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Alfred Komatsu
"I call them Angels, others call them trouble...Same thing really."
0 · 1,055 views · located in Furushima Academy
a character in "The Awakening: A New Generation", originally authored by Quakernuts, as played by RolePlayGateway
"Tears are just sad thoughts leaving the body. Cry if you must, we all deserve to be happy."
Dialogue Color – #029729
Thought Color – #002BD9
Nicknames/Aliases
Alfie, Allie, Koma
Academy Year
Fit, toned, muscular.
Physical Mutations
Notable Scars
-A single round burn on his right thigh about the size of a fist
-A large cut scar just above his achilles on his right leg.
Piercings and Tattoos
-Both of Alfred's ears are pierced although he hasn't worn earings in years.
-On both forearms, there is a wrapping realistic tattoo of a chain starting from his wrist to his elbow.
Typically Alfred isn't too worried about his outward appearance. On a good day, he likes to wear a clean t-shirt and jeans maybe potentially overlapped with a hoodie or some kind of light open jacket. On his bad days, he wears ragged shorts that look like they've been through the blender and his shirts are usually oversized and dirty. He's a fan of scarves and will wear them in any weather save for heat waves.
Face Claim
Emiya Shirou - Fate: Stay/Night
Alfred, despite being born an American, has taken to the Japanese lifestyle quite easily. Al is one of those people who seems to be many years older than he actually is, often spouting wisdom or words of confidence at just the right time to matter. His sense of humor at most times is light, but he has been known to get witty to a nearly brutal degree when dealing with people that are, in his eyes, not worth the time of day. He's quick with a smile and only ever seen with a frown when he's deep in thought over something.
Easy to confide in, he's one of those people who simply likes to help others. He doesn't necessarily want anything out of the deal when he does so, but if he feels like someone is taking advantage of him, he simply stops helping that person. He rarely if ever gets angry, irritated, or even annoyed. Everything seems to slide off of him even when people directly assault him through either physical or verbal violence. That being said, while he's not quick to resort to violence he is more than capable of it and has been in his fair share of scraps. He's been burned before, both physically and emotionally, but as he likes to say: Wounds heal, scars remind us that they do.
Al's inherent intelligence is something that he often tries to downplay unless it suits the situation. He'll play the fool and laugh at dumb jokes, allowing himself to come off not so much an idiot but not necessarily smart. He's aiming for average, so that when he does decide to 'show off' for lack of a better term, it's a surprise to everyone involved. One of his guilty pleasures one could call it. There's no real wicked side to Al, as he just tries to allow everyone to do what they want. He doesn't hate pranks or tricks, but doesn't perform them himself. He doesn't tell dirty jokes or leer at women, but laughs and appreciates them all the same.
Patience: Alfred is probably one of the most easy going guys you could ever meet. No one can remember a time when he lost his temper or even appeared to be irritated. This patience manifests itself in many ways, including tutelage when required. He's the first one to pause and take a step back when necessary in order to find not just the easiest solution, but the best one.
Decent Fighter: Alfred may not appear to be a fighter on the outside, and his demeanor does nothing to showcase his combat ability, but Alfred is actually quite able to defend himself when the time comes for it. While he has no formal training to speak of, he has practised himself in many different ways to come up with his own style of fighting that he simply calls 'Alfie Style'. A slice of narcissism thrown into the mix and you have someone who can take a punch as well as throw one.
Intelligent: Alfred seems to have a natural talent when it comes to problem solving. While he may not know advanced mathematics or complex scientific theories, he is more than capable of figuring things out quickly and putting them into practice. A better way to put this would be that he's street smart with the capability of being book smart.
Hesitation: A direct result of his patient nature. More than once has his tendency to sit back and evaluate a situation cost him. He never just simply acts, even when his instincts typically tell him to. He's simply not a guy who instantly resorts to the first action that comes to mind, and that is actually how he got his two scars on his leg. When he does decide on his course of action, he then commits to it but it's the process of getting to that thought that holds him back.
Independent Ability Thought: Al's power is unique in that it doesn't require his conscious thought in order to necessarily activate or be used. What that means however, is that his ability can also react based off of his own emotions and immediate reactions to a situation before he realizes what's going on. This can have different outcomes, not all of them beneficial. For example, if Al is frightened or suddenly becomes anxious, his ability will sometimes lash out at the supposed threat.
Expression: Despite Al's nature to help people and comfort them, he tends to have a hard time expressing himself fully. He'll say what the people want to hear, what they need to hear, but at the end of the day Al could be dying inside and the only one to know it would be him. Even to his own family, he's often referred to as 'a picture book missing a few pages, easy to read but you're not getting the full story'.
Fire: While not crippling, it does cause Al to stop and stare often far longer than necessary. Small flames such as a campfire or a torch don't bother him, but raging infernos do. His fear reaction is directly related to the size of the fire before him.
Being Forgotten: Al wants the best for the people around him, but subconsciously he almost does it selfishly. He has a near crippling anxiety of people around him suddenly forgetting he exists, and so he goes out of his way to make sure people remember his name and face. What someone says 'I'm sorry, I don't remember you' to Al, it's the equivalent of punching him in the stomach...with a rocket fist.
Hurting people...by accident: Al has done his fair share of pain dealing in his short life. Whether it's defending himself or others, he's no stranger to the fact that he has indeed hurt people. What he fears though, is that his powers may act out on their own and inflict serious injury or death on people around him...people he cares about and loves. He doesn't always have 100% control of it, and so it's a constant nagging at the back of his mind.
Power Name
Power Class
Alfred's powers manifested in a very unique and somewhat dangerous way. Floating near him at all times of the day are three orbs usually silver in color and the size of a basketball. They seem to float and otherwise fly without any natural way to do so, and despite appearing to be solid are actually quite malleable and capable of forming into different shapes and hardening themselves to become as firm as steel.
These orbs, his 'angels' (or 'Angel' depending on the amount of objects currently formed) as he likes to call them, are actually semi-sentient psychic matter from Al's body forced into a physical form. This is not to say Al is psychic in any other way aside from this, as he's not. However, these orbs are powered by Al's current energy levels and his emotional state can often times influence their behaviour. It should be noted that Al doesn't have direct control over them...he compares them to well trained dogs. They follow orders, are deathly loyal and will protect their master, but sometimes he can lose command of them. It usually happens when there's a sudden shift in his emotional state, such as he suddenly becomes frightened or anxious. The orbs react to his emotions accordingly, more often than not moving to remove the threat entirely.
Now, as mentioned before, these orbs appear to be completely solid, but they are not. The best description would most likely be that they look like Mercury, the liquid metal. Their form can shift into anything that Al can think of in order to attack or defend. This can range from a simple spike, to a shield, to covering his arm in a giant metal fist to even forming an outline of a human being. They can converge into a single mass to do this, but in their 'resting' phase, they revert back to the balls. These orbs are also capable of granting Alfred limited flight abilities by basically carrying him as they float around. He can have them attach to him in any variety of ways and he can piggy back his way into the sky.
There's no extra gear or equipment that is needed in order for Al to communicate to these orbs, but it should be noted that without the orbs, Al is essentially just a human being. His powers come from the abilities of the orbs tethered to his soul.
Power Limitations and Weaknesses
Semi-sentient: As stated above, Alfred doesn't directly control the orbs so much as give orders which are then carried out nearly instantaneously. In periods of high stress or sudden emotional swings, the orbs will act on their own accord to the best of their ability to ensure that Alfred is alright. Even if the act is as simple as a friend saying 'boo' around the corner, the orbs will see it as a threat and act accordingly.
Energy consumption: On a day to day basis, the orbs do not draw enough energy from Alfred for it to be noticeable. He can typically go about his day as normal. Even when he's actively using them to attack or defend, the draw is relatively low. Instead, they seem to rely more on Alfred's stamina and instead of losing power, become unresponsive. Like a lazy dog and you're yelling at it to 'come over' but it simply refuses.
Constant: Whether Alfred likes it or not, the orbs are there to stay. He has tried to 'banish' them or otherwise make them disappear to no avail. There's no way for him to make them invisible or even leave them at home. They have a fairly large radius around Alfred that they can fly around in, allowing for decent ranged attacks if necessary, but they are still tethered to him. One way or another, they'll always be around.
Limited Flight: While Alfie is capable of making the orbs carry him into the sky, there's only so much the orbs can do. At most, Alfie can remain in the air for about five minutes, give or take a couple depending on how hard he is pushing himself. Doing this 'flight' business seems to pull from a different pool of energy, as Alfie can physically feel when the orbs are starting to give out under his weight. Like a rope is tied around his heart and someone is yanking on it lightly at first until it eventually feels like his heart will be pulled from his chest.
Working machinery: Theoretically, Alfred's orbs could form items such as machine guns, pistons, small vehicles, etc. In order to do this though, the orbs rely on an internal blueprint provided from Alfred's mind. While he may be able to fudge some details in order to get something to 'simply work', if he doesn't at least have a general idea how something works, the orbs can't replicate it.
Born in New York, United States to a well meaning but ultimately poor lower class family, Alfred Hyke was not a planned child in any sense of the word. His father was a low ranking corporate flunky, and his mother was a waitress at a struggling restaurant. Most of his initial early life was filled with a flurry of activity as his parents worked around the clock to keep a small apartment, barely enough food on the table, and essentially keep themselves off the streets. Without a child, their budget was tight enough to strangle a horse, with a child, they soon learned that it simply wasn't manageable. Despite trying everything, including almost attempting a robbery, his parents simply weren't able to provide for all of them. Luckily Alfred's mother was of direct asian descent, with her parents currently living out of Japan. She hadn't talked to them in quite awhile, mainly because they had practically disowned her for marrying Alfred's father and moving to the states. Despite this, she was their only child and her parents were very concerned with family lineage. With more than a fair amount of hesitation, she reached out to them and received an answer. They would take Alfred, but his last name would be changed to the proper name of Komatsu, and she would release all privileges associated with the child...including visitation rights. They would be his parents from that point on, and she would see him only if they willed it.
Alfred's mother and father struggled with the decision for nearly a week before a sudden expense meaning they could barely afford food for the month made their choice for them. By the time Alfred was 3 years old, he was put on a plane and shipped off to Japan like a piece of human cargo.
Life in Japan was better, in a way, for Alfred. He was never wanting for food or a place to sleep. He was warm in the winters and cool in the summers, and lived in a decent neighborhood with his grandparents. It was those people who were the problem however. His grandmother was constantly trying to groom Alfred to be a proper gentleman and bring honor to the family, even if that meant punishing him for simple things as having the first bite of a meal before his grandfather. His grandfather, while not abusive, was surely not the caring sort. He demanded that Alfred be strong, proactive and ambitious. If his grandparents had their way, Alfred would have grown up to be a ruthless and cold businessman, but unfortunately for them it never seemed to take. Alfred learned to be respectful and careful, but everything else seemed to slide off of him as something he never wanted attributed to himself.
Despite only having been in America for 3 years of his life, he still managed to retain a small accent that marked him as a foreigner, not to mention his physical attributes. Regardless of this fact, Alfred never seemed to have trouble making friends and was often surrounded by people. When he was old enough to participate in sports he did so with vigor and gusto, promoting a healthy lifestyle and setting a precedent for his body to grow into. Ultimately, he started becoming the kid that many other parents would have been happy to have. Sure, he got into trouble sometimes but it was all minor offenses that could be chalked up to kids being kids. His Grandparents never saw it that way however. They found every single flaw, every single thing they wanted to change and they pounded on it like a hammer to a nail. Alfred was never good enough, never strong enough, never smart enough, never ambitious enough. It got to the point where Alfred started shutting them out of his life completely, much like they forced his actual parents out of it. They would talk and talk and talk and Alfred would simply smile and nod. His outside life looked ideal, behind closed doors was an environment meant to crush the soul of someone.
When Alfred was 13, something happened that he couldn't fully explain. He woke up from his futon, staring up at the ceiling to collect his thoughts for the day ahead, like he normally would do, when three silver orbs floated into view. He thought he was still dreaming at first, and slapped himself hard to make sure he wasn't. When he did so, the orbs moved in closer, seeming to hover around the affected area. He couldn't explain it, but he could tell that these orbs were...concerned? He couldn't make out words or thoughts, but he could feel what appeared to be raw emotion coming from the orbs in front of him. He slowly stood up and made to touch one. It didn't move and allowed it, and he could tell it was warm to the touch. The orb morphed around his hand as he did so, and the other two orbs hovered closer to him. He couldn't explain it, didn't know how to reason with them, and only started becoming aware that he still had to go to school that day.
He went about his morning routine in his room, taking more time than usual as the orbs seemed to get in the way every chance they had. He would have to look into this more when he got back home. He said his goodbyes to his grandparents that morning, and took his typical route to school. It was only a couple blocks later that he felt something nudge him in the back. He turned around and saw that the three orbs were following him. He started to panic a little bit, with something like this out in the open. He had learned about the awakened and while he wasn't entirely sure this was the case, how else was he going to explain it. When he heard several people approaching, classmates of his that he normally walked to school with, his panic increased. The orbs became agitated and started literally bristling. One of the orbs started drifting towards the sounds of the classmates, spikes starting to form on the outer shell. It was going to hurt his friends!
