[Episode Zero] School Daze

[Luca]

Miller facepalmed. He had no choice but to play along, "Well, if you say so," He said But still, something doesn't add up. Is he covering for someone else? He alone couldn't have caused all of this mess. He knocked on the principal's office door and said, "I might have found the culprit for the fire alarm," He then proceeded to let himself in, and found that the room was already occupied. He hadn't been paying attention to what was going on within the office, and instead decided to stand back and wait his turn for the principal, straightening his tie.

[Kai]

A young girl in the chair in front of the desk turned around as Mr. Miller made his entrance, and the principal stopped talking- He seemed to be speaking rather informally to the girl, but now that Miller had appeared, claiming to know who the culprit was, he leaned back and put an amicable smile on his face, adjusting his glasses. "Oh, no, we have the culprit right here. She has confessed everything, so you don't have to worry" the Principal explained.

Miller sighed a little and looked over to Ruarc, "You're off the hook," He said before turning back towards the Principal with an embarassed expression of 'barking up the wrong tree'-ism, "Fill me in, please."

"Kagami here set off the alarms in order to save a friend from a mob of students, apparently. A transfer student, from Wales, actually." he explained, as Miyuki stared intently at her lap, apparently enthralled with the pleating of her black skirt, or perhaps how it contrasted with the white sport coat. "Kagami here has been made to understand the consequences and ramifications of her actions, so do not worry, Miller.

Miller nodded. Kagami wasn't his responsibility anyway, "Still, for a first day at school, I'm concerned that people are already falling in with the wrong crowds," He tilted his neck a little to work out a knot in his muscles, "Wouldn't you agree?"

"It is my belief that those who were meant to find one another have." the Principal answered, cryptically, but in a friendly tone. "Flynn, would you please come in?" the Principal called out to the Irishman standing outside.

Ruarc hesitated as he quickly lost control of his situation and was summoned into the room. "Uh, yes Sir," Ruarc said to the principal as he made his way into the office. He looked over as he got closer to the desk and saw the girl from earlier.
"Oh really now?" the Irishman thought to himself as he looked at the girl, his right eye in particular had a distinct glint.

[CadetNewb]

Ruarc wasn't the only one to come into the office, in a manner of speaking; as the young Irishman stepped into the office, a head stuck itself into the room. The tired and worn looking boy politely spoke up. "Ah, forgive me, you're busy Principal. I'll wait outside until you're done." Though his Japanese was lightly accented, it was very precise in pronunciation. He offered up a weary smile before ducking out again, standing outside the door. 'And I get to eavesdrop. Fair enough; someone else has to have noticed what happened by now, and I'll definitively hear it from here.' he thought. In truth, and though he loathed to admit it, he was actually tired; Duncan's body ached as though he ran at full sprint for quite some time on a full stomach before coming to a sudden stop. And the memory of formaldehyde wasn't helping. Sweat started to bead on his brow as he bent over to catch his breath.

'Shit. I feel sick.'

[Kai]

The Principal waited patiently for Ruarc, and even paused a moment when Duncan popped in for a moment. His face seemed stern now, set in an expression that meant business of some kind, even though he was fairly young for such a station. He began in slightly accented Irish "Am I to understand that you did not evacuate the building when the fire alarms went off? That is a serious breach of safety protocol and obviously, somebody needs to teach you the procedures." The principal then switched to English- he was apparently rather talented- "Miller, I must ask you to please go over our school's safety protocols with master Flynn here, and feel free to keep him until you are certain he understands." The principal straightened in his chair, then say the look in Ruarc's eye as he stared at Miyuki. Again in Irish, he requested "Flynn. Stop looking at Miyuki like that. It's unbecoming and I could cite you for harassment." His expression was, however, rather warm, almost as if the Principal understood exactly what was going on and was trying to simultaneously make a joke and tell Ruarc he needn't worry.

The principal reverted suddenly to Japanese, and requested of the Occupants of the room at large "You three are free to go, and Miller, please inform the staff that the rest of the day is now a free day, we've taken up the normal time for most of our afternoon classes already anyway." As they left his office, the principal cleared his throat, and called Duncan in. "Master Leetenbaum, please have a seat, what is it you wish to discuss?"

[CadetNewb]

As Duncan finally started to catch his breath, he realized someone was speaking in Irish. And then English, though, that wasn't as alarming. He intended to listen in and perhaps get clues to piece together, but he realized it was probably already too late. Still, he took note of the conversation anyways, as trivial as it was. Still, could any of them already know of what happened? He perked up in surprise when the Principal called him in; they processed paperwork here quickly, that was for certain. Duncan quickly obeyed and filed in, briefly eying each person as they left. 'Pretending to be someone polite...this sucks. Why the hell did I think this was a good idea? I could have just came right in and said what I found up front. Get down to the damned matter.' He forced himself to keep calm, and vented the energy of his frustration in acting unsettled, speaking quickly.

"I beg pardon for bothering you this day, but as I went about the campus to become familiar, I stumbled across a grisly scene where many frogs were scattered about the floor. The stench of the chemicals was terrible, and I nearly passed out when I came close to look." He made sure to say it a little loudly so the departing people could hear him. If Duncan could get the attention of at least one of them, he could discreetly ask more about other going-ons as well. This couldn't be an isolated incident.

