Entrance Ceremony

Amari High School, Aoyama-Itchome, Tokyo
April 8

A sunny day with a beautiful atmosphere, a huge number of young people enjoying meeting their friends, cherry blossoms welcome the students. Today is the entrance ceremony of the new school year, a new chapter in our lives, one to be enjoyed to the fullest, blah blah blah. Chances are I'll end up hating quite a bit this year too. While my younger brother has already finished his university career, I am just going to my second year at school, while I look like I should go to the first year of primary school.  Each of us mentioned what we think will happen throughout this year. Maria was the first to say that she assumes that incredible, absurd, and mysterious things happened because of me. Tamamo said that she hopes to experience those love stories in youth that are so popular now, I imagine things like running late to school eating breakfast, and crashing into someone by chance. I'm just praying that I have the most boring school year ever.

The truth is that I only continue in this only because of our agreement to protect Haru, although I would like to get a job somewhere, it is quite difficult so I'm just doing what I can to help for now. 

"You know, don't you think it's funny how the I.S.C respects our vacations?"
"They have not acted since the incident at the Ueno dam" Maria said as she nonchalantly walked by our side.

"Well, that was to be expected, after doing so many striking things in such a short time, it is normal for them to take some time to try not to be so obvious that they were responsible"
"But although I appreciate the free time, I also feel worried that they have not rested like us and have used it instead to continue developing their plans better"
"We may have made a mistake and let them go further than we should have, but we also don't have any more information about what they might be doing right now."
"Our mother is still quite busy with what happened in New York, plus it seems that with what happened there the Japanese government now plans to join the Alliance actively, so the pact should be almost ready."
"My daughters are helping her in everything she does so we don't really have anything new"

"It sure must be hard trying to fight an enemy when you don't even know what they're planning"

"Well at least I appreciate the time off"
"Contrary to what many think, rest is also very important."
"Could it be that they are even at their limits by themselves just by trying to get ahead"
"Maybe we could get lucky and catch them at their lowest point"

"As if those things happened with you."

"Leaving that aside, this year you will be in another group right?"
"How do you want me to treat you? Totally unknown or I greet you from time to time?"
"I prefer the first"

"For now let's try to pretend that we don't know each other to see how it goes"
"If it goes wrong I'll look for you myself"
"What do you think about that?"

"Works for me"

Damn, I can't believe that Maria had the luck to study in such a high-level place like this, just look at that place, it looks like a palace, very different from the prison that they call a school in my country. It has all the comforts that would be expected from the first world: a soccer field, indoor gym, swimming pool, chemistry room, gardens, dining room, an infirmary, rooms for activity clubs, library, air conditioning. The teachers are quite good with their students, they respond to your doubts and problems, the students are people who have not seen the problems of poverty, so they take security for granted. The administration staff really care that their school is really the best it can be, where people want to come to study of their own accord. 

I do not want to sound like an old man who goes by saying how in the past it was more difficult, but in the school where I studied for the first time, it was not very different from a war zone, and believe me I have been in both places. Where it was, there was also everything, everything bad: overcrowding problems because there were many students, the place was poorly maintained due to money problems, the Bullyn is taken for granted, drug sales, gang fights, frequent robberies within the same school, and place only had the classrooms, a plain outside were to do the entrance ceremony standing and the soda where they sold you food. Teachers have the same need for money as you, so don't expect too much from them because they also have their own problems that you take care of, constant searches by the police looking for "problematic" things, It is no exaggeration to say that everybody knew then some students had a knife "for defense", more than once I've been against a wall with the police searching my pockets. And the administration is just trying to keep the place out of the news again. The best strategy to survive was to make your group fast and be with them protecting yourself, normally the problems only appeared to those who were looking for them, most of the time if you pretended not to see anything nothing bad would happen to you. 

Although I am quite grateful for this place, after all, I could not have wished for a better place for Maria to study and not have to go through the same traumas that I did in my day. And well, since we're here I'd also like to see what it's like to join a club since they didn't exist where they were, I'd like to see what those things are like. Seeing what it is like to live in a civilized world from time to time does not bring anything bad, right?

After entering we reviewed in which class we had finished this year. It seems that by "chance" Tamamo and I ended up together with Haru in group 2-B, while my sister is in group 2-A. So we're not that far apart. After that, we split up to go into the gym and meet up with our respective groups. After that, we split up to go into the gym and meet up with our respective groups. After that came the ceremony as such, which was first the director of the school giving his typical welcome speech, although this time he also took a moment to mention the horrible event that occurred at the dam and how abruptly it had to end last year, no doubt people were still saddened by what had happened. 