"Stop!" He yelled at it, and it immediately complied. He took a breath, looked at the orb and started to wonder if it was really following his orders. As the kids started to get closer, he yelled another word. "Hide!" All three of the orbs seemed to zoom out of his vision. He looked around for them but couldn't find them anywhere, and that's when his classmates finally came into view. It was an awkward explanation as to why he was yelling at seemingly nothing, but they quickly forgot about it and started to move on. Alfred told them he would catch up, and once they were round the next corner, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Beneath him, in the sewer grate, the silver liquid-like substance flew upwards through the holes. It reformed into 3 orbs and hovered in front of him once more. So they did obey his commands...If that was the case. "Go home!" He watched as the orbs flew off in a direction for a couple of blocks but stop. From his viewpoint, it looked like they were trying to head home but something was holding them back. Alfred walked a couple steps towards them, and watched as they also were able to move a few feet more in that direction. That was it...these orbs were connected to him somehow. He was an awakened? He didn't feel different? Shouldn't he feel different? Either way, they were stuck to him and he couldn't go to school with three floating orbs around him all day. He opened his backpack and dumped out everything that he could stand to lose, ordering them to get in.
His first day was stressful to say the least, worried that his orbs would jump out of the backpack and frighten everyone around him, but it never happened. The days turned into weeks, weeks to months, and eventually 3 years passed without any major incident. When he was 16, Alfred and several of his friends were out playing soccer in the park. Naturally there were other children and people in the park, but Alfred had learned about his power as best he could. His orbs were currently stowed away in his backpack, waiting and doing nothing to reveal Alfred's true nature.
Suddenly the weather took a turn for the worse. The clouds immediately became dark and scary, rain started to fall and lightning arced across the sky. It was a freak phenomenon as the forecast for the day was supposed to be sunny. Naturally everyone started running for cover from the rain, but unfortunately there were several kids playing up in the cherry blossom trees when this entire thing started. Lightning started hitting the ground, and people started panicking and screaming. One lightning bolt managed to hit a tree, splitting it and sending it crashing to the ground. Several kids had been up in the branches, and while a few managed to jump free with minor injury, a few were still stuck underneath the trunk. Alfred, along with several others ran to the tree to try and free the kids who were now trapped underneath and unconscious. As they tried though, several bolts of lightning struck so close to them that some people got burned as a result. People scattered and only a few including Alfred remained to try and save the kids.
The tree was too heavy to move though, and with the lightning strikes increasing in density it was incredibly dangerous to stay here. Alfred had a choice, and he made it without hesitation. He looked towards his backpack, mentally calling for his orbs. They shot out of the bag, destroying it in the process and rushed over to Alfred with incredible speed. Once the orbs were above him, the people left helping him stepped back in stunned awe as Alfred looked at the tree and started issuing mental orders to them. The orbs turned liquid, moved underneath the tree, and reformed into a 'jack' of sorts. They started lifting the tree off the kids, and the others were able to pull them free. Once that was done, Alfred had them form a shield over them as they attempted to flee the park. The shield blocked a few of the lightning bolts, and while Alfred didn't register it as pain, he could feel the impacts that his orbs were deflecting for them.
The following days were of news stories from the freak storm, how an awakened was responsible for the near death of several people, while another awakened was apparently responsible for saving several lives. Alfred's life as he knew it was done, people knew about him now and nothing would ever be the same. The night that he had come home with the orbs following him, his grandfather drank himself to a blackout and his grandmother cried so hard she could have filled a bucket with her tears. They were pro-human to the core. Awakened were nothing more than a genetic mistake in their eyes. The relationship dynamic between them changed drastically. No longer were they worried about Alfred not being smart enough, or strong enough...in fact they were no longer worried at all. They barely registered his presence anymore, seemingly ignoring the fact that he existed. It was only about a week after the incident that his residence received a letter of invitation to an academy meant to house and teach the awakened. His grandfather had taken the letter, and literally slapped Alfred in the face with it. His claim was that if Alfred didn't go to the school and leave this house at once, that no matter his powers, he was no longer a Komatsu. Not like Alfred needed much motivation to go there anyways. Even in the short time afterwards, everyone treated him differently. A few who were at the park that day defended him and treated him like a hero, but mostly people distrusted and feared him. His grandparents were no exception. There was no choice, it was the Academy or the streets, and so Alfred chose the path of least resistance.
He packed up what things he had, and made to leave but his grandfather couldn't help but yell insults and derogatory terms at him, denouncing him as 'no blood of mine'. Alfred stopped at the door only long enough to look back at him and smile while his 'angels' floated around his head. His life with these people who claimed to be his family was done, hopefully he would find a family that was worth clinging to.
║ Neutral – ◉ ║ Friends – ♪ ║ Enemies – ✗║ Romantic – ♡ ║
Kosei Kasahara ║ ♪
"He's scared, like so many others. Nothing wrong with that, just have to help him provide the strength to move past it."
Alfred is one to quickly make friends and move to help others, so with Kosei it seems like it will be an almost double win in his mind. While they are the same age, you could say that Alfred almost instantly views him as a little brother of sorts, with his hesitance and lack of confidence. Alfred can see that this isn't who Kosei is supposed to be, and is willing and able to help him find his 'spark' again, so to speak, to returning to the kid he once was.
Alfie can see that Kosei just needs a friend, someone who can understand the things that he's been through and Alfred can do that easily enough. Sometimes all it takes is someone who's willing to listen, play a few video games with, and generally be around. Hopefully Alfred can help him, and if they happen to short out a few fuse boxes or set fire to a tree...well accidents happen.
Lucien Ashford ║ ◉ ♪
"He may not seem like the warmest of people, but I don't get the feeling that he's a bad person...maybe colder than an icicle, but not a bad person."
Lucian is one of those people that even Alfred has a hard time getting close to, not by lack of trying though. Alfie simply has a hard time reading Lucian, and while he doesn't necessarily feel that Lucian is a horrible person, sometimes feels like he's the one being read instead. The way he surveys a room and seems to inspect everything while at the same time being confused at what he finds disorients Alfie. He doesn't know how to react to that kind of reaction, nor does he know if Lucian is doing it on purpose or is honestly clueless.
Regardless, Lucian is an awakened just like him and deserves no scorn from someone with three balls of metal constantly floating around his head. Smile, be courteous, include Lucian where possible and generally be a nice guy. Hopefully Lucian will come out of his shell a bit more after that.
Nova Aria ║ ◉ ♪
"I'll admit, I don't know what to do here."
Alfred likes to take pride in his ability to be able to sense how to approach someone. Whether to be overly outgoing, or to deliberately hold himself back in order to allow the other person to express himself. In Nova's case, being all over the map in terms of an extrovert and introvert, Alfred is at a total loss as to how to interact with him. Something about the way Nova switches between pronouns on a seeming whim, changing his/her dress to suit these desires has Alfred scrambling for some sort of handhold when it comes to becoming Nova's friend. Make no mistake, Alfred can see through the charade and has already determined that something is potentially catastrophically wrong with Nova, but at the moment he can't even begin to hope for an answer as to how to help him. All he knows is that he has to keep his angels on a tighter leash when his anxiety of having his personal bubble burst by Nova send them into a semi-frenzy.
Tomimoto Taikan ║ ✗
"Whether you're the product of your environment or simply an asshole I don't care...If you try to hurt anyone, I will stop you."
Alfred tries to befriend pretty much anyone who will allow him to do so, and it is a rare case where even Alfred looks at someone and deems them unworthy of his friendship.
Tai is one of those people.
His blatant disregard for Awakened life, despite his status as one of them is confusing and infuriating to Alfred. He constantly berates even the most innocent of students at the Academy with seemingly no prodding required. He lashes out, both physically and verbally without a care as to what it could do to the party on the other side. Alfie can't stand this behaviour. Tai is a bully, pure and simple. Sure, he may have power that rivals anything Alfred can think of, but it's nothing without the right mind guiding it. Tai might be a lost cause, but Alfred will fight tooth and nail to make sure that he's the only casualty of his self-inflicted war.
Abel Coelho ║ ♪
"He tried to sell me these shoes for 40 yen, but I bartered him down to 20...these are my shoes, aren't they?"
Does Alfred have some misgivings about Abel's conman-like mentality? Sure, there's something to said and guarded about someone who would try to sell you the very air you're breathing, but ultimately he likes Abel. Sure, he has a way about him that screams 'THIEF' or 'PICKPOCKET' to Alfred, but he's more than aware enough to prep himself against that. Abel doesn't hurt anyone when he does his thing, and even if Alfred doesn't agree, he has to admit that sometimes it is a hilarious moment in an otherwise drab day when someone has realized Abel has had their way with them.
He seems to be the real ladies man around Campus too, and Alfred has no problems with that. All the more power to him if he makes them feel special and wanted, something Alfred himself strives for in his own way. At the end of the day, even as Alfred double checks his pockets and words around the guy, he enjoys his presence. He believes they get along just splendidly.
Kurmochi Keiji ║ ◉ ♪
"Hey! Stop undressing them with your mind and powers you dolt!"
Keiji is a perverse little creature, there's no denying it, but like so many others there is more to him than initially meets the eye. Alfred sees through what could be considered a fatal character flaw, being drawn to the female form like a moth to a flame and witnessing someone who might be the complete opposite of how he acts. Even when he's running around feeling up girls, earning a very hardened smack on the back of the head from Alfred, there's a sense that he doesn't mean any harm to come of it. He's constantly smiling and either directly or indirectly making people laugh and enjoy life. That fact allows Alfred to smile when he sees him, even if he has to reign him in some days to avoid a sexual harassment lawsuit.
Elias Emerson ║ ♪
"Taking knight in shining armor to a whole 'nother level huh?"
Elias is a good kid in Alfred's books. Sure, he has his own way of expressing himself, but nearly every time Alfred has seen him he's treated everyone with an almost stupid amount of respect. From the way he views people and helps them, to his weird manner of talking. Alfred couldn't begin to explain why Elias feels the need to verbalize his thoughts like he does, and frankly he doesn't care. Its not hurting anyone, and it tends to lead to interesting interactions at times. Still, there's something there. Like a beacon in the dark, Alfred can feel it. With Elias, there is that slight twinge of pain as the tell tale signs of someone in pain come across as evident in their own way through his personality and mannerisms. Alfred couldn't begin to fathom what could cause someone to essentially become this, only that something did. Alfred's ability to sense the dark and painful areas of people is often times both a gift and a curse, because there is nothing more he wants than to simply let Elias be who he is. Alfred will keep an eye on him, provide help where necessary, and hopefully assist him in moving past whatever hurt him in his past.
Nakana Nao ║ ♪ ♡
"You mean the incredibly attractive woman over there who I haven't been able to stop looking at? No, I haven't noticed her."
To say that Alfred knows his boyish levels of hormones are kicking in would be an understatement. She's a beautiful girl his age who acts mature and wears...the best clothing, let's put it that way. Alfie wouldn't say he's smitten, but it's one of the few times he's been at a loss for words in quite awhile. Regardless, she's another awakened like him, and whether or not he can unwrap his tongue, it isn't going to stop him from approaching her.
Despite his attraction to her, or maybe because of it, he gets the sense of something else. Maybe it has to do with her personality, maybe it has to do with her maturity, but something doesn't quite add up for him. He's dealt with people holding back important secrets before and knows that the best way to handle such things was to allow the person to come out with them in their own time, to simply be there for them. Alfie's going to do his best to be that kind of person.
Natalia Elwyn ║ ♪ ♡
"There's no real insight I can offer here. You seem like a great person, that's all there is to it."
Natalia is one of those people that Alfred looks at and doesn't immediately feel the need to go and help them. One could not potentially understand how much of a relief that is. Natalia seems well adjusted, normal, and in control of her life for the most part and there's no glaring problem or personality quirk that Alfred feels like he has to step in and help them with. This also poses a certain problem when it comes to him approaching her, considering that nearly all of his prior relationships are based on a lot of giving from his side in order to help the other. He doesn't know how to deal with someone that doesn't need that help, or isn't asking for it. He would love to know her, he feels like they could get along famously, but for the moment, he finds himself speechless.
Akiyama Shizuka ║ ♪ ♡
"Did you...did you paint your face red?"
Shizu is a prime example of someone that Alfred feels compelled to get close to. Sure, it helps that she's pretty cute but ultimately Alfred often feels he has to help people more than satisfy his own innate curiosity. Shizu is, in some ways, damaged and Alfred wants to help with that in any way he can. Right from the first glance he got at her, he could tell she would need help. Maybe not from him, but it would have to be somebody or she would walk right down the road of self destruction.
Her power also concerns Alfred, considering the physical implications of her ability. He's worried that one day she may stress herself too far and end up causing serious damage to herself or worse. Maybe if she ever learns to stop flooding her face with blood or spilling it on paper than Alfred might be able to back off slightly and simply become the friend that she seemingly needs.
Kylie Bennett ║ ◉ ♪
"You can bark all you want, I know you're hurting on the inside."
Kylie is a trouble case. On one hand, Alfred knows there's something beneath the surface that is causing some sort of pain, and no he's not referring to her transformations. On the other, he feels like she's more liable to cave his skull in than accept his help. It's as if she hates him because he helps people as much as he can, much like a certain other person that shall remain nameless. Yet, despite that, he doesn't feel in any sort of danger from her. Maybe it's a bit of naivety on his part, or maybe the confidence in his own abilities is increasing his ego. If it's the second one, he really hopes she doesn't put him in his place.
Regardless of Kylie's opinion on the matter, she's not the first person to threaten or otherwise dislike him enough to voice it, and she won't be the last. Their personalities clash at a fundamental level, but that won't stop Alfred from trying. Sometimes these people just need someone to push that little bit of extra distance to make it to the top of the hill.
Amari Chiharu ║ ◉ ♪ ✗
"What do you mean I helped with your homework? I did no such thing."
How do you help someone who so adamantly refuses help in all forms? Alfred ponders this question while looking at Amari, even though he can practically feel the hatred she feels for him at any given moment. She's independent to a fault right now, and Alfred can't understand why. Sure, there's wanting to forge your own path in the world, do things yourself, essentially become self reliant and worry only about yourself, but you risk pushing everything and everyone away forever. Underneath this all, Alfred's intuition hints at a deep seated issue within the depths of the girl's soul, much like many people around him. His desire to help her is like a moth being drawn into a bonfire, the only potential outcome is for him to be burnt. Yet he's still going to try, find a way to subtly aid her in her chosen path.
