plus right there.

The teacher shook his head. "Fine then Arisoto-kun, I'll let you off if you can tell me the difference between the Palaeolithic era and the Neolithic era, since Junpei-kun couldn't tell us."

I turned to look at Junpei, who sat there looking embarrassed. While I could go down with him, I could also save my own neck, showing him up in the process.

It was a tough decision, but I made it quickly.

"How the tools were made, sir." I told him. "One used chipped stone, but the other used ground stone. Don't know which is which though."

Everyone in the class was staring at me in silence.

I only just realised how much of a swot I just sounded.

Damn.

"Correct." Ono nodded, walking past me. "I see you've been studying at home. Well, either way, they both used stone tools… ugh; I can't wait until we get to the age of Katana…"

Dammit. I dreaded the inevitable whispers that were to follow.

"Woah, answering the question after sleeping through the lesson?"

"I know, Minato-kun's really smart…"

Damnation.

"That's pretty awesome, getting one over a teacher like that."

"I know! That was so cool."

Dammit all to hell - wait, what?

"I wish I was that smart…"

"Better start studying more…"

Holy crap, I'm in a school full of geeks.

Wait, that's impossible, Junpei's an idiot.

Okay that was harsh. From what I've seen, he's not a moron like we had back home. I shuddered from the memory of that girl from my Philosophy class last year. She argued for ten minutes that Whales laid eggs, and you could get them in restaurants, a dozen of them for twenty quid. The teacher explained that she was getting mixed up with Quail's eggs. "Same Difference", she said.

For the record, Whales are large, sea based mammals that give birth to live young. Quails, on the other hand, are tiny ground-bound birds that live in the desert, and lay eggs the size of marbles. In my book, that's a big difference.

...

Where was I?

Oh, right, geeks. Maybe Japan just liked smart kids or something? If England is full of idiots, where the biggest idiots are cool, then maybe Japan is full of brains, where the biggest brains are cool. Yeah, that makes sense.

Junpei talked to me at lunch. He said that he'd missed my lunches, as he passed me a bread bun from the school shop. I thanked him, and he filled me in on what had happened while I was gone. Turned out, not much really.

Anyway, around half way through the break Kenji came up to me and asked if I played guitar. It was fairly obvious what he wanted, so I shrugged and pulled my guitar out of its case.

"Ooh, a Gibson? Not bad." Junpei remarked. "You know, I play a little myself."

"Really?"

"Yeah, got myself a Yamaha. It's alright, does the job. So, how well do you-"

I started playing unconsciously. It always happens whenever I get my hands on an instrument. I've been called musically talented, but I just know what goes where and have rhythm.

Kenji thought for a moment. "That's… clash on the big bridge, right? Final Fantasy Five?"

I nodded, and started concentrating on what I was playing.

I stopped after a few minutes, a bit unnerved by the two of them. "Something wrong?"

Kenji just stood in shock, and Junpei whistled. "Damn, that's skill. Heh, guess smart kids are good at music then."

I noticed the slight angst in Junpei's voice; it was hard to miss it. "Hey, we should practice together sometime." I offered.

Junpei grinned, but pretended to act nonchalant. "Yeah, sound's good. When did you have in mind?"

"Erm… Not tonight…" I told him. "Something's going down at my dorm…"

"I know." Junpei smiled. "I'm moving in."

"Oh, Really?"

"Damn man, aren't you surprised?" Junpei asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Well, yeah." I shrugged. "I just don't show it."

Junpei sighed. "Well, just don't tell Yuka-tan. I can't wait to see the look of her face when she finds out, it'll be priceless!"

"Finds out what?" asked the girl herself.

Yukari was there, having just walked back into the classroom. Junpei had the look of someone who's just been caught slipping a whoopee cushion under someone's seat (Note to self: do that at some point), so I bailed him out.

"Junpei plays guitar." I told her. It was true, but it wasn't the answer to her question, but she didn't know that, so yeah, I lied.

"Really? Because it looks like this." Yukari replied, simply looking bored.

"Holy crap!" Kenji shouted, "Two Minato-kun's!" That got us laughing.

I got to the dorm after Yukari, who was waiting in the lounge.

"Thought we were meeting upstairs?" I asked her, dumping my guitar case onto the couch.

"We are." She replied. "Just waiting for Akihiko-senpai."

"Right then." I nodded, slipping my shoes off, walking over to the other couch and dive-bombing it. "Wake me up when he shows." Naptime!

I sat up as the door opened. "There you are senpai." Yukari sighed at Akihiko walked half-way through the door, his right arm in a sling.

"Minato-kun, Yukari-san, there's someone I want to introduce." He told us from the doorway as he turned to face outside and barked "Hey! Hurry up!"

"Hold your horses," a familiar voice groaned. "This is freakin' heavy…"

Junpei came in through the door dragging some travel cases and had a sports bag across his back.

"JUNPEI?" Yukari shouted. "What's he doing here?"

Junpei was right; the look on her face was priceless.

Junpei flashed what I'm sure was his idea of a million-yen grin. "Heheh, wazzup?"

Yukari's reaction only continued to escalate. "HE'S staying HERE? You've gotta be KIDDING ME!"

Junpei found this hilarious, but Akihiko kept a straight face. "I bumped into him last night." he explained. maybe he simply didn't find it funny? "He has the potential, but he just awakened to it recently…" Actually, it was more like he didn't get what was so funny. "I told him about us, and he agreed to help."

Yukari was beginning to calm down, but was still fairly hysterical. "YOU have the potential? For real?"

Fairly obvious, as Junpei went into a complaining mode. "He found me cryin' like a baby at the convenience store, surrounded by a bunch of coffins." he groaned. "I don't remember much but… Man, that's embarrassing!"

I had to admit, it wasn't normally the kind of thing one would boast about, but Junpei continued; "He said that was, you know, normal in the beginning." I must have looked confused for once because the other two nodded as Junpei elaborated "You know, being confused, and not remembering anything, did you guys know that?"

"Don't remember." I replied.

Junpei laughed, "Good one man."

I shook my head. "No, I'm serious; I can't remember what I was like when I 'awakened', as you call it."

Yukari looked concerned. "Erm… When did you awaken, exactly?" she asked.

"When I was seven, why?"

You could have heard a pin drop.

Yukari and Junpei merely looked surprised, but Akihiko looked white as a sheet, though I was the only one that noticed.

Yukari broke the silence "That explains a lot…" she muttered.

"Damn man, you grew up with this?" Junpei whistled. "Well, I suppose we go to bed pretty early when we're kids, so maybe it wasn't so–"

I shook my head. "Time difference."

Silence again, so I elaborated; "Because of the Time difference, it happens at around three or four in the afternoon back home."

…

Okay, now you could have heard a pin falling.

"That's an interesting piece of information."

I turned behind me and everyone's attention turned to the guidance councilor with a mullett who just spoke.

"Mr. Chairman." Akihiko nodded to him.

Ikutsuki smiled. "So the Dark Hour occurs worldwide at Japan's midnight and not in each time zone's respective midnights…" he nodded. "Very interesting…"

Really? Because that would have been one of the first things I would have checked out. Don't they have any scientists? Psychologists at the least.

"Mitsuru-san is waiting upstairs," Ikutsuki told us all, clapping his hands. "So let's go start the meeting!"

"Fiiiinally..." I muttered, swinging my legs from the couch.