"The meeting of the two creates a sight to behold."
*Lei*
After the ceremony, Vita and Yuzuki led us to our first class of the day, homeroom. As soon as I'd entered the room, I started perspiring, so I made my way to the closest window. One could barely walk through the aisles without bumping into one of the desks on either side. Whose bright idea was it to make this into a classroom? It was barely big enough for our class, but we had to also share it with our upperclassmen from other countries. With a school as big as Nine Petal, one would've expected this to have been a storage room.
After carefully avoiding messing the desks up, I arrived at the window and pulled on the handle. The thing wouldn't even budge one bit.
"Let me try," Iah said, rolling up the sleeves of his black blazer. Reluctantly, I took a seat to let him pass through. He grabbed the handle, giving it his best shot at unlocking it, but the thing just let out an eerie creak.
"Slow down," Adela warned as she opened another window. "You're going to break it." As soon as she said that, a chunk of metal flew past her. "Do you even listen?"
Iah turned around and chuckled nervously. "Uh, you can fix that, right?"
She levitated the chunk that had flowned off toward herself. Closing her eyes, she heated up the metal slightly with green flames. Once it started to melt at the tip, she opened her eyes. Quickly moving it behind Iah, she reattached the broken piece with the remaining chunk on the window.
"Thanks for that," Iah said as he looked around the room. "Hey, weren't we to share this room with the other exchange students, no matter what year? I don't see many upperclassmen. I know for a fact that there's at least one other second-year student."
"Right, my cousin," Ayawamat said.
"And my brother isn't here yet," Vermeil said, sighing.
"The sophomores won't be coming," someone called out from the front of the class. It was Haroun. "Today it's only going to be for you first-years only. The only reason that Vita, Yuzuki, and I are here is to help show you around. If not then we would be sleeping in."
Vita laughed. "Tahoma still skipped out, though. Despite having served as a volunteer proctor at the exam."
Vermeil smiled at Haroun. "Thanks a lot for being here to help us, Haro."
He waved his hand. "No need to thank me. I'm happy to be of some help to you newcomers."
"So, it's first-year orientation day?" I asked, blinking. 'I hope it goes better than middle school's first-year orientation did...'
The young man tilted his head slightly. "Not exactly. It's only going to be for us foreigners."
"When will we go see where we'll be staying?" Ayawamat said. "And what happened to our stuff?"
"They are here," Vita said, holding up her hand. In her left-middle finger was a golden ring with a rainbow crystal in the center. "Once we head to the dorms, I'll give you your stuff back."
"Thanks a lot," An said, smiling.
Hal snickered. "Really? She's basically holding our stuff at ransom. That's why I place all of my stuff into my own hyper-ring. Uh, wait. Did you even bring anything?"
He laughed. "Actually, it was only my sword and this pair of clothes I have on. And some food for the trip, but I finished that already."
"Wow," I said, leaning on my desk. "How did you survive on your way to Wahkan then?"
An gave us a proud grin. "Like any other true Aiefian would, by living off the land!"
Xue snickered.
"What's so funny?" An asked, blushing.
"It's just, I didn't imagine you sounding so... proud. You come off as rather humble."
"Oh?" he said, glancing around. "I... I see."
"It's fine to be humble," Adela said. "Being overly proud can lead to one's downfall. Just look at what happened to the second Celestial Queen."
"You mean Aquarina?" Hikaru asked as he tapped on his desk. "True. My brother met her once and said that she was one of the most proud people he ever met."
"Eri met Aquarina?" Yuzuki asked. "He never told me that."
Hikaru smiled at his sister. "Guess that makes me his favorite sibling."
Yuzuki leaned back on her seat and grumbled. "Yeah, right."
"Ugh, don't get started, you two," Zelde said, shaking her head at them.
The 'Mikado' siblings stopped, in part thanks to the door opening.
"Sorry for the wait," Ms. Key said, smiling nervously as she walked in. "I sort of had a chat with Koukyuu."
Haroun sighed. "Not again. You two are always at each other's throats."
Ms. Key's face reddened. "We weren't... Alright, we were. Anyway, enough about Koukyuu and I. It's time to show the first-years around."
"Let's go!" I said, jumping out of my seat.