There's also the problem with how she tends to interact with everyone. Like a few other people, Alfred doesn't get the sense that she's necessarily a bad person but she definitely has bad manners. He doubts it will end up in violence, but while Alfred wants to help her and get her from point A to point B, if she thinks she can just trample over others on her quest for independence, she will find a very stern voice of reason in Alfred. [/font]
So begins...
Alfred Komatsu's Story
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# 2016-10-20 08:28:33 , as written by viirune
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Kosei Kasahara
LOCATION ║ Academy Dormitories
CURRENT TIME ║ 6:00 AM
DATE ║ Monday, Sept. 11th, 2023
#C52325 ║ #0B5F6A
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬Bong, bong, bong, bong, bong...
A loud, yet muffled bell made itself known to all the students sleeping in the dormitories as it began to resonate throughout the academy grounds. "An alarm clock for the students." The staff would say. "So we better not be hearing any excuses coming from you guys about your 'alarm' not going off,' because it would most definitely be a lie with this thing ringing every morning."
So, the waking of the students began throughout the dorm rooms; there was no way any of them could have slept past the disruptive noise that giant bell had made. Of course, you could always fall back asleep, but if you wanted to be on time for your first day, that probably wasn't the best of ideas. The "alarm" only rang once in the morning, so it wouldn't be waking anyone back up again after that.
Down at the east dormitory building, Kosei's eyes cracked open after the echoing began to fade away into a peaceful silence (other than the loud thud that had come from the room above, likely someone had fallen out of bed on accident), and let out a quiet, tired sigh, before tossing the blankets away and forcing himself to sit up. He was used to the bell, after being here for nearly a month and a half already, but he'd had a rather restless night. Of course, that was normal for him, barely being able to get a wink of sleep. Though it was this time that he actually had to wake up; he couldn't just ignore it and go back to bed and forget about his problems like he had been able to during the "school break." So, he just had to make himself get up, as painful as it was. He would be fully awake sooner or later anyways...or at least, he hoped he would be.
Rubbing his eyes, he finally twisted himself so he was sitting on the side of the bed, and then stood up, letting his shoulders slump with no care of fixing his posture at the moment. He had plenty of time to get ready for the day before his classes started, with that being at 7:00 AM. But with the way he was moving right now, and how he basically moved every morning, it was best if he started getting himself moving as soon as he could. Otherwise he'd end up at the academy's doors half ready and looking dead.
Moving over to the small bathroom, Kosei flipped on the light and groggily began to splash his face with the cold water that he turned on, as an attempt to make himself more alert. It seemed to do the trick well enough, and as he looked back up at the mirror, he let out a quiet groan. Talk about some serious bed head. His hair was completely flat on one side. This would take a while to try and fix.
After about ten or so minutes, he finally had it looking normal again, much to his relief. He quickly brushed his teeth after that, and then moved out back to get dressed. He spotting his uniform already sitting on the desk, folded nicely and ready for him to change into. He lifted it off, and threw on the black pants, along with the white shirt, and the long sleeved, grey sweater over that. It hadn't actually gotten too cold outside yet, but September was technically autumn, so they were asked to wear these now. He didn't mind it, really. It was actually quite a comfortable addition.
He let out another sigh as he finished dressing, and the plopped down onto his bed, looking over at the clock that sat over on the nightstand by his bed. 6:45 AM, it read, so it seemed that he'd made pretty good timing this morning. Even so, it would probably be best for him to head to the academy now. He grabbed his bag that laid on the side, checking inside once more to make sure he had everything, and then pulling it up onto his shoulder.
"Let's hope today goes well." A quiet mumbled escaped his mouth as he walked himself over to the door, grabbing the card key that sat on the table and shoving it inside of his bag to keep himself from losing it. Saying he wasn't stressed out or becoming more paranoid by the second was an obvious lie; he was already having a hard time take the first step out the door. How was his first day going to go? He hoped at least decent. Maybe he could actually make a friend now, since he was going to have to go out and be around people.
Overthinking things wouldn't get him anywhere, of course, so he finally forced himself out the door, heading down the stairs to the exit, to begin the short walk to the academy's entrance.
The setting changes from Academy Dormitories to Furushima Academy
Furushima Academy
# 2016-10-21 04:04:14 , as written by Quakernuts
Location || Academy Dormitories
Current Time || 6:00 AM
Date || Monday, Sept. 11th, 2023
#029729 || #002BD9
By the time the bell was ringing for everyone to wake up, Alfred had already been up and moving around for the past half an hour. Well, moving around in the loosest sense. Basically Alfred was simply shuffling from place to place because his body was so conditioned to wake up earlier than this school demanded him to that he couldn't sleep. He could just hear his grandparents...sorry, ex-grandparents yelling at him to see if he was ready for breakfast. When the tell tale sound of the muffled bell finally did toll, it was like a kick in the back of the head to Alfred, who seemed to jolt out of his near sleepwalking state, halfway through brushing his teeth already. He stood there for a second, staring at himself in the mirror. When did he have a shower? How did he get dressed? Why was h-
A silver orb floated into the bathroom after him carrying a small bagel. Alfred looked out into his small room and saw another angel packing his bag and the third one pressing what seemed like random buttons on his stereo. In his daydream like state, he must have been subconsciously ordering them to help him get ready for school. Upon this realization, the one packing the bag dropped it with a loud thud, the one playing with the stereo stopped and the one holding the bagel...absorbed it. Alfred was taken aback for a moment before he, with his toothbrush still in his mouth, reached his hand into the angel.
The angels felt weird, smooth like metal yet warm and soft like flesh. With a little bit of effort, he was able to yank the bagel out of the angel and look it over. Bits of the angel's metal flesh were still on it. Alfred snapped his fingers and every last bit of them hopped off and assimilated with the bigger ball. He finished brushing his teeth and took a chomp out of the pastry. Minty fresh peanut butter...not the best taste in the world but then again, Alfred wasn't all that picky. As he made his way back into his room having devoured the bagel, the orbs started flying slow circles around him, bobbing ever so slightly as they did so. He recollected explaining their behavior as 'well trained dogs', what he failed to mention is how they could also act like lost puppies.
By quarter after 6, Alfred was already dressed, packed, ready to go and dreading the fact that it was way too early to head to classes yet. Damn his internal clock with early evenings and early mornings. He quickly took in his dormitory to make sure he wasn't missing anything, a small room with one bed, dresser, night stand, small kneeling table and a mini-fridge. The walls were littered with posters that didn't seem to have any one theme to them, mainly just to add color to his otherwise drab sleeping area. Bands, movies, games, the only thing missing one could say was the posters of the scantily clad women. Of which, Alfie would bop you on the head and scold you for objectifying women while secretly wishing he could put some up without becoming a hypocrite. He was becoming a man after all. Aside from that, there really wasn't much else to his humble abode. It matched what the other students had and made them all conform in some way or another.
Without much else to do, Alfred grabbed his ipod and shoved the cordless buds into his ears. He slung his backpack on and exited his room as music started to softly play. He quickly dropped down the stairs, the music quiet enough that he could hear what was going on around him as he exited the building well ahead of schedule. The brisk air of the coming fall greeted him, but he rather enjoyed it. If anything, it was heat he was not a fan of. He didn't mind sweating, but when the sweat drenched a shirt or two, it was hard to get the stink out. No, to him this was the perfect weather and he let it show by slowing his stride as he exited the building.
He had been here half a month, effectively homeless save for the tiny room he now occupied. It didn't overly matter to him, so long as he had a roof over his head he was happy. He checked the time on his ipod, making sure he had more than enough to wander the campus and enjoy the sights of the trees turning color. The music played in his ears softly as he enjoyed the campus grounds, his angels following behind him silently as he did so. He wandered around for quite a while, killing time so it didn't seem like he was waiting outside the classroom for nearly an hour before actually heading to his class.
Alfred made his way into the academy, bringing up his ipod to switch songs and holding onto both his sweater and backpack on his shoulder with his other hand. He knew he was technically 'out of uniform', but seeing as they were inside, he felt like he could get away with it. He approached the room for Power and Ability Control, something that Alfred had already thought was redundant in his case but he never said that out loud. He had been learning to reign in his angels for nearly three years before he came here, and while sometimes they could lash out, he felt like he had more than a fair bit of control over them. As he came closer to the door, he looked up at all the people in the hallway. Naturally, as was his near compulsion, he started chatting some people up right away. He started learning names, smiling and laughing with the best of them as more than a few stared at the orbs floating around his head.
He had only been there a few minutes when he noticed another student come to join them. He turned to greet her, and stopped for just a moment. The hesitation was the only telltale sign from Alfred that something was wrong, aside from his orbs seeming to bristle as the girl walked closer, their 'skin' rippling like water. Sometimes, there was just someone that could immediately get a guy's hackles up, and for Alfred, she was one of them. When she wished everyone a good morning, Alfred decided that fear was not something he ever caved into, so he took a step forward, a smile on his face and confidence in his movements.
"Good Alfred, I'm Morning."
AhhhhhhhAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Play it cool...play it cool...play it cool...Screw it. Kinda want to drop dead now...
Instantly, all three of Alfred's angels hit the floor with a loud 'thunk', but Alfred's face never once relayed the fact that he was screaming on the inside, instead looking at the new girl with a soft smile before sighing and slowly turning around. "Well, there goes my life. Good bye everyone, it was great meeting you. If you need me, I'll be throwing myself off the roof."
# 2016-10-22 17:22:21 , as written by AlexusRaevynn
Date ~ Monday, Sept. 11th, 2023
Location ~ Academy Dormitories → School Building
Speech ~ #C5612A || Thoughts ~ #C5992A
As he had suspected, he didn't get any sleep. Not that he was really expecting to, he hadn't gotten much in the way of restful sleep for a couple of months now. Instead Lucien had simply laid on the bed in what he supposed was his dorm room, alternating between staring at the ceiling or at the bottle of tablets sat on top of the small cabinet next to him.
He might have taken one of the tablets to make himself sleep, but Lucien wasn't quite certain when he was supposed to be up and about for classes and despite not really wanting to be surrounded by others all day, especially in an enclosed space such as a classroom, he didn't want to risk oversleeping and missing the lessons entirely. Perhaps he would take them in a few days once some sort of routine had settled into place, until then he would keep his fingers crossed that when he did fall asleep his nightmares weren't too loud. It would not be enjoyable to have people asking questions after all.
Snapping himself out of his musings, Lucien sat himself up and swung his legs over the bed of the bed, stretching slightly to get rid of the stiffness that had settled in from not moving for a while. Once he was sure that he wouldn't fall over, he stood up and took a couple of steps to cross the floor to where the window was. Unlatching it, he pushed it open as far as he could, wanting to stick his head out and take a nice deep breath of fresh air, only to find that it wouldn't open far enough for that. Looking down, Lucien spotted what looked like a lock a concerned parent would use to stop their children from falling out. 'I guess they think I'm a suicide risk.'
With his plan clearly not happening until he got hold of the tools needed to remove the safety feature, he turned his attention away from the window, absently noting that the sky seemed to be getting lighter. Dawn was on its way. Deciding he might as well get ready for the day and hopefully avoid the rush of people heading to classes, Lucien quickly went through his usual routine, and when it came to dressing he selected the long sleeved shirt, though dismissed the tie entirely.
By the time the bell sounded to wake the students, Lucien was already on his way out of the dormitories and heading toward the school building itself, if someone knew his ability they might suspect that he was fleeing from the emotions of those who were waking up. But no one was around to call him out on it, so he kept on walking and arrived at his destination a short while later.
Lucien had memorised what he could of his class schedule during his nights of unrest, so he knew that 'Power and Ability Control' was his first subject for the day. He found the classroom easily enough and gave a near silent sigh of relief upon finding it empty. Quickly selecting a seat in the far corner of the room, Lucien sat himself down and settled in to stare out of the window next to him. He didn't really care if he was waiting for hours until his first class started, he would find something to do. Or not, it didn't bother him either way, but hopefully it would be a while before anyone else arrived.
Of course, Lucien's hopes of a quiet time to himself were soon dashed. A few students started trickling in here and there, but there was no one of note and thankfully none of them tried to pester him. Still, Lucien could see himself having a headache by the end of the day, there was excitement and nervousness rolling off of most of them in waves.
It was a while before anything interesting happened, then a sudden rise in panic seemed to spike. Lucien's gaze dragged his attention unwillingly to a red-headed male, just in time to see three silver orbs drop to the ground. He blinked twice and in the back of his mind Lucien could feel the barest hint of confusion nagging at him to find out what had caused the change in emotion. Not wanting to give in, but also not wanting to leave his faint curiosity unsatisfied, he glanced over the room, finding nothing out of place although a few of the other students seemed to have turned their attention to the red-head and the dark haired girl who must have entered the room a couple of minutes previously. He vaguely remembered the polite greeting she had given everyone, though the slight feeling of uncertainty wasn't out of place given that several other students had been feeling that as well.
Lucien dismissed the situation as the boy said something about throwing himself off of a roof, instead turning his head to stare out of the window again. He was already wanting the day to be over with, the headache he had predicted seemed much more likely to happen now.
# 2016-10-23 04:46:55 , as written by Phantom's Bullet
Some people prefer the morning, for some the night. Rose is the special breed that enjoys both. With her energy levels, there doesn't seem to be a difference between the two.
