<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/4/4a/Iris_Heart_-_Hyperdimension_Neptunia_-_2x3_portrait_-_mischeivous.png)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Natsuki Akuzawa<br/><strong>Location:</strong>School parking lot<br/><strong>Time:</strong>Second day, afternoon<br/><strong>Wearing:</strong>School uniform<br/><strong>With:</strong>Amaya, Biscuit<br/><br/>Natsuki strolled toward the bus terminal with a bored glumness, hands in her blazer pockets, shades of a pout on her face. Her first day of classes had been somewhat duller than expected – mostly just introductions and outlines of the courses. The classes that did start real teaching underwhelmed her, which was hardly a surprise. Natsuki had always been a bright student by default, and the years in Level 3 had put her well ahead of her peers – there wasn’t much else to do in L3 confinement other than reading, and the reading material was fairly limited to mostly educational stuff.<br/><br/>But perhaps the main thing bringing Natsuki down was the complete lack of any personality in her uniform. She was dressed, perfectly and correctly, in the school’s uniform – exactly as laid out in the handbook – as if she were a school-approved model for other students. Just from looking at her, one couldn’t be blamed for thinking she was a goody-two-shoes, teacher’s pet type. It felt stifling to be so conformist; she felt like a drone. It wasn’t by choice, of course – the uniform and its (school-approved) accessories were literally all she owned, other than a few items from the institution… and she wasn’t walking around school wearing<em>those</em>. Yesterday’s clothes-shopping attempt had failed because the club rush took too long, so she’d have to get some things today.<br/><br/>As she passed the parking lot, she caught sight of Biscuit, talking to a blonde girl she hadn’t seen before. The first thought that went through her mind was:<em>Smooth work there, big guy!</em>But then it occurred to her that he might be on his way into town, too. She knew he hadn’t been able to get much done yesterday either – for different reasons, of course – so perhaps he was on his way to do some shopping, too. In that case, it wouldn’t be taking advantage of his friendship to hitch a ride, would it?<br/><br/>She wavered for a moment about butting in, but it seemed the conversation was focused on the bike – or at least, so it seemed from the girl’s body language. It wouldn’t hurt to say hi while passing by, and if her presence seemed unwanted, she could always just keep passing by and leave them to it.<br/><br/>So she strolled over to where Biscuit and the girl were, approaching with her best attempt at a friendly smile – though despite hours of practising in a mirror, she knew she could never quite get the edge off it, and despite her best efforts at looking ‘normal’ she would always give away the impression of someone wary of hunters – and a casual wave.<strong>“Yo, Biscuit-san!”</strong>she said, still mangling his name as something more like ‘bi-su-ki-to’. And then she tried some even more mangled English:<strong>«My fu-rendo! What is up my home-doggy? Keeping it rea-ree! Exce-rent!»</strong><br/><br/>Natsuki was way ahead of her peers in most of her classes. Unfortunately. English was not one of those classes.