She snickered. "Alright, let's not keep Lei waiting any longer."
Hal snickered. "He's like a rabbit."
"A rabbit, huh?" Nyima whispered, staring at me.
I blinked. Was I like a bunny?
***
We left the castle and walked through the cherry blossom garden where flowers rained down on us like some part of an ethereal dream.
"It's so beautiful," Adela said, glancing around in awe. She snickered like when she was little and had discovered something new.
It was nice to see her lighten up again.
Vermeil nodded. "It is." She spun around, causing the falling petals to dance around her.
"Where are our dorms?" Iah asked, looking ahead. Unlike most of us, he didn't seem surprised by the dance of cherry blossom petals around us.
"The dorms are on that mountain over there. The Kyuu Seishinians call it 'Ryuu no Yama'," Ms. Key said, pointing at the highest peak on the island.
'Why would they call the mountain 'Dragon Mountain'? As far as I know Dragons aren't associated with Kyuu Seishin. The closest thing to a dragon associated with the ruling Kyuu Hyaku clan is Orochi, the eight headed snake that gave their second strongest branch some of his prana.'
Ms. Key put her hands into the pockets of her blue jeans. "Once we arrive at the dorms, we have to determine your roommates. There are eleven boys and nine girls in this year's first-year class. There meanwhile are four rooms for the boys and three for the girls."
"So the girls will have three in each room and the same with the boys except for one pair?" Iah said.
"Yeah. If you can't choose who gets the two-person room then you and the person you want as your roommate have to fight the other pairs who want it."
"I'm fine with rooming with two others," Wanikiya said.
"I'll be sharing a room with Wanikiya," I said, wrapping my arm around him. "Now who shall our third member be?"
"I don't have an issue with sharing my room with anyone," Nyima said as some of the girls such as Sarah and Nahimana grumbled.
"We should room together," Adela said. "We're going to be teammates so this will be a bonding experience."
"That's if we don't kill one another."
Adela laughed. "I won't kill you unless you try to kill me. I'm low-maintenance, so I can clean after myself. Though you should know that by now, since we spent the past few days as roommates."
"Would you mind having me as your roommate?" Zelde said.
"Our teammate is rooming with one of yours, so it'll be fitting," Nyima said.
Iah walked over to Wanikiya and me. "I guess I'll room with these two to balance things out with the girls in our teams."
Alto and put an arm around Ulissis. "He and I will be roommates," Alto said.
Hikaru walked over to them. "You two appear quiet, so I don't think we'll have any issues."
Alto smiled at us. "I assume that those other guys are annoying to have as roommates?"
He nodded. "Especially Lei."
I crossed my arms and huffed. "So that's what you think of your babyhood friend!"
Hikaru smiled at me. "It's because we've known each other for so long that I need some space."
"Then Vermeil, and I will room with Yen," Arima said.
"I'm fine with that," Yen said.
"That leaves Xue, Sarah, and Nahimana as the last triad of girls," Ms. Key said, glancing over at the Shui princess.
"I guess that'll be fine," Sarah said, sighing. "Could've been worse."
Vermeil snickered. "Awww, are you saying that you wanted to be roommates with me?"
Sarah flipped her long blue hair, scoffing. "Yeah, right. You're the only one among the girls whom I would hate to room with."
The blond snickered. "I thought so." She glanced at the remaining boys. "So who will all of you pair up with?"
"I'll room with Nuk and An," Hal said, putting his arms around both of their necks.
Nuk snickered. "Sure."
"That sounds like a nightmare," Sarah said under her breath.
"Oh?" Hal said, chuckling. "We are your biggest annoyances, aren't we?"
She nodded. "You truly are."
"How hurtful," Nuk said, touching his heart and shaking his head.
"It sure is," An said, sighing. "Being lumped in with you two."
"Ouch," Nuk and Hal said in unison.
Sarah covered her mouth with one hand, stiffing a laugh. "Well, he might be right."
My brother grumbled and ran ahead.
"I guess that leaves Ayawamat and me," Orion said, smiling at his old 'friend'.
"Tsk. How irritating," Ayawamat said, grumbling. "Couldn't I just have a room for myself?"
"No," Ms. Key said. "There aren't enough. Actually, you two have another roommate."