The sound of bells was drowned out by Rose's much louder inner thoughts. She was awake before the chimes, but her lengthy morning routine seems to always make her late. The start of her morning always began on the balcony. Whilst standing on the patio, she would first breath in and yell. "What a wonderful day it is!" She seemed to be the real bell.
After she was met with the many groans of the student body, she would first do a morning jog. After a few laps around the campus, she would do a a small workout with 150 push-ups, 150 sit-ups and 150 squats. A 5 km run, then she would spend some time in the bathroom to actually get ready.
A shower after her time outside, and grooming her hair. The only time she spent on her face was to her eyelashes and the major culprit to her tardiness is usually finding what to wear. After 20 minutes of arguing against herself, she decided on the black sweater alongside the leggings. She needed her red, so a red ribbon was chosen, the only question was where to tie it.
On her right wrist or left wrist? That was the question. If it was on her right, it would cover the space she usually uses to write her homework. If it was on the left, it would make it a bit more difficult to write. Questions, questions. Either way, due to how carefree she is, it might just fall off without her noticing. With careful contemplation, she decided to wear two ribbons on both wrists. It's a bit counter-intuitive, but when faced with a dilemma, instead of having to make a hard choice, why not do both?
Only if she decided on this 30 minutes ago.
Rose always liked the sun better. Even if the cool air was more of a preference by others, this time of year never was her favorite. She never liked having to wear more layers just to feel comfortable and more people seem to stay inside. She wanted to meet people!
The walk to the classroom was rather quick. She wasn't as late as usual, but she still wanted to get to class on time for once. Most of the people were lining up outside, good thing the teacher was late. The class was Power and Ability control. For Rose, she could use it due to her doing more physical training than ability training. Everyone was a familiar face, she waved every person in line hello, while walking towards Nao. She was going to stand in line with her friend until she caught a glimpse of a rather stoic boy staring out the window. Without thinking, she marched towards him.
"You! You haven't accepted my friendship yet! We are hanging out right after school! I'll drag you if I have to."
# 2016-10-24 02:15:52 , as written by bugprince
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
TIME ☼ 7:00 AM ☼
LOCATION ❣ School Building ❣
MUSIC ♪ Can't Sleep - K.Flay ♪
By the time she got to her Power and Ability Control class, Kaoru was basically a zombie. She hadn't been able to find any coffee and the fatigue was weighing on her. She was nervous too, and her nerves were only making her more tired. The class was about controlling your abilities. She was going to have to use her power. The thought scared her to no end. Furthermore, she would be in a class with a bunch of other people. If she transformed, she might hurt someone. She didn't want the highlight of her first day to be causing grievous bodily harm to both herself and someone else.
Maybe if she explained to her teacher that if I actually use my powers I'll probably make everybody throw up and possibly kill someone no big deal, they would let her sit out and she could get some more sleep. Fat chance.
She tried to push the dread out of her mind when she reached the rest of the class, stuffing her phone and headphones into her backpack. She sat down on the ground with her arms resting on her knees and watched everyone else. She figured she might as well not bother trying to make a good first impression. It didn't really matter when that impression was going to be immediately shattered when her bones burst through her skin in a huge bloody mess and she went completely psycho-bonkers-crazy and then passed out.
Seeing that the teacher was late, she lowered her head onto her arms. She tried to sleep, but her nerves wouldn't let her, leaving her impossibly tired but unable to doze off. She just kept trying to relieve some of the tension in her gut while waiting for class to start.
Kasahara Kosei
LOCATION ║ School Building
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬Well, he definitely hadn't been the first person to arrive at the school's building. People were already lined up around the door, some already sitting inside, waiting for class to start. It seemed the teacher hadn't arrived yet, which Kosei was fine with. Especially when he looked up at the time, and realized he was fifteen minutes late. How lucky to have the teacher late so he wouldn't have to be marked as tardy on the first day.
Letting out a quiet sigh, he began to move into the class, squeezing past several students who were crowded around the door, blocking the entrance, and then letting out a sigh as he moved to sit down at a desk he was just going to say was his for the day. It was near the back, but in the middle, which he found was a good, comfortable spot.
Looking around, he could see all different students. Some looked excited, some nervous, one looked particularly embarrassed like he'd just said something awful, and one girl was being quite loud, yelling about accepting friendship with a boy by the window who looked like he was...well, he couldn't really tell. It didn't look like he felt anything actually, and if he did, he could only imagine it was annoyance.
As the students from outside of the classroom began to shuffle in and take their seats, it was clear that their teacher had arrived. No later did he actually come in, wearing a rather nice looking suit and tie, and he moved towards the front, clearing his throat once to let those know who were still talking that he had arrived. He waited silently for a moment, before the noise of the class died down, and finally he nodded, letting out a quiet sigh, and then offering a small smile to them all. The man was rather tall, with red hair and strange, sharp yellow eyes. He seemed to be looking over his new class in that moment, as if he could tell who would be the troublemakers causing him problems.
"Welcome, students," he suddenly began, snatching back all of the students attention, "to your first day at the academy. I hope you've had a good enough start here, and I can tell some of you have already made some friends. Of course, this class isn't exactly about socializing, so save that for later. He turned towards the board then, and began to write down his name, neatly as he could. "My name is Takahiko Nakajima, but please just call me Mr. Nakajima. I'm your teacher for Power and Ability Control. The name basically explains what this class is about: learning to control your powers, as one of the Awakened. Now, this class is all first years, so each of you will be on the same level, or at least most should be, in controlling each of your abilities, so we'll all be starting at the very beginning. Believe me, this class won't be easy, and some of you may seem catch on faster than others, but by the time we're finished, you all should at least be able to use your newfound abilities quite a bit better.
Kosei wasn't entirely sure how he felt about this class being the first thing in his day. Trying to use his powers, in front of the others? So much could go wrong with that. He had hardly used his abilities before coming to this place...he didn't even have a basic understanding of how to use or keep control over the electricity stored inside of him. What if he released too much? Or if there was water around... But, this is just the first day, they won't make us use our abilities too much, right? I don't know...if I'm up for this.
Mr. Nakajima continued on, moving closer to the front row of students, and then scanned the class again. "Now, I'm sure most of you have figured this out by now, but this place is much too small for us to actually have our class in. That being so, we're not going to have our class here for the most part. Instead, we'll be having it down at the sports facilities in the field, where we have plenty of room to try out things without having to worry about destroying the school building." He turned to the door. "We'll be heading there shortly, as well, after I explain several things. First of all, you'll all be changing into the school PE uniform, which includes a white t-shirt and black shorts of different lengths or pants. Those will be provided for you down at the sports facilities, and you'll have to change into them there, in the changing rooms. Don't worry, these don't cost anything on you kids, because they're constantly being destroyed and need to be replaced after 'accidents.' Be sure to be fast about that as well, because I'd like to get started as soon as possible."
"The second thing is, there's usually some kind of academy guard "wandering around" while this class and the Power and Ability Use class is going on, so be sure to be on your best behavior and try not to get into any fights. I'd rather not have them get involved."
The guards. Kosei had only heard bad rumors about them in his short time here. Some claimed that they were all anti-awakened, and were constantly looking for a chance to attack and harm the students, or "get involved" with them if any fights or the such were to break out. So, it was clear they weren't particularly liked, and it even seemed like his teacher wasn't all too fond of them either.
Of course, he wouldn't try to hold any negative feelings against them until he knew for himself...but that was quite a challenge after hearing all of that.
"Now, third, I'd like to try and make this first class as injury free as possible. Of course, I can't expect that completely, but I don't want anyone trying too hard to use their powers, because I've already had classes where that goes out of control, and ended up having to send more than just the careless students off to the medical office. Do your best to keep it under control, and if it feels like something might go wrong, stop yourself as soon as you can." He crossed his arms for a moment, trying to think, and then nodded. "Alright, that's all I can think of. If anything else comes up, I'll talk to you all about it down at our class. You're dismissed to head for the field."
Kosei sat where he was for a moment as the other students began to get up, and then finally, he stood from his seat, lifting up his bag from the ground and then forcing himself through the crowd so he wasn't the last person out. He glanced around the class, wondering what each of their abilities were, but decided to not think about it too much. He'd find out soon enough anyways.
# 2016-10-26 13:35:55 , as written by Kestrel
This is adorable. Nao thought as she hid her smile behind her hand. This awkward mistake was a silly but welcome distraction from the worries in her head.
"I can't have you dying now. Not when Ito Nao is about to start," She teased impishly, "Nice to meet you, my name is class." Nao offered a short bow alongside the unusual introductions. Truth to be told, she knew little about typical schoolboy schoolgirl interactions, but she could keep it a little playful, couldn't she?
"Are they yours, Alfred?" Nao motioned to the silver metallic blobs laying flattened on the ground. "It's quite unlike anything I've seen before."
After a short conversation, the teacher arrived and Nao excused herself before the doors opened. No seats had been assigned to her knowledge, but while Alfred had put a little shoulder under her spirits, appearances were still on Nao's mind. It seemed like she wasn't the only one trying to impress the teacher, as the front row was quickly being filled. Nao picked the first seat she could get her black skirt on... Which was by now the one by the window. Unfortunate. She thought, though she was certain a number of students would disagree. Still, as long as Nao managed to avoid the temptation to stare outside...
Her worries proved unfounded when their teacher, mister Nakajima, announced the class would take place at the sports facility. Nao wondered what the purpose was of having them come to class first. She'd been mentally preparing herself for a long-winded lecture about responsibility to kick off the course, but if they were moving to practice right away, was a classroom really necessary for two minutes of speech. Or was it that the academy itself was also concerned with it's presentation? Their teacher for the course certainly seemed to be, with a suit that made it hard for Nao to differentiate between his identity as a teacher and a potential client she could have contracted in the past.
When the class was sent to the sports facilities and it's even plainer dress code, Nao was on the look-out for Alfred to continue their conversation earlier. He shouldn't be that hard to spot... Not with those orbs following his every move. Surely he wouldn't really have gone wireless bungee jumping.
Location || Classroom: Power and Ability Control
Well the initial introduction to Nao didn't go as badly as Al thought it could have been, considering she laughed at his mix up. Better than confused and awkward Alfred thought to himself as she playfully mocked at his mistake, intentionally doing it herself to ease the tension. Alfred breathed an inward sigh of relief at that, he had no qualms playing the fool he just didn't like it being the very first thing people saw him as. She asked about his angels, and almost at her words they picked themselves up from the floor and wandered closer although the rippling effect was still happening across their bodies. Calm down, now is not the time to be having a fit. Alfred commanded to his angels, and while it took a couple seconds for them to acknowledge him, they did so but the sense of frustration and begrudging acceptance was felt clearly.
"Yep, they're mine. My angels, one and all of them. He held out a hand and one of the orbs came closer and enveloped the arm in a metal casing. "They're useful, if somewhat annoying at times." Alfred smiled, watching as the metal on his arm rippled once more with the distinct feeling of irritation. He laughed inwardly, petting his arm slightly to get the metal to calm down. It was definitely a weird interaction, like he was petting himself but until people got to know him better and what his ability was capable of, that was simply something he was going to have to deal with. It wasn't long after a short conversation with Nao that the teacher showed up and lead them into their classroom.
Alfred wasn't too worried about seating, he waited a few moments and allowed people who had a preferred seat to grab it before managing to snag one that was relatively in the middle of everyone. His orbs naturally tried to hover around him, but a quick mental order had them drop to the floor and roll under his desk to stop obscuring the views of the people around him. He spared a quick glance around the room at the people in it, smiling when eye contact was made. He was simply trying to remember faces and names if he had them. Before long, the teacher started talking and relaying the orders. Alfred dug into his pack and pulled out a notebook to make some notes as the teacher was talking. He summarized the rules on the index page, a semi-reminder just in case something slipped past his memory. For the moment, there only really seemed to be 2 rules that Alfred wrote into his book.
1) Thou shalt not fight on school grounds lest thy face be broken by guard's fist.
2) Thou shalt not injure students during Power and Ability Control class lest the wish is to be considered dangerous.
Alfred took a moment to consider these two points and found himself worrying slightly. He didn't know what it was like for the other students, but for him it might be harder than he would like to stick to those thoughts. Even if he was knocked out, his 'ability' wouldn't stop, if anything it would react according to their own whims without any direction from Alfred, which would prove to be incredibly dangerous to the person who did that to him. He sat in his chair, his hand on his chin and his pen tapping away at the desk lightly. He had tried to consider other options, like giving them a permanent standing order but it seemed like they didn't remember much in the way of orders from more than a day ago. He had to constantly remind them or order them around in order to do things. Granted, he did have to admit that they were a lot less aggressive now, but he had a feeling that had to do more with his eventual taming of his own emotions than anything else. A power that could be given directions based off of emotional impulses was a dangerous thing to the user and the people around him.
Alfred was broken from his revelry when the class started moving to head down to the sports area, so he shoved his book back into his bag and stood up. Immediately his angels were hovering slightly behind him and above his head. Before he knew it, he was being dragged along with the rest of the class who seemed to either be anxious or nervous to start, maybe a couple were indifferent or excited but he couldn't see any. He kept an eye out for Nao, but in the rush to get to the sports field, he lost track of her. Regardless, he would see her again without a doubt so for the moment he allowed himself to be dragged along with everyone else towards what should be an interesting class as his angels bobbed happily behind him.
The gym clothes they were given were nothing fancy, easily replaceable articles of clothing. Having grabbed the clothes from a requisitions area near the sports field on their way in, the boys and girls were naturally separated into their own locker rooms to get changed. Alfred made his way inside, his angels floating up and seeming to 'sit' on top of the lockers. He looked at the lock he had been given in order to protect his belongings, ripping the code off the back and holding it up to one of the angels, who immediately absorbed it for safe keeping. He unlocked it and looked around. People were already grabbing lockers and getting changed. So he just grabbed the closest one he could get to, and opened the locker next to a blonde spiky haired kid who looked like he was doing his best to shrink away from the eyes of everyone else. Alfred began changing, tossing them in the locker as he did so.
