Chapter 2- Culture Shock
Some time later:
The Avro York's engines finally began to slow down as Ryu stepped off of the ladder from the rear door. Hitachi Airport… was beyond barebones, to be frank. A single runway and terminal building, it was nothing to brag about. But it was supposed to be home now.
"You're lucky we took the effort of securing you a new school to go to in the first place, much less letting you finish the year here."
Yeah, like he would thank them for this. One mistake and they send him off to the middle of nowhere, an exile unknown even to his guards.
Or so he thought. But in that singular terminal stood the keys to his future. And to her side stood the Vice President. He glanced at her, and back at him, and asked one final time, "President, do you really think this is worth it?"
Tsubame sighed like she had thought of that a million times. She probably had. "I know, Akihito, I know. But you know we don't have a choice. Our chances only go down if we don't take everything offered to us. Besides, things are already in motion."
He released a short sigh and began to leave. "I hope you're right about this."
Did it really matter?
Staring at the blond boy walking out of her sight, she once again told herself she didn't have a choice. With a sentence of cold determination, she curtly replied before following,
"I am."
"All right, block 19, building 3, 9th floor, room 9. Welcome to Oarai," the check-in lady smiled at Ryu as she handed him his keys and schedule. He rushed down to catch the bus to his block, inelegantly dragging his suitcase behind him. Failing to match his speed, the bag would slow down to not hit his legs and then jerk forward to keep up, which only exacerbated his frustration. Wasn't his fault the plane arrived late! Thankfully, though, the bus hadn't left yet.
He was quite surprised when he arrived to the bus' location. It was quite a far cry from the double-deckers he remembered. These buses were weird. Or maybe his experience at St. Gloriana was the weird thing and these buses were normal. Well, frankly, this was a sorry excuse for a bus regardless of whether it's normal or not, but whatever. As he awaited their departure from his window seat, Ryu leaned his head on the glass and stared out the window. When he checked into St. Gloriana, the whole process was much quicker and more elegant. The buses were nicer. The airport was actually an airport. The school felt like a school.
His thought process was interrupted by a mechanical screech. The bus closed its doors and lurched forward. As they went along the road, Ryu noticed the distinctly modern Japanese style of the Zuikaku. Just as he was getting accustomed to St. Gloriana's Victorian architecture, he was forced back to this style. As they moved further into the town, where there would have been rows and rows of townhome-style dorms there were instead concrete blocks separated into rows. This was going to be a long two years.
Ryu took a good look around at his finally-finished dorm room. It was less depressing than the outside would suggest. Still a bit plain though. In any case, he was mostly just glad there wasn't too much to unpack. Besides his clothes, there was his kettle and some tea, flatware, silverware, really just the standard stuff. There wasn't much in the way of decorations. The plain table was the second-most interesting thing in the room only to the picture on his nightstand he was currently staring at. Haruka sat on the wing of a left-facing P-51, one knee up and smiling at the camera as Ryu, Lemongrass, and Saunders' commander "Sam" stood underneath the plane. Sam was in the middle, hanging his arms over the other two's shoulders. The exhibition match they did at the start of last year. Good times.
He put the photo back in its place and opened the blinds for the first time. The hangars were in the background, almost mocking him with their mere presence. As he moved to close the blinders, Ryu's eyes caught several large, old trucks bringing something into the hangar. Each flatbed was covered with a tarp. If they were transporting that much equipment, then that could be… no, that's not right. There's no way Oarai could have a sentouki-do team. Wasn't that the point of sending him here? But what else could it be? Gah, but even if they did, there's no way he could be part of it. Surely the school would know what he's done if they have someone who cares about the sport enough to start a team from scratch. So the hangars would probably just be adding insult to injury. Did Lemongrass know about this?
Lemongrass… Lemongrass, the rest of Gloriana, Haruka, Saunders probably, Oarai if it had a team, and his parents all hated him. Well, okay, his parents didn't hate him as much as they were just mad he had, "thrown away the education they worked so hard to give him" and "endangered" Haruka. But they didn't even ask for his side of what happened! They just took what they were given by Lemongrass and just ran with it. Bet they would rather have him as a son.
His whole life, all he had wanted was to make them happy. They were everything. When they said something was good, it was good, and when they hated something, it was therefore evil. And now they hated him. How dare they! And the worst part? They were right.
The First Day of School…
The possibility of sentouki-do at Oarai might have been the primary thought on Ryu's mind as he walked to school. But it competed with the mountain of differences between St. Gloriana and Oarai. He still hadn't quite adjusted, despite being here quite a while.
Ryu was least prepared for what the school itself looked like. The architecture of St. Gloriana itself was based off of Oxford University, and it was beautiful. Oarai was strictly practical: it didn't really have a theme. Just the standard Boys' school, Girls' school, and Co-Ed school, each designed to get students in and out. St. Gloriana's intricate stone pillars made students want to pursue excellence. Oarai's basic concrete columns made students want to leave.
Ryu walked into the building half-expecting a swarm to greet him. Surprisingly for an introvert, he was almost disappointed to remember that wasn't going to be the case. He's been forgotten. Actually, in this case, his "work" would earn him more controversy than praise, so it's probably for the better regardless.
Ryu looked down at his schedule. Class 2-C is on… floor 2. Fair enough. He began walking towards the stairs and let his mind wander back to the hangars. An Oarai sentouki-do team… but it wouldn't ever take him. And fair enough, with the accident and all. But did everyone have to be so harsh on him? Ah, there was the classroom. He had just taken his seat when he got the old pilot's sense screaming at him: someone was watching him. He quickly looked around but all seemed normal. Suspicious. He turned around, slightly wary, though he would probably forget this by the end of the day.
Michiko, for her part, had buried her face into her book, astonished. The Dragon of Gloriana was here. And there was only one thing he could be here for. The thing she had been preparing for all summer, no, all her life. For sentouki-do.
A/N:
I updated in less than 3 months, it's a miracle lol. Anyways, I just wanted to wish my fellow Americans a very Happy Independence Day. And to my non-Americans, uh, have a nice day.
And either way, thank you for being here and stay tuned for more. I promise I have a lot of ideas to come.