After that, the president of the school also came to give a few words, in her speech she also mentioned the tragedy that happened and how lucky we were despite what happened, she also said that it was the responsibility of others to take advantage of the opportunity that was presented to us and that we should go ahead and do our best. Her speech turned more towards the future trying to give hope, but the truth is that the harsh way of talking about her I don't think it helped with her intention.

Once the ceremony was over, we had to go to the classroom that would be our turn this year and meet our teacher in charge, although I already knew in advance that it would be Xian, it still seemed fun to see her arrive without much encouragement to the classroom. I'm sure she doesn't want to be here either, but she doesn't have the same remedy as me.

In the class this year we have several classmates from last year as well as several new ones, I think some of them I had seen before so they may have been from other classes and ended up in this one. Among the acquaintances we first have Yamada Hyobe, the class jester, the little I was there last year was doing a lot of pranks, so I think this year will not be the exception either. For some reason, he knows that Xian hates Clarise's nickname but I have no idea why or how he figured it out. Don't think I've forgotten what you said when I introduced myself to everyone.  The next on the list is Kusumoto Josuke, he is Yamada's friend, he is also quite a joker but more controlled, but for some reason he seems to be obsessed with making money, he is almost always selling something and always has something that people have on hand need but to sell them. There is also Umesaka Kojiro, but I remember this one because he is the giant of the class. He is almost 2 meters tall and quite muscular. He says almost nothing and is always in the background with an angry face, but so far I hasn't had any problems with him so that's all I can say about him at the moment.  No, wait! that this was not the guy who was carrying two other students in his arms when I rescued them from the terrorists? Damn, will he recognize me? 

New faces if there are enough, I don't know them yet but just by seeing them, I think I could guess how they will behave in the future. Yukiko Aragaki I have seen her before, she is Haru's friend, she was in another class last year. If the rumors about her are hundreds she is the heiress of the Aragaki conglomerate, just one of the most important companies in Japan, it is also said that she is a descendant of the ancient nobles of Japan, but I think maybe they are just exaggerating. Muranaka Yasunobu, completely new, no one knows him before, but still, short height, I have my doubts about this guy, is he a boy or a girl? I say I think he is male, but he seems more delicate than Tifa, the fairy. At least the girls in the classroom seem to adore him for the way he looks, so he probably won't be bullied.  Please tell me I don't look like him.  Yuko something, I don't remember her name anymore. This girl is the stereotype of Gyaru, which is more or less to say the popular and pretty of the class, I can't say anything else about her because I really forgot. She is always together with two others who are even more forgettable than her.  Over there is the quiet girl from the class, she said her name so softly that I didn't hear it, but just by looking at her, I can see that it's the brainiac who is always reading books. If she has glasses and a science book next to her on the first day, how is that type of person not going to be? Nobusawa Takehide, this boy is one of my people. He brought his console the first day of class, from a distance I can see the type of video games he plays, and I recognize them all by heart. He seems quite competent so I would like to bring my console too and challenge him to something to see what it will be too, I want to see if he lives up to expectations. He also looks like he has a manga on his backpack, so he's the "addicted" one. that never fails It doesn't seem like he has any friends because he doesn't know anyone, I think that's why the console. 

But among all there is one that stands out much more than the others, and not in a good way. Tetsuo Keisuke, this guy from afar can be seen to be depressed. Something really bad had to happen to him. He doesn't look very healthy, it seems that he suffers from insomnia and is quite nervous. He seemed like a pretty suspicious guy so after class I went to talk to Xian about him and with that, I found out why he looked like that. He was the boyfriend of Utagawa, the girl I killed by mistake during the hijacking of the dam. No doubt such an event completely destroyed him, and best of all? It was my fault that this happened completely destroyed him, and best of all? It was my fault that this happened. I can't go and talk to him directly about what happened, but I really feel bad for him, so I'm going to keep an eye on him a bit to prevent anything bad from happening. His current state is my responsibility, so on behalf of Utagawa, I hope I can protect him. 

Undoubtedly this year that is just beginning will be quite busy just seeing the kind of personalities we have in our group. Although I haven't met all of my new colleagues yet, something tells me that everyone will bring their own problem to my table at some point. It will be a very long school year.