"Nervous?" Alfred asked, looking over at the kid. "If ya are, it's nothing to worry about." Alfred stated with a bit of levity. "This place is secure and focused on teaching us not only how to deal with our powers, but everything that a normal school should also include. If it's your power you're worried about, I say partner up with me and I'll take on whatever you can dish out." Alfred finished dressing down into his gym clothes and closed his locker door. His angels immediately took up a position behind him. "Or, if you're shy or don't know anyone here, let me fix that." Alfred held out a hand to him.
"I'm Alfred Komatsu, known to one as 'Morning'."
LOCATION ║ Sports Facilities, Field
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬It was a pretty short walk to the field outside of the actual academy's building, which Kosei found a bit relieving. At least it wouldn't take too much time for him to walk from the dormitories to their class's meeting spot in the morning. Now he really had no excuse for being late, ever. That was somewhat disappointing, he wouldn't lie.
He quickly made his way over to the area that held their clothes, with it being a long table and giant piles of clothing marked in all different sizes ranging from extra large to extra small. There was a plethora of the cheap outfits, and Kosei guessed that these were probably going to be handed out all throughout the day, to each class (Hopefully it wasn't all for just one class. He couldn't imagine they would already have to replace that many on the first day in, right?)
Grabbing his own size, Kosei made his way over to the male locker room's doors, being around one of the first inside. He found himself his own locker, quickly finding the small strip of code, and repeating the numbers over and over in his head, doing his best to try and memorize it so he wouldn't have troubles getting his things back once this class was over, or the embarrassment of having to call into some teacher to do something about the lock.
After repeating it under his breath several more times, he finally opened the locker and stuck the paper inside, before he began to change. Slipping off the sweater and the white button-up shirt beneath, he hung them up on the hooks inside to keep them from perhaps finding stains or being ripped or ruined on the bottom of the locker (he didn't want to chance it on his first day). He was about halfway finished with getting dressed when a red-haired male found his own locker next to Kosei's, and the blonde slowly slumped his shoulders and looked away. Not in disappointment or anything of the sort. He simply didn't know how to even approach the stranger in conversation, or anything at all, and felt...awkward, to say the least. Though it seemed in the end, he didn't even have to try.
Kosei's tongue seemed to be stuck in the back of his throat as the male suddenly spoke to him, and he stammered for a moment, trying to think of some way to reply. He definitely was nervous, even if the red head said he had nothing to worry about. How could he not worry, in a situation like this? He could only imagine: Day One: Kosei Kasahara has already failed everything and has no chance of redeeming himself. EVER. How awful.
Finally, he got himself to force out a single, quiet word, "thanks." It wasn't much longer before he felt a sudden pang of guilt for hardly answering, after all the newcommer had said, and he turned over to look at him, doing his best not to break any sort of eye contact or seem anymore awkward than he already was.
"I...wouldn't mind partnering up with you...if you really don't mind." He managed. Whoever this person was, he seemed pretty nice. Perhaps he wouldn't take Kosei for an idiot if he really did end up completely failing this first day with the use of his powers. He knew some people had had practice with their abilities before coming here, enough that they had a basic idea of how to work theirs, but Kosei didn't. He'd kept his own to himself for so long, and thinking of trying to use it at all now gave him a headache of paranoia.
As Kosei finished dressing, partway through his sentence, he turned to look over at his newly found acquaintance, who had introduced himself as Alfred Komatsu. A bit of a strange combination, with his first sounding english, the last sounding japanese, but he shrugged it off as no big deal. Though the morning part of his introduction confused him, he decided it best not to try and find out what he meant by that for now.
"Oh, I'm Kosei Kasahara." Kosei introduced himself, putting his own hand lightly into Alfred's to shake, and then offering a somewhat awkward smile. "It's nice to meet you, Alfred."
Outside of the dressing rooms, Mr. Nakajima stood silently in the sun with his black suit, occasionally looking down at his watch stuck on his wrist to see what time it was. All of the students had spent quite some time in the locker rooms now, with only three or four having actually come out. Of course, that was normal on the first week. He would be lenient with that for now, but if they decided to take this long next Monday, he'd have them run a lap or two with Coach Tsunematsu's twelfth grade class. The students never seemed to like that after a single experience there, and were usually pretty good about timing after that, so he figured it worked pretty well for himself and his class.
Nakajima stood where he was for several more minutes, before he could suddenly hear heavy breathing and the quick stomping of feet behind himself. Confused, her turned around to see what was causing the noise, only to spot a female student approaching him who looked like she'd just run several miles. He watched her for a moment before got herself to talk, apologizing about her lateness. He gave a quick nod and then brought a small clipboard he was holding to look at.
"You must be Manon Portier." He said simply, looking back up at her. "No need to apologize. I marked you as absent before, but I'll be sure to fix that." He paused for a moment. "Normally I would have to put you down as tardy, but if you quickly make your way over to the dressing rooms and get changed and back out within five minutes, I'll look past this just once." He said, giving her another small nod. "Now quickly, be off."
Alfred Komatsu and Kosei Kasahara
It didn't take much longer for Kosei to finish up what he was doing, and shut the locker's door quietly, locking it again before turning in time to see a boy running out red faced. What was he so embarrassed about? Was someone teasing him?
Not thinking about it too much, Kosei turned and began heading out to where Nakajima was waiting for them. He paused for a moment at the light switch of the locker room, before he placed his hand over it, feeling a small surge of energy in his chest, and then he went on his way. It seemed pretty relaxed outside, with their teacher talking to a student who seemed to have several questions, and the other student talking amongst each other in small groups.
The emotions of all of them were varied, excitement, nervousness, neutral expressions, and all sorts of other things. Kosei himself was in the...paranoid group, as he made his way over to a spot somewhat nearby the class's teacher, waiting for him to begin.
Several minutes later, it seemed everyone had finally made their way out, and as Nakajima took notice of this, he clapped once. Gathering their attention. He cleared his throat, and then began speaking.
"It seems we've all found our way out from the dressing rooms, finally..." He mumbled the last part, looking through all of them. "Good. Now, this shouldn't be too hard to understand. We're going to be testing your abilities, whether they're newly found or not. I'm sure all of you are on different levels of control right now, some worse than others, but even so, any training you've had before now likely wasn't 'proper,' or was just you yourself testing out what you could do. That isn't going to cut it. Your idea of control probably isn't the same as mine."
"But again, for today, we aren't going straight to the whole learning part. We're just testing things out. I'd like to see what level you're at, and the best way to do so would be through a small sparring. One on one, that's all I'm asking for." He paused, thinking for a moment. "We'll go through a couple rules. Some may be repeats, but all the same, they're good to know.
"First, while this class may include fighting today, I'd still like to keep it as injury free as possible. That is...nearly impossible, with what we're doing, but that doesn't mean we have to go all out on each other. A couple scrapes, maybe a bruise or a cut or two? That's okay. But gaping wounds and gashes, head injuries, all of that other lovely stuff that's much harder to deal with? Avoid those.
"Second, don't give the guards a reason to get involved. If you haven't already noticed, we've already got two of them hanging around just over there." He gave a small, almost unnoticeable gesture with his head over to where the two of them stood, leaning against the fence of the tennis court a little ways away. "And those two just so happen to be Yutaka Ueda and Arata Saeki. Please don't let them get involved. They're a nightmare to deal with.
"Third, if you think you really can't take control of your power about halfway through the fight, then do your best to shut it down. If you can't stop it, call me out, and I'll come help.
"Fourth, if you have a serious reason for why you can't use your power, such as...it could seriously injure someone or yourself with simple attacks, or...it messes with your personality and mental control while in use? Come talk to me, and we can figure something out. Otherwise, you all need to participate.
"Fifth, once I've come around and watched you for a little bit, to get a feel for where you're at in control, I'll let you know you're okay to stop, and that isn't a request. I don't want us dragging these fights out for too long, because that never ends well."
He paused for a moment. "That's all I've usually stuck by rule-wise while doing this." He said. "I don't want to have to add anymore, so do take care during this whole thing." He looked through all of the students. "Go ahead and pair off with whoever you'd like for today, and find a spot in the field. You can start whenever you'd like." He said, waving them off before he made his way over to the field himself, walking past Coach Tsunematsu's class who were currently running around the track for the fourth time.
Kosei stood where he was for a moment, listing down all of the rules that Nakajima had explained, and then turning back to look at the crowd of students that were already finding themselves partners. He looked around nervously, trying to spot his classmate Alfred who had offered to pair up with him, hoping that he hadn't found someone else already. Who else would Kosei pair with?
Alfred gave a smile at Kosei, doing his best not to press what limited social boundaries he had set up for himself to survive what would inevitably be an onslaught of forced social interactions with the other students. Seeing as he seemed agreeable to what Alfred had to offer in terms of partnering up, Alfie set about changing out of his clothes into the preferred gym garments. They were standard issue he supposed, not really caring about the look of them one way or another...until a rather odd student seemed to burst in. Well, to put it bluntly, a female student it seemed. Alfred paused halfway through putting his shirt on to stare at the newcomer with more than just a little bit of undisguised confusion. What was a girl doing in the men's change room? A kid darted out of the room blushing and Alfred knew why. He felt like he should say something, but at the same time he didn't feel like being that guy who started rocking the boat unnecessarily.
Once he finished getting changed, casting one more glance at the girl...boy...person, he wandered back out onto the field. He gave a quick jog, his angels falling in behind him as he did so, rotating together clockwise on their own volition. Once everyone had more or less fallen in line, Alfred listened to the spiel that Mr. Nakajima gave out and grinned inwardly at it. Alfie wasn't prone to violence, but at the same time he had never fought another ability user before. This would be a good test of his skills, maybe impress a few people, feel proud of himself for a few moments before realizing his ego was getting large and chastising himself for it once more. Alfred listened intently to the rules, most of which seemed self-explanatory save for the guards section. Alfie let his eyes drift to the guards with an inquisitive glance. Were they here to protect the students or keep them in line? The more he heard about them, the more it seemed like the latter.
Regardless of his thoughts on the matter, he had more important issues at hand. When they were told to pair up, immediately Alfred started combing the area for Nao before he remembered his promise to a certain blonde hair kid. It felt weird calling Kosei a kid considering they were the same age, but it generally felt that way. Alfred rubbed his chin and made his way over to Kosei, placing a light hand on his shoulder. "Kosei, lets get to work shall we?" Alfie stated with a smile as his angels flew over and bobbed at his shoulders. He gently lead Kosei out onto the field, taking up a place with a fair amount of distance from the students. The facility was large enough to allow them to do so, of which Alfred was grateful. "Tell me, have you ever fought anyone before?"
Kosei quickly shook his head. "No, not yet." He said, looking down for a moment. "I actually haven't even used my power more than...three times now." He gave a sheepish smile.
Alfie rolled his shoulders slightly, giving a nod. "Fair enough, just wanting to know what kind of level of action to expect out of you. Guess we'll start low and work our way up, right?" Almost in tune with his sentence, the angels stopped bobbing in place and instead went completely still in the air. Going for ten percent power here guys, play it light, let him decide the pace. Alfred ordered his angels, who took off at a moderate pace towards Kosei. Nowhere near their maximum speed, but still enough to probably make the kid backpedal. Instead of immediately attacking, they surrounded him, hovering and circling like vultures over a fresh kill. A few moments later, one of the orbs lashed out, striking Kosei in the shoulder. Once again, the power was scaled back, allowing the hit to undoubtedly cause some amount of pain and push Kosei back, but nowhere near enough to worry about actually hurting him. After that first hit, every few seconds another one would lash out, then another and another. Every single one most likely inflicted some pain, but that was simply the nature of the course.
Alfred stood on the other side of Kosei, his arms crossed and simply watching everything unfold. He didn't display anything akin to a smile or a frown, but more of an inquisitive glare that made him look more like a teacher than a classmate. "You need to fight back Kosei, that's what this class is all about. Don't be afraid to hurt or strike them, they can take whatever you dish out."
A bit startled by Alfred suddenly placing his hand on his shoulder, Kosei gave a small jump, but that was it. He turned to look over at Alfred, and then nodded, offering a small smile of relief. Thank god he hadn't been left. Hopefully Alfred really didn't mind partnering up with him, though..."Yeah, sure." He said, and followed Alfred to where he wanted to go for the sparring.
At his next question, Kosei quickly shook his head. "No, not yet." He said, looking down for a moment. "I actually haven't even used my power more than...three times now." He gave a sheepish smile.
"Guess we'll start low and work our way up, right?" Alfie's response came to Kosei's ears, and he gave a small nod, unsure of what to expect from Alfred. He guessed that the orbs had something to do with how he would fight, and figured he was right when they started moving towards him. He quickly moved back a couple of steps, his eyes moving back and forth between all three of them before he found himself surrounded, each one hovering just above him. Unsure of what to do, he froze in his spot.
It wasn't much longer before one of the orbs struck out, smacking him right on the shoulder. "Ow!" The sudden pain in his shoulder, though it wasn't too bad, was enough to make him flinch and stumble several steps. The cycle was repeated for some time, before he spotted Alfred a little ways away, watching him as he pathetically let the orbs beat him around. The gentle expressions from before were replaced by a new glare, which threw Kosei into a loop of confusion. Had the way he acted before been an act? Or was he just like this when fighting?
"You need to fight back, Kosei." Alfred said, before Kosei felt another strike on his shoulder. "Don't be afraid to hurt or strike them, they can take whatever you dish out."