[Luca]

Mr. Miller nodded to the principal, "I'm sure they're all anxious to know, sir," He gave the principal a deep bow, "Goodbye for now." He then left the room with Ruarc, brushing past Duncan. He felt the need to give Duncan what he knew about the events since he was asking, "All we know for now is that there was a very sick prank. We don't know how they got it organised so quickly, but we're looking into it. I'll open some windows on the way out to air the place."

As Miller progressed through the hallways, he opened the windows to, as promised, air the rooms out and get the chemical stench out of the air. Ruarc was nearby.
"So, Ruarc, the first thing you do when you hear the alarms is to head towards the lawn and stick with your class. You and the other kids don't enter the building until we confirm that its safe to do so with the local Fire Brigade," He instructed the Irish child, "If there was a real fire in the building and you fail to do so, it could mean that you're in some serious danger," He then sighed lightly, a faint smile appearing on his face, "It's my responsibility to make sure you and the rest of the class are safe, no matter what."

He eventually reached the sports grounds and regrouped with the teachers present, and told them the situation as it stood.
"So, what do we do now?" One of the teachers asked.
"I suppose we start thinking about what to teach the kids tomorrow," Replied another.
"Figures. This has been an interesting day."
Miller nodded in agreement, "I'll be sticking around. I've got some last minute grading to do for today's miniature assignment, and maybe some kendo practice."

"Alright Miller, don't work yourself too hard."
With that in mind, Miller headed back into the building to grade what he could of the presentations that were given. He figured that he'd tell the remainder of students who didn't get a chance to speak to do so tomorrow, hopefully with a fresher head.

[Straken]

Ruarc was astounded when the principal spoke to him in Irish. As he listened to the man it was as if something clicked inside of him; Ruarc felt relieved and his mind was at ease. Whether it was relief from hearing someone speak to him in his native language or something else, the Irishman now felt rather silly and ashamed. Ruarc realized even though he had zeroed in on Miyuki as the person possessing magic, he had no way of confronting her without terrorizing her further.

”Well, don’t I just feel like an ass. She isn’t the one I am contending with. Apparently I just hate not knowing,” Ruarc thought to himself.
”Good to see you have relaxed and come to your senses,” Laoise said to him.
”Yeah. Are you about ready to head out? I saw a nice bridge on the way to school, it would be a nicer shelter than sitting under a tree,”
”I’ll follow where you lead, Keeper,”

“My apologies, Sir. The alarms were not my doing, and I have been rude to Miss Miyuki,” Ruarc apologized to the principal in Irish. “I will be on my way.” He bowed his head solemnly to the principal and Miyuki in turn before silently exiting the room. Once in the hallway Ruarc adjusted his heavy pack as he quitted his thoughts as he walked slowly down the empty hallway.

[Kai]

"I will have the janitors on it shortly. We don't know who did this, but we will be looking into it. It should not happen again." The principal explained to Duncan, giving him much less information that he probably would have liked.
"Unfortunately, the school day has been canceled, so you may wish to contact your parent or guardian to get a ride home if need be." The Principal thought for a moment. "If you'd like, you may go and see the nurse first, but for now, we need to clear this whole mess up and get the school ready for tomorrow."

******

Miyuki, as quickly as she could, moved in the opposite direction of Miller and Ruarc, heading for the nurse's office to make sure everyone was okay. First she met an extremely embarrassed looking Hana pacing a couple hallways away from the office, and after convincing the girl to come with her, she made her way to the nurse's office. Within a few more minutes, She, Hana, and Hisoka were on their way home, a wheelchair borrowed for Hisoka, and their goodbyes said to Percy. Their first day at school had been much more eventful than any of them had wanted.

[CadetNewb]

Duncan sat at the table in his apartment building, fingers steepled as he brooded over what had happened. Someone had abused their powers. Not in some epic way like Duncan himself did of course. No, what this person or persons did was just...petty. Something trivial and mundane. And then there was the person who cleaned up the mess and dealt with the spellbound frogs; in a single blow, they were cleaned up. Nothing special of course. Or was it, he wondered? Likely not. Still, it was always worth looking into, as there was a chance something could be gleamed from the experience. A slim chance, considering Duncan's prowess, but a chance nonetheless. It was the whole point of leaving America to explore after all.

The American boy bit into his apple.

[Kai]

DAY TWO.Four days before Episode One

After the train wreck that had been the first day, the second day of school and Nishi-Ku Academy started off without a hitch. everything had been returned to normal, the investigations had been finished, and classes were going as normal. But now, it was lunch break, the longest break of the day, and the students were relaxing, some in the cafeteria, others in unoccupied classrooms, and more lying outside in the lazy sunlight and cool shade, a few on the roof of the school, even.

Miyuki, Hana, and Hisoka found themselves sitting in one of the courtyards outside, having taken over a bench in the shade of a tree. Hisoka was working on a project that had been assigned that morning, and Hana and Miyuki were pretending really hard to care about it, but had been of no help so far, and were instead eating lunch, and talking to one another about what had happened the previous day. Already, much of it seemed to be a joke, as even Hisoka's injuries seemed to be completely gone and the supposed effects of the Formaldehyde had worn off. For them, it was just school. normal, everyday, school.