~~~~Hikari~~~~
I woke up from my little nap feeling much more relaxed with my headache almost completely gone. After stretching my arms while sitting up in bed, I quickly put my hearing aids back in and turned the knob to hear at a normal human level.
I looked outside the window to see the darkness of night, hearing nothing but silence. It was so peaceful to me, the silence being completely tranquil to me as there wasn't too much silence without my hearing aids in. Maybe here, I wouldn't have to wear them too often.
"Hey there first year! You awake?!" A voice shouted from above me. My head shot up and I saw a strange boy from my ceiling. He was smiling at me with his soft ginger hair tossed around as he looked down at me. But he was even weirder to me because he was smiling so calmly, like everything was completely fine.
"All right." I said taking a deep breath leaning against the wall on my bed, "Before I kick you where mother nature split you, I wanna know why exactly you, a boy I've never met before, is crawling in the ceiling? And it better be a good answer, because I don't treat peeping toms with a slap on the wrist."
The boy just chuckled, "A feisty first year, huh? I understand, sorry for intruding on your privacy, but I just thought that it would be nice to have you join us for a welcome to the dorm party."
I shrugged and motioned for the boy to come down from my ceiling. He jumped down in front of me and landed on his feet.
"All right then, if you'll follow me I'll take you to the room where the party is taking place. So let's going."
Isshiki walked out of my room while dragging me along to another room, room 205 to be exact. He opened the door and inside were the rest of the Kyokusei dorm members, including my brother.
There were several boys in the room, two of them being extremely rowdy and loud, both of them screaming at each other while butting heads. There was another boy with shaggy purple colored hair that covered his eyes. I could smell the scent of smoke on him. The last boy had short cut black hair, pale skin and large circle framed glasses.
There were two other girls there, too. One was a perky girl with a big smile and orange hair tied into twin buns. She smelled a lot like all sorts of animals, like chickens, deer, and rabbits.
The other girl was a calmer looking girl with long plum colored hair and... impressive assets.
Soma stopped laughing for a moment and looked over at me with a smile.
"Heya, sis. Glad you decided to come." He said as I took a seat next to him on the floor.
"Not much of a choice since I didn't want a creep keeping an eye on me from my roof." I said.
"He got you that way, too, huh?" I nodded.
"Hey." Someone put a hand on my shoulder. I turned to my left and saw the plum haired girl holding a bottle of strange liquid, "You want something to drink?"
"Yeah, that sounds great, thanks." I said, picking up an empty cup from a bag and holding it out so she could pour me something to drink.
As soon as the bottle was opened and the drink was poured, I could smell something strange from the liquid. There was the scent of rice and just a hint of cinnamon.
"Wow, what a weird drink." I said and smiled, "A non-alcoholic Nigori with just a single table... no a teaspoon of cinnamon. Am I right?"
The girl's eyes widened from my deduction and smiled.
"Wow, that's exactly what it is. How'd you figure it out?" She asked.
"Let's just say that I some pretty keen senses when it comes to cooking." I laughed and took a sip of the juice.
"Well, that's pretty impressive." She held out her hand for me to shake, "I'm Ryoko Sakaki. It's nice to meet you."
"Same here. I'm Hikari Yukihira." I shook her hand.
"Yukihira?" The orange haired girl repeated my last name, "Hey Soma, you called her sis, right?"
Soma laughed and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, showing off out matching hair and eye color.
"Yep, everyone meet my younger twin sister, Hikari."
Everyone stood silent as they stared at us.
"Whoa! I haven't seen a lot of twins around in my life." The orange haired girl said, "It's nice to meet you, Hikari. I'm Yuki Yoshino. That silent boy over there with the shaggy hair is Shun Ibusaki. The blonde boy is Shoji Sato. The one trying to beat him up is Daigo Aoki, and the one trying to keep himself from destroying everyone in the room, and the resident of this room is Zenji Marui."
"Nice to meet all of you." I greeted, then turned to the blue haired girl nearby, "And you're Megumi, right? Soma told me about you when we were walking up to the dorm. Nice to meet you. And I apologize for him trying to get you to eat some weird concoction. He does the same thing at home, too, so you're not the only one who suffered his disgusting creations."
"Oh, I see." Megumi said and smiled, "It's all right. No problem."
Just then, the dorm mother shouted something through the pipes about daikon and amberjack. Shoji and Daigo didn't hesitate to go downstairs to get some of the food.
"They're seriously going down?" Soma asked.
"I'm sure they'll be back before Ms. Fumio starts yammering on about the ten." Yuki said playfully.
"We've been hearing a lot about them lately. What exactly is the Council of Ten?" I asked.
"Isn't that Erina Nakiri girl part of the council?" Soma added.
"Uh... are you asking for real?" Ryoko asked as if we were joking.
"You two serious came to Totsuki Academy without knowing anything about the school?" Yuki added.
"Our dad chose the school and we went with the flow." I said taking another sip of my drink.
"Zenji, will you please fill them in?"
"Why's it always gotta be me?" Zenji complained.