Kosei stared at him for a moment, processing what the red haired male had said. Fight back? The thought echoed in his mind for a moment. He guessed that if he didn't, he'd get stuck with being beaten around by metal orbs for the rest of class, which didn't sound all that great, but Kosei still couldn't really control how much he released at once, and he didn't want to accidentally...
He shook his head, biting his lip he quickly grabbed the bands around his wrist, tossed them to the side and took in a deep breath. Finally, several sparks jumped off of himself, and then, a sudden release of electricity. The volts struck out in almost all directions, though a majority of them sprung out at the metal orbs, striking them head on.
Alfie was worried that he might be overestimating the kid, or maybe he was being too rough. He wasn't a combat teacher after all, and he himself had never formally been trained. Was this how they normally did it? Wasn't there usually some kind of orientation? Alfred was flying by the seat of his pants to be honest. When Kosei seemed to be in distress, Alfred was caught between wanting to stop and also trying to force a reaction out of him. The only way for him to move past being nervous, was to eliminate the reason for being nervous entirely. In the end, Alfred deemed that 'fight or get hit' method was the best he could come up with at the moment despite not liking it at all. Alfred put on airs, trying to act like the combat teachers had seen in the movies and tv shows and felt like it didn't really suit him. Yet he remained strong, he had to be if he wanted to help Kosei move forward.
Finally, Kosei seemed to clue in that he needed to push back and Alfred gave a small smile. That's it, cmon! Alfred thought to himself as Kosei grabbed the bands around his wrist and ripped them off. Inhibitors? was Alfred's thought a moment before static seemed to surround the kid. Electricity? Oh that's neat...wait.. The thought that his angels were made of a liquid metal came a moment too late as they were struck by several bolts of man made lightning at once, and Alfred's head kicked back as if he had been struck in the face.
His vision became spotty, his ears rang, he smelled burning as if his very brain was on fire. His tongue and mouth went numb and so did his legs as he fell to his knees, barely getting his arms in place before crashing to the ground in a heap, barely holding himself up as he literally gagged and struggled for air. Everything was one fire, a headache...no a massive migraine had filled Alfred's sinuses so quickly everything in his stomach threatened to decorate the ground as he did his best to supress it. He couldn't see, was he blind? The ringing in his ears, like someone had clashed cymbals right beside them. What was burning? Why did it smell like burning? His head pounded worse than an African drum as he sat there for a moment dry heaving despite his mental protests to stop.
It was a long few seconds before Alfred's sight started to return to him and the ringing died down. The symptoms, save for the headache seemed to more or less dissipate. He slowly stood to his feet, his blurry vision returning to normal to see a very worried and panicked looking Kosei staring at him. Alfred rubbed the back of his hand against his forehead, feeling the thick coat of sweat that covered it so thoroughly that his bangs had been nearly instantly soaked. He gave a laugh as he started to piece together what had happened. Electricity plus metal plus mental connection equaled a horrible time. "Good one Kosei! Really...got me there." Alfred's words came out slurred, almost like he was drunk as feeling slowly returned to his mouth. He looked to his angels, giving a nod. Ground yourselves.
Instantly the angels morphed, becoming more like rods as they connected to the floor. "Again! And don't hold back! Like I said, I can take anything you can dish out!"
Somewhat relieved about finally getting his ability out and striking the orbs, Kosei stayed still where he was, letting out a quiet sigh as he watched the metal stiffen, but he was quickly caught by surprise as he heard a thud close by, and looked over only to see that Alfred had collapsed onto the gound.
His heart stopped for a moment at the sight, and panic and fear took over Kosei's mind. What had happened!? He hadn't struck Alfred, right? Only his orbs! So why was he dry heaving on the ground, as if Kosei had really hit him?
"Alfred!" He suddenly blurted. "Are you okay!?" When he didn't get a response, he stopped breathing. What have I done? Oh god, this can't be happening...not again...no way...no way..."
When he'd nearly began running over to Alfred past the stiff, metal orbs, when he began to rise up on his feet, looking rather shaky, and then looked back at him, "Good one Kosei!"
The blonde wasn't sure if he considered knocking Alfred down onto the ground like that a "good one." In fact, it was terrible. He hadn't even been nearby his classmate and he'd done that much to him, getting the red head to collapse onto the ground, and now having trouble to even speak clearly.
"Again!" Kosei's heart sank as Alfred called out again, his metal orbs even returning to his side and then sticking themselves in the ground. "And don't hold back!"
Stuttering through his own words, Kosei barely managed a quick head shake of refusal to his partner's commands. He couldn't do that again. He felt like he was going to get a headache just thinking about it. "N...no, no I can't." He stammered. "I can't."
Before Alfred could say much of anything, their instructor approached, holding a clipboard in his hand, and a pen between his fingers. "That's enough, you two." He said, looking between the both of them. "You can go ahead and stop now. I've already seen enough of your abilities to know where you guys are at." He nodded, and then turned away to start heading to the next group. "Go ahead and find your way back over to where we first met, by the dressing rooms. We'll talk more there."
Overwhelmed with relief, Kosei quickly nodded, and then searched around frantically for his bands, before finding them laying in the grass a little ways away. He quickly slipped them on, and paused for a moment, glancing over at Alfred several times before he slowly approached him.
"I...I'm sorry..." He said, his voice barely loud enough to hear. "I didn't mean for that to...do anything to you." A frown had appeared over his lips, and he kept himself staring down at the ground the entire time.
Alfred looked over at Kosei, and after a moment of contemplation gave a soft smile and walked over to him before placing a hand on his shoulder. "Hey. I told you not to hold back, if anyone's to blame here it's me. I didn't know how strong you could be." Alfred stated, making sure that Kosei actually heard him. "It's something we'll work on, and knowing what you can do I can plan accordingly. We'll get your ability under control and working in your favor soon, don't you worry." Most of the color had returned to Alfred's face as he smiled and led them both back over to the designated area.
"Nice to meet you, my name is Ito Nao." Nao introduced herself, with a slight formal bow, before she sat down next to Kaoru. "A girl who teleports herself and everything she touches all over the place is a lot of trouble." Nao first answered the girl's concerns, recalling her own youth. "Back then I didn't have much control over my abilities. When I had to do the dishes, I'd hear them shatter in the other room before I even scrubbed the food off of them. There was this one time I sneezed and ended up in a telephone pole. It was quite difficult to explain to the fire department how I got up there."
She smiled softly, though her story was interrupted by their ability control teacher's instructions. Nao calmly listened to mister Nakajima explain the house rules. Nao hadn't judged the man to use rough and tumble teaching methods, even if she herself didn't exactly object to them. Well, appearances weren't always all, but still, she was coloured a little surprised.
When mister Nakajima was finished, the other students were already standing up to look for a partner. She'd finally found Alfred, but it seemed he had already made another, spiky-haired friend. Nao didn't quite expect Kaoru to take that kind of initiative, she still seemed – what did she call it - tired? Nao scooped closer to the girl, noticing a slight blush. Nothing she hadn't already dealt today, Nao noted. She stretched and crossed her legs in front of her, watching their fellow students picking a spot in the field.
"Sometimes, it takes someone else to believe in you, to believe in yourself." Nao mused and put her hand on Kaoru's, "Kaoru, I'll be your partner today." Nao stood up and pulled on Kaoru's wrist to get her up on her feet. Perhaps she didn't have as much faith in Kaoru as Nao wanted her to believe, but Nao was confident enough in her own ability to feel safe regardless. An unwavering image, in her smile and eyes, easily mistaken for blind trust.
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POV – MR. NAKAJIMA
It seemed as though Nakajima had been watching them for a while, though a little ways away, as once they'd finished he almost immediately spoke up, while also scribbling down several notes and a couple other things before finally looking up at the two of them.
"Well done, the both of you." He said, tucking the board and the thick notebook of paper underneath his arm, and then crossing them as he looked between the two. "I was going to ask you to stop, but it seems you both knew it was time. Anyways, you're the last ones I believe, so let's go ahead and move over to where everyone else is waiting, shall we? Then we can finish up this class, and you'll have some free time to relax and clean yourselves up." He nodded, and then turned around and began the short walk back to the area with the dressing rooms.
POV – KOSEI KASAHARA
Kosei stood quietly over by the classes designated meeting area, shifting around on his feet for a moment as he tried to calm himself down after what had happened. While Alfred had been forgiving and hadn't seemed to have any kind of reaction that Kosei had expected from him after hitting him so badly with an attack, he couldn't help but feel awful. His chest felt heavy, like there was some kind of weight on it, and the more he thought about it, the worse his head hurt, and his stomach churned. Had he really done that? After being so careful...
A quiet, but heavy sigh escaped through Kosei's mouth as he closed his eyes for a moment, trying to calm himself. It would be okay, Alfred seemed to be okay, and he didn't seem to be upset about it, but...
"Well done with your abilites, everyone! I'm quite impressed with this class. You all seemed to handle it pretty well, other than...a pair that went a bit overboard." He glanced to the left at a male, who's face had been dyed a deep red as others turned to look at him...though his partner seemed to be missing.
"But besides that!" Mr. Nakajima quickly said, calling back everyone's attention and sparing the embarrassed student from suffering any longer. "I'll be looking through the notes I took, and see what I can do to help all of you as we start off this new year and figure out how we're going to keep you powers under control, so you can perhaps use them properly and for good reasons as you get older." He waved the clipboard in front of everyone for a moment, before sticking it back under his arm and then looking down at a watch on his wrist.
"There's not much else I can say, other than you did well, and I think that this will be a good class. So good luck everyone." He said, before turning his back towards them. "You are dismissed to get changed back into your normal clothes, and head to your next class, though class won't actually be out for a little while longer. I'll see you all tomorrow, dressed and ready once I arrive here."
Kosei watched as he began to walk away, heading back towards the academy building, perhaps to prepare for his next class, and Kosei quickly began making way over to the dressing rooms, like all the others. Thank god it's finally over...
Well done? Nao asked herself, puzzled by their teacher's assessment. He must be joking. She thought, putting her hand on her hip as she listened to Nakajima. Nothing about threatening to squeeze the breath out of a fellow student Nao could interpret as worth a compliment. Nonetheless she made a slight bow and offered her thanks. She considered helping Lucien up, but the boy had already gotten back on his feet by his own accord and lost in thought again.
Even as the class was being dismissed – Thanks goodness she could finally change out of her duckling skin – Nao couldn't quite put her mind to rest. What about the boy had provoked her to lose control? Had they met before? Nao couldn't put her finger on it. When she thought about it, Lucien was far too passive to be insufferable. He didn't even seem to flinch much when his air was being cut off. Either Lucien had felt in control of the entire exercise or he had a long history of violence and torture. That guy was not normal by any stretch of the word...
Nao wasn't deep enough in thought to – finally – get a hold of Alfred. She sure could use the distraction. "You look like you had quite the work out." Nao commented when she peeked behind Alfred to see three angel-sized patches of scorched grass. So that was fire she smelled. Well, that was a topic if any, and there was some time before their next class.
"Could you use a drink, Morning?"
"This is the part where I never live down our first meeting, isn't it? Alfred stated, rubbing the back of his head slightly with a sheepish smile. The smile faltered a slight bit as he seemed to glance back looking for someone. "Sure, I wouldn't mind a drink, but could you wait for just a minute? I'll be right back."
"I suppose." Nao raised an eyebrow, wondering what his business was. Alfred took off at a light jog back towards the dressing room, stopping at the blonde haired kid he had been paired up with during the class. He stood there for a moment, their conversation out of earshot. Alfred placed a hand on the kid's shoulder, giving a light clap on it before jogging back towards Nao.
"Sorry, just had some business to finish up. What you feel like?"
"A change of clothes, to start with." Nao smiled. Really the plain white shirt and shorts were sucking the soul out of her. "A friend?" Nao asked, nodding to the spiky-haired blonde. Alfred glanced back at the kid, giving a half smile as he did so.
"If I have my way, then yes. Looks like he could use one." Alfred then gave a look down at his own gym clothes, covered in more than a little bit of sweat. "And yeah, guess we should change out of these things first. Kosei gave me a run for my money today." Alfred peered up from his clothes. "So change and meet back out here, sound good?"
"You didn't tell me you were a mind-reader." Nao placed a hand on her hip, "See you in a minute." She flipped her hair as she threaded her way back to the changing room. Surely Nao was still worth watching walk, even in the duckling skin.
"..O...ok." Alfred more or less stammered, before the sounds of a muffled surprise cry seemed to come from him. Sparing a glance back, Nao could see that one of his 'Angels' had covered his face and was dragging him back towards the boys' changing room. She had to smother a giggle in the palm of her hand.
Nao didn't spend quite as much time on the changing room etiquette as she had before the lesson, content to smile and nod as the other girls exchanged their first experiences. She briefly examined the room for Kaoru, but the girl wasn't there. In the back of her head, courtesy demanded she'd ask if anyone knew what the pink-haired girl had wandered off to, but courtesy could wait. There was only so much time before the term Ability Use.
When she made it out of the changing room, Alfred wasn't there yet. Late? Nao wondered as she straightened her skirt. She had figured she was the girl between the two. Suddenly three floating silver orbs, Alfred's Angels, came floating rather quickly out of the boy's changeroom. They seemed to be surveying their surroundings for a moment before darting over to Nao, hovering mere inches from her face as they seemed to ripple and change shape on a whim. Are they analysing me? Nao thought, as the Angels seemed to be trying to determine who she was or what she was like. Well this isn't creepy at all. Nao crossed her arms as she glared at the floating metal balls.
"Hey! Stop that, get away from her!" Alfred stated in firm tone like a father reprimanding his children. Almost immediately they withdrew to float behind Alfred's head. "You know better than that, c'mon!" Alfred walked forward slightly. "Sorry, they're naturally curious about pretty much everything. Where to?"
