"Haru-chan!"

Noel found it difficult to concentrate on school that day. It was no wonder, too, as her mind kept drifting to the events of that morning. No matter how much she tried to follow Uncle Clef's advice, she just couldn't get the image of Azrath flying off with the golden pen out of her head. As a result, she had spent the day taking notes without an ounce of retention. 

"Haaaruuu-chaan!"

Noel felt a finger poke her cheek and rotate slightly. Noel jumped, her eyes focusing upon the girl standing over her, one hand on her hip, the other still digging into Noel's cheek.

Oh right, she was Haru. 

"Sorry, Mifune," she said, raising her head off her hand.

"How many times do I have to tell you to call me Yui?" she said, with a slight scowl.

"Sorry, Mi—uh, Yui." Noel had no idea why Mifune Yui insisted on being called by her last name, but that was what she wanted. Noel still felt awkward saying it. 

What's the matter?" Mifune asked, tilting her head in concern, "Are you having trouble keeping up?"

Noel shook her head. "No, I'm just—" she thought about telling her about the events that morning but decided against it. "—tired from practicing my writing. I'm making a lot of progress, but it's still giving me a lot of trouble."

It wasn't a lie. The problem with this language… thing that the curse gave her was that no matter how much she could understand and speak, it was no substitute for actually knowing the language, which became a significant issue when it came to writing. Sure, she could study the course material all she wanted, but if she couldn't complete her assignments, then what was the point?

Luckily, her teacher, Mr. Tamayoshi, had noticed her struggles quickly. By the third day of school, he had called her to his desk in the teachers' room. 

"Miss Mira," he began, sitting down and peering up at her from over his black-framed glasses—she forgot how weirdly "Miller" was pronounced, and for some reason, it didn't translate correctly in her head. "I'm not sure how to say this without being rude, but you seem to be having a bit of trouble with your homework."

"Did I do badly?"

Mr. Tamayoshi blinked, "No, not at all. You answered most of the questions correctly."

He gestured to the paper. Noel looked at the number 96 scrawled in black ink at the top and sighed in relief. 

"If I did well on the homework, then what's the problem?"

"It's not exactly a problem right now, Miss Mira, and I know you're starting a bit later than the other students," he said, his voice a bit stern, "but I know it will cause you problems in the future." He paused to adjust his glasses. "I noticed that you tried to write in katakana on your first couple of answers, but then you quickly switched back to English."

Noel bowed her head, slightly ashamed. "Yeah, I just couldn't get the characters to look right. Sorry sir, I'll keep working hard to master katakana, then the other two." There were no shortcuts. No cheats to help her master the written language. She would just have to rely on good old-fashioned studying to get her through. Though kanji was gonna be a pain to learn. Unlike katakana and hiragana, which represented sounds like the normal alphabet, kanji was picture-based, meaning that each character represented an idea. It was still a difficult concept to wrap her head around, but Noel was sure she could get it if she studied it hard enough.

There were very few things about herself that she had any confidence in, one of them being her pension for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, mostly thanks to the curse. Another was her ability to study. Noel didn't think she was particularly intelligent, but her mom had drilled proper studying habits into her from a young age. She herself had been a high-level student but chose not to finish high school, deciding instead to run away with papa and start a new life. She never regretted her decision, but she still wanted to pave a path to success for her children.

"I'm glad to hear that, Miss Mira," said Mr. Tamayoshi with a warm smile, "I want you to succeed just as much as you do, which is why I've recruited a classmate to act as your tutor."

Noel felt an icicle of fear stab her chest. "It's not Kusinawa Ushio, is it?"

 While many of her classmates tended to ignore Noel, none seemed to dislike her actively. Mifune said most people were only used to interacting with their fellow Japanese, so they were unsure how to approach someone like her. Noel could understand. She was also uncertain how to approach any of them. Still, if anyone in the school seemed to dislike Noel, it was the class representative. The feelings were mutual. She had been the one recruited to show Noel the ropes around the school. It did not go well. Her condescending, rich girl attitude had immediately rubbed Noel the wrong way. She had actually gotten offended and nearly bit her head off when Noel had called her "Ushio."

"What makes you think you have my permission to call me that?" she had said.

Permission? Permission?!

The sheer gall made Noel want to ruffle Ushio's neat black hair and rip that stupid red bow off her head, just so that she wouldn't look so proper. Then she thought she could boss Noel around just because she was three days older than her. She had even told her to call her some dumb Japanese word—Senpy—or something like that. Just thinking about her pissed her off. So, she decided, the less she saw of that girl, the better. Though it didn't help that they were in the same class. 

Mr. Tamayoshi looked surprised, "No, Miss Kusinawa is far too busy with other responsibilities to have time to tutor." Thank god.

He paused again to adjust his glasses. Must be some kind of tic.  But it was rude to point that out to him. "I know moving to a new country can be difficult, but I don't think taking your frustration out on your fellow students is appropriate."