"Oh, stop your complaining. Can you just get the new kids up to speed about the school?"
Zenji sighed, "Oh, all right fine. the Totsuki Council of Ten. It's an illustrious group made up of the ten top students of Totsuki. Most of the issues at the academy are settled through self-governance and all items are decided through a mutual agreement of the ten. It is the highest decision making body on campus, right below the director, which means that even the teachers have to follow the rulings of the Ten."
"It is said that decades ago, the rooms at Kyokusei were always full, and that most members of the Ten were often from here." Yuki added to the story.
"There was even a time when they held every one of the council seats." Ryoko said.
I thought it was pretty cool to have a seat on the Ten, but seeing that the Nakiri girl was on the Ten, I think I would stay clear of the Ten for a little bit. That is, if they didn't challenge me first.
Quickly the conversation raced over my head, since I didn't pay attention, but a loud voice brought me back to the group.
"I am simply delighted that we've acquired brand new students. We must share the bloom of our youth. Nothing could make me happier!" Isshiki shouted happily, "Now listen to me, we are adolescents living underneath the same roof, sharing our joys and sorrows. This student life is a blossoming of spring. I entered this dormitory enamored with that concept. Let us embrace one another and enjoy this time in our shared dorm existence!"
We all cheered and made a toast, welcoming me and my brother into the dorm. I looked over the a plate of smoked cheese and jerky, happily taking a bite. Immediately, I could taste the delicious flavors of the meat.
"Shun, this is great!" I said, "You used a perfect balance of spices equivalent to the type of meat for each piece of jerky. Then you smoked it for exactly eight hours on a low and slow heat temp. Though, I think you should use a light oil grate. The edges are exactly dry enough. Do that, that the taste will be even better the next time."
Shun stared at me in shock, "How did you know all that?"
Soma couldn't help but laugh, "My sis was born with a seriously cool gift. We called her the Heaven's Senses back home."
"The Heaven's Senses?" Megumi questioned, "What's that mean?"
I chuckled, "It's a nickname that the people back home gave me because of a condition I was born with. It's called Hyperesthesia. It basically means that I was born with heightened senses that got stronger over the years. That includes my sense of taste, smell, and hearing. Touch and sight not so much, but I have 2020 vision and I can feel a lot of different almost subtle textures."
"Wow, that sounds like a really cool condition to have." Shoji shouted.
"It's not as glamourous as you think." My brother said and pointed to my hearing aid, "See, my sis has these hearing aids that work in the opposite way. Since her hearing is increased, she has to wear these special hearing aids that decrease her hearing to a normal human level. If she takes these things out without preparing herself, she gets a seriously bad headache."
"Not to mention that I have to use a special paste under my nose so I'm not bombarded by powerful scents. My sense of touch is pretty weird too, I can get freaked out by strange textures. Not to mention my sense of taste, too many powerful spices could be bad. It's cool when cooking, but in the daily life as a normal student, it's not exactly a good asset." I continued, "Oh, and Shun, pretty good jerky. I give you an 82."
"Whoa, sis, that high? Then it's gotta be good." Soma said as he took a piece of jerky.
"82?" Ryoko wondered.
"Oh, yeah, it's a little game that we like to play. Hikari tastes a piece of food and then rates it on how much it rattles her senses, or at least that's how she describes it. She gives a score rating from one to a hundred." Soma said as ate the jerky.
We continued with the party and had a good time. Soma even brought out some squid legs soaked in honey and sesame. I didn't even try it and warned everyone to not eat it.
Eventually, everyone passed out on the floor, but my brother, and the guy who crawled into the ceiling of my room stayed up named Isshiki. Though, I kept looking away from him because he was completely butt naked, save for the apron he wore to cover his front.
"That was quite the party, huh?" Isshiki asked, "I would like to welcome the both of you again. I'm glad you two are here."
"Nah." Soma said, "The pleasure is all ours."
"Yeah, the party was a lot of fun." I added.
Isshiki looked around and saw that all the food at the party was gone.
"Are we out of food?" He wondered aloud, "Well, we still have some mackerel filets. I shall make something tasty." He then wiggled his butt and scampered off to the kitchen.
After a little bit, he came back with two plates with food.
"Well, here you go. Mackerel pan fried in Chinese pepper. Enjoy." He said.
Soma and I ate the dish and immediately I was overwhelmed with a gentle flavor. It was as if I was being showered with the bloom of spring season.
"Young Yukihiras." Isshiki said bringing out attention back to him, "I'm curious, there were a couple of things you said at the opening ceremony. Aiming for the top spot at Totsuki, might not be as easy as you think. Allow me the indulgence of reintroducing myself. I am Satoshi Isshiki, chair number seven of the Totsuki Council of Ten."
We stared at him surprised. A student that was just a year older than us was the number seven seat of the Council of Ten. But then I thought back to the Gond Tongue princess we met before. She was in the same year as us and she had a seat on the council.
"Now then, show me how you express yourself through your cooking." Isshiki challenged us.
And we didn't hesitate to take the challenge.