"Angels, you called them?" Nao bit her tongue, staring down each orb as they retreated. Nao did her best to hide the disgust in her voice, but her eyes alone were enough to make the orbs ripple like it was raining on them.
"The school cafeteria," Nao walked ahead at an easy pace, facing away from Alfred a second to take a deep breath. It's not a big deal. She sighed inwardly, but being sniffed out wasn't exactly Nao's idea of a proper introduction.
"What happened during your exercise, Alfred?" Nao shifted gears to a more pleasant tone, "I thought I smelled fire."
"Oh yeah, that would be my brain." Alfred stated as if that wasn't a completely alarming statement. "Apparently Kosei, the guy I was paired with, is capable of outputting a ton of electricity or something. That tends to suck when you have giant floating metal balls that are connected to you through a mental link." Alfred stated as he continued to walk. One of the balls landed on his shoulder and pretended to melt, covering a good portion of him in silvery liquid. He didn't seem to register what it was doing at all, but Nao couldn't help but frown at the Angel's odd habits.
"So, trying to put Kosei through the paces and see what he was capable of, I got one hell of a..." Alfred peered over at Nao with a mischievous look on his face. "Shock."
The corners of Nao's mouth curled. "That's awful." Her words contrasted her expression, Alfred's smile only got wider as he continued, revelling in his own pun.
"But yeah, that was my bout with the human battery. What about you?" Alfred peered over, his orbs hovering closer to him almost as if they wanted to hear the story for themselves as well.
"I wonder about that myself," Nao mused, recalling her spar with Lucien, but she wasn't about to tell Alfred she nearly choked a guy. "Not half as electrifying as yours." She dodged. Alfred winced and smiled, to Nao's relief.
"Looks like we're here," Nao announced, as the cafeteria wing came in sight. Hardly fit for any lunch occasion, Nao thought, but unless they wanted to leave campus, it would have to do. "I believe I offered you a drink, what can I get you?" Nao asked, as the pair walked up to the entrance.
"Nah, don't worry about it, I'll grab them. Why don't you find us a seat?" Alfred asked, walking ahead of Nao slightly. "Chocolate milk is generally a good drink right after a workout. Sound good?"
"Tea, please. Green if they have." Nao intervened. Chocolate or milk, just weren't for her. For a second, her thoughts wandered to what the girls' changing room's reaction would be to that revelation.
During classes, the cafeteria was practically empty. It wasn't so much finding a seat as picking one between the handful of teachers sipping their morning coffee. The window, Nao decided, was a good place to sit by, so she pulled back a chair in the middle far away from both the door and lunch-lady and waited for Alfred to join her.
Before long, Alfred was walking towards her with a chocolate milk in one hand and a plastic cup filled with tea in the other. One of his Angels floated over before he got there, planting itself on another chair as if it were a person. The other two followed suit, each grabbing a chair for themselves around their area as Alfred placed the tea in front of Nao. "One tea, colored green, as requested."
"Why thank you." Nao nodded as Alfred took a seat across from her, taking a swig from his chocolate milk as soon as he did.
"And that is how you put out a brain fire." Alfred stated, rubbing his temple ever so slightly. After a moment of that, he looked back at Nao once more. "You never did quite tell me how your fight went? I doubt any of them were too boring to bother telling details about."
No escaping the inquisition, Nao narrated internally, as she folded her hands and studied Alfred's features. "Well," She delayed answering and sipped her tea. "It was over very quickly. I think my opponent tried to get in my mind but..." Nao looked out of the window by her conveniently chosen seat. "I think I'm supposed to check on how he's doing." She answered somewhat nonchalantly and took another sip of her tea. "We didn't get along as well as you did with your partner."
Alfred's eyes didn't narrow, but they did seem to track several different things at once on Nao's face as she spoke. Once she finished, he smiled softly but it wasn't necessarily one of happiness or mirth, more of... Understanding? Alfred took a big chug out of his chocolate milk, almost like he really did need to put out a fire on his brain. "Well getting along isn't necessarily for everyone I suppose. He said with only the slightest sound of resignation. Just as fast as it appeared, it was gone again as he seemingly perked up from out of nowhere. "Did you want to go see him then? Make sure he's not passed out on a bench or crying in the bathroom somewhere?" Alfred paused, as Nao thought to herself she wouldn't mind the latter. Alfred glanced at his wrist and at the watch that was on it. "On second thought, we may want to start heading towards our next class. It's going to be starting soon."
"Same thing then." Nao politely reflected Alfred's smile, though wanting to see Lucien wasn't exactly the way she would put it. Unlike the young man and his chocolate milk, though, she was still far from finished with her tea. She shoved her tea mug to the middle of the table and chair back, before letting her eyes wander from the campus back to Alfred's.
"Thank you, Alfred," Nao softly ran the tips of her fingers over the back of Alfred's hand. She smiled more warmly, silently thanking him for his understanding. "-And for the tea too, but next time is my treat." Nao stood up, making preparative to get back. "I insist."
Location || Classroom: Power and Ability Use
Alfred thought the day was off to a great start.
He had already made a new friend, managed to have a sit down with a beautiful woman…
If it wasn't for the fact that he had nearly been electrically lobotomized it might have been a perfect morning. Still, there was the fact that Nao was avoiding answering him on the fight portion, of which he was still curious as to why but he understood boundaries. She was reaching out to him just as he was to her, and he didn't want to strain the very fragile bond that was just starting to form. Her reasons for not wanting to talk about it were her own, and he had understood that. The next class was Ability and Power Use, which from Alfred's understanding was meant as a way to limit one's abilities and to better fit in with society at large. Alfred pondered how much use it would be to everyone, considering the wide range of abilities already on display. Alfred looked over at Nao for a moment. He still didn't really know her aside from the fact that she had an almost regal air to her. He didn't know what her ability was, or if it was tied to the reason she didn't want to talk about her fight with the other classmate Lucien. Still, he was enjoying the fact that she had reached out to him at least a little. He didn't know the problem yet, but his intuition was telling him that Nao had issues, possibly deep seated ones that she would eventually need help with. When that time came, Alfred would be there to aid her in whatever way he could.
They stopped their walk only long enough to grab their supplies for the next class, and the rest of the trip was short enough that not much conversation was necessary. When they got to the classroom, Nao's eyes were drawn by a dark-haired boy at the far end of the class. "I suppose I better see to him before class starts." Nao stated with lingering reluctance in her voice. "Talk to you later, Alfred." She excused herself with a slight smile and bow, before wandering into the classroom.
"Sure thing." Alfred said as nonchalantly as he possibly could while moving into the classroom himself. He took up a spot somewhere near the middle, most of the kids having yet to arrive to the room. The teacher was already there though, sitting behind her desk and looking completely too busy for someone who was just about to teach a class. Several documents lay littered over the desk's surface as fingers quickly and calmly typed at what seemed a thousand words per minute. Her eyes kept darting from the papers to the computer screen, only glancing elsewhere to peer at any new students entering the room for a split second before returning to whatever it was she was doing. Soon, the bell rang signifying the start of the next class and she seemed to stop instantly. Alfred took a look around, recognizing that many of the classmates he had for the ability control were also there. Maybe they would have largely similar course loads, would make getting to know people a lot easier.
The teacher stood up from her desk, walking to the center of the chalkboard and looking at each of the students. Her gaze was inquisitive, hard but not necessarily harsh. She had a sharp beauty to her but a ring on her finger would ward off any potential suitors or eager beaver students. She turned towards the board, a small light appearing from her hand as a piece of chalk seemed to materialize into her fingers. With that chalk, she wrote her name on the board with a slight amount of flourish. "My name is Mrs. Masumi, and I will be teaching you Power and Ability use." She turned back towards the classroom, seeming to emphasis her hand as the chalk was enveloped in a small amount of light and it retracted into her palm. An interesting way to let us know you're an Awakened yourself ma'am. Alfred thought to himself as she continued to talk. "The purpose of this course is to manage your ability usage, to better mold yourself to societal norms, and ultimately understand your powers and yourself in such a way that interacting with…'normies' as some of you have colorfully put it, is as easy as breathing." She took a moment to make sure everyone understood the core concept before continuing. "This course will involve a few homework assignments over its lifespan, although most of them will be practical in nature. There will be tests and pop quizzes to make sure you are paying attention, but a lot of what I will be hoping to teach you will rely mainly on literal application of your power and discussion material as to what it means to be an Awakened in a mixed world. Any questions so far?" Alfred raised his hand, and Mrs. Masumi pointed at him. "Mr. Komatsu, correct?"
"Yes ma'am." Alfred stated, before lowering his hand. "Assuming that this class is primarily about helping us live with our abilities in a society that doesn't consider them commonplace or altogether natural, what about the ones who show no outward signs of their awakened status? Conversely, what about those ones who can't necessarily hide their abilities?" Alfred felt a couple pairs of eyes on him, and undoubtedly more than a few people were muttering 'nerd' underneath their breath but it was question he wanted to ask since he felt he fell under the second portion of it.
"A good question Alfred." Mrs. Masumi stated. "To be clear, this class isn't about hiding your powers from society, but more about realizing how they can be used to contribute in a meaningful way and to limit their impact in terms of cultural feedback. Whether you display your ability much like Mr. Komatsu's 'Angels' or your ability is more subtle such as Mr. Kasahara's electrokinesis, everyone can have a positive influence on the community at large." Mrs. Masumi started walking over to one side of the classroom. "There will be resistance, of which I'm sure most of you and even myself has felt. The fact is that people will almost always fight against change, because they have become used to the norm. They don't want anything to be different, so they rebel."
Mrs. Masumi's hand reached out with surprising speed, grabbing a student's phone out of his hand before he could say anything. With another slight flash, the phone disappeared into the palm of her hand. "You can see me after class and get it back then." She stated in a tone so cold it could give ice chills.
"Were there any other questions?"
Before their first lesson ability use was to kick off, there was one more thing Nao had to excuse herself to Alfred for. She'd scanned the room as she had entered and quickly found Lucien, her sparring partner from last class. Nao dropped her shoulders as she made her way to the desk in the back Lucien was sitting at. This was not a conversation she wanted to have.
"Lucien." Nao addressed her classmate as she sat down next to him. "How are you feeling after last class?" She asked him, tilting her head and trying to make eye-contact.
Lucien turned his attention from the view of the academy grounds and locked eyes with Nao just long enough to reply with a bland "Perfect." despite the faint bruise around his neck contradicting the statement.
"Good to hear." Nao replied with equal lack of emotion. Lucien refocused his gaze to the the other side of the window. That the boy had no manners was old news at this point, Nao crosser her legs under her desk. She'd done her dues. If Lucien didn't want to talk, that just made it easier. Now she could free up her mind to listen to what Mrs. Masumi had to say.
Ability Use seemed to be a more conventional class so far, as far as Nao could judge. At the very least, it was a lot closer to what she understood about high-school. She raised an eyebrow as fellow students mocked Alfred under their breath for asking questions. What is wrong with that? She asked herself, while subsequently listening to Mrs. Masumi's answer.
"Mrs. Masumi," Nao raised her hand and waited for their teacher to acknowledge her, "Could you provide us examples of contributions the awakened have made to society with their abilities." She asked, while rendering her memory for appropriate answers. To Nao's knowledge, the majority of media attention went out to the trouble the awakened caused versus the good they did. From fundamentalist propaganda to acts of terrorism such as the infamous case of Tomimoto Taikan... And her own powers... Nao knew for sure – had not been used in ways Mrs. Masumi would deem good for society.
"Are there any public figures you wish future generations to aspire to?"
Amari Chiharu
LOCATION ║ Power and Ability Use
#80C6F9 ║ #FAE12A
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬Chiharu sat quietly near the front of the classroom, tapping her fingers against the desk in boredom as Mrs. Masumi went on with her lesson. The day had been rather uneventful so far, and perhaps wasn't her favorite. The first class had started with her having to team up with some other kid to spar off, which had ended somewhat okay, she supposed. They at least both displayed their powers well enough, with her blocking the attacks with her forcefields from the male classmate, while he attacked her with all she had. To say she wasn't exhausted from that would be a lie. It wasn't easy keeping up a forcefield and moving it around to shield herself, all while keeping the energy keeping it up strong enough so it wouldn't shatter.
So now she was sitting in the classroom, trying to keep herself awake as the woman went on about several people, answering several questions, stealing away a phone and somehow making it disappear...of course, that was fine with Chiharu, as long as she didn't really have to do anything for a while.
But of course, her wish of staying and doing nothing for a while was quickly dashed away as Mrs. Masumi spoke up after a minute or so of silence.
"No more questions then, I suppose?" She looked over them once more, to double check and make sure she wasn't wrong. "Alright, then we're moving on. If you have anymore questions, you can come to me after class, or ask me if we have any leftover time." Chiharu watched her as she began moving over to the desk, and then picked up several posterboards that had been leaning against it. "Alright, we're going to be doing a small group project, and it's easy. It should only take around fifteen minutes to finish." She placed them on top of one students desk, and then looked around. "I'll be placing you in groups of five myself. Each of you will be discussing your abilities, and what you can do with them to have a positive impact on today's society, perhaps talk about how you could help in certain job industries, or other things like that."
Group work? Why? Chiharu let her shoulders droop. Can't we just do this on our own...?
"It'll be a good way to get to know everyone in your class year, since I'm sure most of you haven't exactly been able to hit it off with anyone so far. Not to mention, others can help with giving you ideas on how your powers might work, broaden your horizons a bit." Mrs. Masumi began walking through the desks, looking at each of them. "I'll start by numbering you off. One, two, three, four..."