"But—" 

He silenced her with a hand raise. "Consider this matter closed, Miss Mira." Mr. Tamayoshi sighed, "I don't enjoy being so strict. I just want to make sure that my students get along. If you wish to resolve your issues, I ask you to speak with Miss Kusinawa outside of school."

Noel's headache compelled her to protest, but Noel overpowered her impulse and nodded with a slight bow. "Yes, sir, thank you, sir."

"And thank you." He smiled, returning her bow with one of his own, "I'm excited to see that you're eager to succeed. Now, back to your tutor."

Of course, her tutor was Mifune Yui, who was quite friendly, unlike Kusinawa Ushio and the rest of the class. 

"It's very nice to meet you, Miss Mira," she said with a bow—so much bowing! "I've heard you were having a bit of trouble with your writing. I'll be happy to help you with it if it's not too much trouble.

"No, no," said Noel, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly, "I'll be glad for your help, Miss Mifune."

Mifune shook her head and smiled. "Please, there's no need to be so formal. You can just call me Yui!"

"Oh, okay then, uh, Yui." Saying her name sounded a bit awkward to Noel, "Then, if you don't mind, I'd prefer it if you called me Noel."

"Of course, No-eh-ru," she said, just as awkwardly.

"On second thought, call me…" She paused as she tried to think of something simpler.

"How about if I call you Haru?"

Noel blinked, "Haru?" Where had she pulled that name from?

"Forgive me, but I saw your full name when Mr. Tamayoshi assigned me as your tutor. I knew Westerners had three names, but your middle name really stuck out to me."

"Oh really?" Most people thought her middle name, Harmony, was unusual. Which fit their mental picture of her. "I know it's weird." She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.

"No, just the opposite. It's super cute! So, I just shortened it to Haru, if that's okay with you?"

Noel blushed. Yui thought her name was cute? If that was the case, then who was she to say otherwise. She nodded.

Yui's smile grew wider, revealing her crooked teeth.

"Perfect! I think the name really suits you! It means springtime, a new beginning! I hope that we'll become good friends, Haru-chan."

Noel still had no idea what "chan" meant, but it seemed to be a sign of friendship. 

It wasn't long before she had introduced her to her other friends in class. There were two others, Tojo Ai and Nagatsuma Mugi. Both were as friendly and even began to compliment her appearance; her dark brown hair and especially her blue eyes, which neither had ever seen before. Tojo Ai, in particular, seemed fascinated with her. 

"Is it true that you don't have any Japanese in your family at all?"

Noel nodded, cheeks burning. Her family was mostly French.

"Really? But you speak Japanese so well. It's like you were born here!"

"Oh… well, that's…" Noel trailed off, muttering an incomprehensible response. She had no idea how to answer properly. Luckily Mifune came to her rescue. 

"Ai! Can't you see that you're making Haru-chan uncomfortable."

"Sorry."

There was a pause before Miyuki chimed in, "So, tell us, Haru-chan, what is America like. I bet Japan is way different in comparison."

Noel nodded and explained all about her life in Iowa. A place which, unsurprisingly, none of them had ever heard of. Still, they listened eagerly, especially Miyuki, who had aspirations of moving to America —one of the big cities, like New York or Chicago. She didn't think she'd enjoyed the more rustic lifestyle of Davenfield. Though Noel strategically left out any mention of her family history.

Noel was happy to have made friends. She could tell they were good people, which is why she could never tell them. It would make it even more painful if they ever found out the truth about her. They would hate her; think she was a weirdo, just like the rest of them. So, she would not tell Mifune about Azrath or the curse—any of it—no matter how weird her life got.

Mifune looked at her with concern. Undoubtedly, her mind was filled with ways she could help Noel master katakana.

"Well, just let me know if you're having trouble, Haru-chan," she said with one of her crooked-tooth smiles.

Noel nodded and smiled back. She was conflicted. On the one hand, she wanted to keep what little she had begun to build of her new life in Tokyo, but on the other, there was a morbid curiosity and desire to help poor little Azrath burning somewhere deep within her. After all, he was also in a completely unfamiliar place, just trying to make sense of everything. On the other, she felt she was partially to blame for the curse possibly transforming him. She also couldn't shake the feeling that Azrath was not out of her life quite yet, that there was something big for the both of them in the near future. Maybe she would tell her friends one day if all this turned out to be nothing.

Noel had no clubs to go to after school yet—though not from a lack of trying on her friends' part—so she was alone when she reached the row of trees. She thought about stopping to see if Azrath was waiting for her in those trees, but she made herself keep walking, not wanting to get her hopes up. Then she heard a familiar childish voice:

"Wait, come back!"

She felt a bizarre mix of fear and excitement fill her, like the rush of butterflies that came before public speaking. Noel turned to see the empty sidewalk behind her. She almost ran to the ginkgo trees, looking up at their branches.

"You've kept me waiting, Noel. I need your help."

There he sat, on the lowest branch of a tree to her left, golden pen tucked under his wings. Despite her conflict, Noel couldn't help but smile.