Chiharu let out a long sigh, watching her number off each person. She, herself, had ended up as a three, and she was hoping that she would get stuck in a group with people who were at least...okay enough.
"Three." The red haired guy from before, who had asked a question. "Three." Another male classmate, one with a particularly emotionless expression. "Three." A girl with dark hair, who was rather pretty if she did say so herself. "Three." The blonde, spiky haired kid who Mrs. Masumi had mentioned before in an answer to a question. So, these were the ones who would be in her group. They didn't seem too bad. Maybe she wouldn't have a hard time working with them...or she could just do her own thing while they worked on theirs.
"Okay, everyone, ones are here, twos here, and threes here," she pointed to a spot near the back, by the windows of the classroom, "fours here..."
Finally, after she finished listing off everyones' spots, she clapped her hands once, and then nodded. "I'm giving you all twenty-five minutes. Use it wisely, you have to present to the class after we're all finished. Go ahead, grab your posters, some markers, and get in your groups."
The class immediately began to move around, getting up from their spots. Chiharu did herself, and she found her way through the small blockage of students in the aisles of the desks to her group's spot.
Dialogue Color – #3b0000
Thought Color – #5c2020
Quite the underscore. Nao's lips tightened when their teacher emphasised the word lives. It almost felt as if mrs. Masumi was on the defensive. Of course - Nao swept aside, that was to be expected. The media hadn't exactly been kind to the awakened and the school was still far from completely turning the image around. Still, mrs. Masumi proved she wasn't blind to the dark underbelly of their side of the conversation. Nao could respect that sense of realism, but she struggled to think of herself as a doctor or rescue worker. Nao stifled a smile, the very suggestion felt positively ridiculous. She nodded along with the explanation, after which the teacher moved on to preparing the class for the following exercise.
Nao's eyes followed mrs. Masumi's finger in order to predict her number as the teacher systematically grouped the students. Nao soon deducted she would be in the same group as a particularly tired-seeming blonde girl in the front, at the same time when mrs. Masumi assigned Alfred to the same group. When the blonde girl's gaze fell upon her, Nao already had herself equipped with a polite smile, one Nao extended as then she glanced at Alfred.
Less pleased, Nao was to learn the third member of their ensemble was Lucien, inwardly sighing that in group discussion, she couldn't as easily uphold the unspoken silence agreement she'd just made with her neighbour. The final member of their group was the boy she'd seen Alfred running up to earlier, his sparring partner, if Nao's memory served her.
As Lucien and she were already sitting next to one another, Nao gestured to the others to come their way to the back at the window-side of the class. As they were making their way, Nao took three chairs from their now vacant desks to place near Lucien's desk. Habitually, Nao remained standing until everyone had sat down, as if she were receiving her classmates as guests in her home. "Ito Nao." She bowed to her two blonde classmates respectively, before sitting down.
A short silence followed, as past introductions none of the others seemed to spark the talk. She had hoped to have a little more time to think about what she could say, but between that and a lingering silence, Nao decided to go first. "I'm a teleporter, I can move myself from one place to another." She prompted, but no legitimate career choices came to mind. "I admit I've not thought about this subject very much... I rather thought society preferred I keep my abilities hidden."
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬Kosei stood up from his desk as Mrs. Masumi gave them an "okay," and awkwardly shifted around the other students as he tried to make his way to the other side of the classroom, where she'd asked those in his group to go. He mumbled a sorry to those he bumped into, before finally he'd arrived at their spot. Looking up, he found that he had been grouped up with Alfred again, along with the girl he had seen him with after their last class. Then there was silent male who looked like he had no interest in this entire thing, and the blonde female who looked like she would gladly take a nap if she was allowed to. He guessed it was going to be an interesting group.
He quickly sat down on the chair that the dark haired girl had gotten for him, offering a quick "thank you," to her before he found himself comfortable. "Ito Nao" and a quick bow was how the dark haired girl introduced herself, and Kosei sat quietly for a moment. She seemed to be rather formal, which kind of felt somewhat strange to him in this kind of school setting, but it wasn't bad or anything. "Um, I'm Kasahara Kosei, it's nice to meet you all." He barely finished before the other girl, his blonde classmate, spoke up. "Amari Chiharu. Pleasure to be working with you all." Her voice dripped with sarcasm in the last bit, and Kosei had alreadu figured out by now that she really wasn't in a very good mood, and probably would have preferred to be somewhere else at the moment.
As the short silence was again broken by Nao, Kosei listened quietly, trying to think of anything himself. No one really seemed to be interested in talking or helping to keep the conversation going in this group, as the awkward quiet followed once again, and the blonde let out a near silent sigh, biting his lip for a second before looking back up and trying to force himself to relax. "Electrokinesis is my ability." He said, looking around at the others. "I haven't really thought much about what I could do either. I guess rescue work is a possibility, but I'm not really sure how I'd even do in that field." He shrugged. "I feel the same way about...society wanting us to keep our abilities hidden, like Nao. It sure has seemed that way in the things I've heard and seen."
"You would be surprised." Chiharu suddenly spoke up. "You see, not all of society is about the whole getting rid of us or keeping us hidden. Some of them would prefer maybe...worpshipping us, or treating us like some kind of higher being, which surprisingly isn't much better." She shrugged before leaning back in the chair, and closing her eyes for a moment.
"Oh, forcefields is my ability, by the way, and I would prefer to stay away from any dangerous types of occupations, as convient as having a forcefield would be in those kind of areas."
Lucien Ashford
DATE ║ Mon, Sept 11, 2023
#C5612A ║ #C5992A
After the very short exchange with Nao, the class started to fill up with more students and the emotions pouring off of them meant that Lucien was struggling not to let anything show. When the class finally started, Lucien had listened to the information about what the class would entail, followed by the brief question and answer session. And then, of course, came something that Lucien decided he would severely dislike.
Group work.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, he was grouped with Nao as well. Although she seemed equally displeased at being grouped with him as well, given the emotions he could feel. The other three members of their group consisted of a blonde girl he had briefly spied during their previous class, the red-headed male that had been talking to Nao at the start of the day and the blonde boy who had been the red-head's partner during the previous class.
It was somewhat unsurprising that Nao introduced herself first once the group was settled into chairs. Of course, he had somewhat figured out her ability already from their spar earlier, but having that confirmed was useful. Teleporting. Oh how his friends would have loved for him to have an ability like that. Nao then mentioned that she hadn't thought much about the uses she could have for her ability. Although this class seemed to be for figuring that out.
What was surprising was the blonde male speaking up next, given the nervous energy that seemed to cling to him, Lucien figured that he would have to be prodded into actually speaking up. The other blonde piped in with her name and her displeasure for group work was obvious through both her tone of voice and her emotions. Lucien silently agreed with her.
Kosei, the blonde male, stated his ability to be electrokinesis. It sounded like it could be a rather powerful ability if used right, especially given society's reliance on electricity. Kosei visibly forced himself to relax as he spoke, although Lucien's ability still picked up the nerves he was clearly feeling. The blonde hadn't thought much about it either apparently.
'Is everyone going to be like that?' Chiharu spoke up again here, interjecting that some people worshiped the awakened, as opposed to hating them. That said, she soon leaned back in her chair before mentioning that her ability was forcefields and immediately stated her desire to stay away from dangerous situations. Lucien could understand that as well. Danger was something he would have enough of once he finally left the academy, he had no desire to go looking for it in the meantime.
Given that three of the five people in their group had now spoken up, Lucien glanced over at the red-head as he silently pondered whether to speak up next or not. Figuring that he might as well get it over with, his nails discreetly dug into the palms of his hands, the pain helping Lucien to focus his emotions more.
"Lucien Ashford. My ability is Pathokinesis, and something involving crowd control seems likely to be in my future." He hadn't lied, it was entirely possible that he would be sent on some sort of job in the future where crowd control was needed.
His part out of the way with, Lucien glanced at the last member of their group, who seemed to have three silver balls floating around him. A confused look briefly flickered across Lucien's face, was he seriously feeling emotions coming from those things?
A group project? Should be a good way to get some face time with at least some of the people in the grade here. I already know at least 2, so I'm better off than most.
Alfred thought this to himself once Mrs. Masumi started talking about the small project. He sat patiently, getting out his books and tools for writing as she started poking numbers at people. He only paused long enough to hear which number he was assigned before pulling out pencils and the like to help with the creation of the poster. He didn't know who he was paired with until he sat down. He gave a smile to everyone as he took a seat, but was also slightly disappointed. He had already met Nao and Kosei, and while he didn't necessarily know Nao's ability, he had gotten a good read on her as a person and that was good enough. Kosei was the guy who kicked Alfred's ass in sparring. Alfred smiled a little bit as he remembered that bit, already formulating strategies to combat it for next time. While two of the people in his group he hadn't met, he had been hoping for it to be entirely new so that he could branch out and hopefully meet everyone in his grade.
Alfred dragged an empty desk towards the group so he would have a space to write on, and took the poster paper they were given, placing it in front of himself. He dug into his bag and pulled out several markers, one for each member of the group. Nao was the one to take charge of the conversation, something Alfred expected of her if it wasn't him. She got the ball rolling, and he learned her ability. He took out the brown marker, putting her name down with a bit of a flourish, underlining it, and then describing her ability beneath it. A teleporter? Interesting. There were many applications for such an ability, depending on the limitations associated with her power. Alfred already thought of several helpful positions Nao could occupy in order to help people, if she could also teleport people as well. Even if she didn't, she had options aplenty.
The next one to speak was Kosei, which honestly surprised Alfred. He had thought the kid would have been last and required a bit of poking to get talking, but here was speaking up on his own. Granted, Alfred shouldn't be judging the kid based entirely off of one class worth of interactions, so maybe he wasn't as nervous or shy as he displayed but had a hidden reserve of strength to him that he could pull on in times of need. Either way, Alfred already knew Kosei's power as he pulled a red marker out and wrote Kosei's name with a different style this time. Underneath he put Kosei's title of his ability, but he also wanted to write 'Giant headache inducing power' underneath it. Electricity was not something Alfred was used to having hurled at himself or his angels, so Kosei had caught him off guard. Either way, he was proud that the kid sought the initiative to speak to the group on his own. Maybe he didn't require as much help as Alfred thought. Not to mention his ability had several practical applications, mainly concerning power to be honest but he would never be out of a job should he decide to go that route.
With Kosei's little bit out of the way, that left the two people he hadn't introduced himself to yet. Amari Chiharu, a blonde girl who seemed to drip sarcasm and venom like a leaky faucet dripped water. Reserve Judgement Al, see who she is first. Alfred grabbed a blue marker, and like the others, wrote her name down slightly different from the others. There was a bit of discussion regarding society wanting Awakened to keep their abilities hidden, but Amari chimed in, stating that some people wanted to worship them and treat them as Gods. That hadn't been Alfred's experience, but it felt like she was speaking from history rather than speculation. She then added onto her thought like a side note that her ability was forcefields. She didn't have any desire to put herself in harm's way, and while Alfred could understand the mentality he couldn't agree with it. She had an ability that literally stopped harm in its tracks and she would refuse to use it to help people? There had to other applications for such a thing, but he would require more information before he could even begin to guess.
The next one up introduced himself as Lucien Ashford. He was curt and got right to the point, if anything he came off as incredibly apathetic, although if Alfred was correct in remembering the definition for Pathokinesis, it was understandable. It had something to do with emotions, right? Manipulation of such a thing, maybe projecting them into other people? Reading their emotions? Alfred would have to look up the definition later to be sure, but for the time being he went with his gut. He grabbed an orange marker, following his own standard and writing Lucien's name differently. Lucien stated that his ability could be used for crowd control, but would that really be the only case? Manipulating someone's emotions felt like an invasion of the mind to Alfred, and he had a hard time thinking up anything other than potential riot control as a career choice for Lucien. Alfred wrote down several notes on the paper, tapping the marker against his chin. There had to be something better than this, where his ability wouldn't be considered a breach of privacy or the like. Maybe a therapist? Would that fall under mind probing? Who knows…
Alfred felt someone poke him slightly and he looked up to see all eyes on him. "Oh, my bad. Sorry, was thinking about everything you guys were saying." Alfred put down his markers for a moment, allowing his orbs to float a bit closer to the back of his head. "Unfortunately, my ability isn't as easy to explain as the rest of you. Some of you may have already noticed that I have these weird metal balls constantly floating around me." Alfred held out a hand and one of orbs split off a small chunk of its body. That chunk floated down to his hand and 'sat' in it. As he moved his hand, the small metallic liquid slid between his fingers. "There's no real name for them as far as the rest of the world is concerned, so I simply call them my Guardian Angels. They follow my orders but act like lost puppies sometimes. They can do a number of things…" The small orb hopped out of Alfred's hand and into the middle of the table. It turned into a frog, and made the motion to make the sound 'ribbit' even though no noise was heard. It then turned into a cube, then a triangle, and then ended up making a very miniature version of Alfred sitting in the desk. "Versatile things really, but aside from commanding them I myself don't have any actual powers." Alfred glanced down to see his angel mimicking him as he talked and moved. Stop it. Alfred stated. "So, I don't really know what kinda job I would want or get, since they're always with me. I've always been interested in being a firefighter or even a police officer, but I wonder if these things will hold me back or help with that."
Alfred looked down to see his angel was ignoring him and still mimicking him perfectly. He took a hand and quickly swatted the angel, which turned into a liquid and started sliding around on his arm. Alfred paid it no mind as it weaved around his wrist and fingers. "And in terms of society wanting our powers to keep hidden, while I don't necessarily disagree with you Amari, it's been my experience that the vast majority wish that we would keep out of sight and out of mind. Like Mrs. Masumi stated, there's always a resistance to change and that's how most of the world reacts...at least from my point of view."