"What? Who?"
"You'll see," she said, smiling. "Just know that he's one of the second-years."
"A second year?" Orion asked, blinking.
Was it one we met already?
"You two will be staying in a dorm different from the others too," Ms. Key said. "Yuzuki, can you escort these two to their dorm?"
Yuzuki nodded. "Sure." She glanced up at the mountain overhead. She furrowed her brow. "Lei, will you be alright? Teacher, is there an aerial tram, or even an elevator to take?"
I waved my hand at her. "I'll be fine," I said, shrugging. "I've climbed up mountains before."
"Yeah, but..." Yuzuki lowered her head. "Just take it easy, okay?" She glanced at Ayawamat and Orion. "Follow me, you two. Our dorm is on a different path from theirs."
The two followed after her and vanished up the cobble stone steps and later the forest.
We too climbed the steps, but instead of veering right we continued forward. The farther up we climbed, the more difficult it had become to breathe, and not just for me, but for everyone. I had to take out my inhaler as the air thinned out.
"Your asthma, it's rare to meet one with that condition these days."
'Way to make me feel worse!'
"I know that it's uncommon. I wish that there was some way to treat it beyond using this inhaler."
Arima rubbed her chin. "Perhaps we could find a cure during our time here."
My eyes sparkled. "What? Do you mean it? When do we begin finding out?"
Arima lowered her arms. "It would take a lot of work. I probably won't be able to do it on my own."
"Adela is good at making potions," I said, glancing at Adela. She avoided my hopeful glance.
'Is something wrong? Is there something she doesn't want to tell me? Could it be that... No, there has to be a way. Right?'
"Is something the matter, Adela?" I asked.
Adela averted looking directly at me. "I don't think you should get your hopes up. It's easy to make potions to restore prana and to cure colds, but to cure something like Asthma? That isn't all that easy. It will take years more of work for me to develop a permanent cure for you."
"I don't care," I said. I truly didn't care how long it took, at this point I just wanted to get rid of it. "I'll wait until then, to get rid of this disability."
I gripped my chest. If it hadn't been for my asthma, I'm sure I would've won against Iah. Having to regulate my breathing cost me precious prana.
Arima patted me on the back. "We also have Hal and Xue, the two of them are very knowledgeable about medicine, too. Together, the four of us could figure something out."
"Yup, we sure are!" Hal said, grinning.
I smiled. She would make a good doctor one day, that's the impression I got as soon as she had said those words of encouragement to me.
"We barely met and you're trying to cheer me up. I wish that I had a physician like you."
***
[Years ago]
"The boy can't be cured."
"Is that so?" Father said, frowning.
I coughed as I got up. "Papa. That's not true, is it?" I grabbed the edge of his shirt, and shook my head.
Father had looked at me with his electric blue eyes, they were as stern as ever. He patted my head. "I'm sure that we'll find something."
"It's best to give up," the doctor said coldly. "Don't give the boy false dreams."
Father tightened his hold on my shoulder as he led me out. "I know."
"Daddy, brother," Yen said. She gave me a hopeful smile. "How did it go?"
"Are you getting cured?" said our brother. His name was Kun, he was the middle child of us triplets.
Father shook his head as he patted my head. "No, but we'll find something."
I slapped my father's hand. "Liar." Hot tears stained my face. How could he say that with a straight face? Did he think I hadn't heard what his response to the doctor was? "You just said that the doctor was right. I'm not getting cured...ever."
I ran out of the hall. Stupid Father, why did he lie? Did he think that lowly of me, thinking that as a child I didn't understand what was going on around me?
As I made my way to the stairs, my breathing grew weak. I had forgotten my inhaler with my father. I crumpled to the floor and I didn't know what had happened after, I had blacked out.
When I had finally woken up, I was in a hospital bed. It was getting late as the sun was setting.
Yen and Kun were asleep on each side of me while holding onto my hands. I could feel their prana coursing through me from their hands. Had they given me some of their prana to save me?
The two of them had tears in their eyes. "Brother, sister...your younger brother is a nuisance, isn't he?"
"You certainly are." I glanced up, the doctor entered the room. He had on a frustrated look. "Kid, you're fragile. You are better off giving up on playing sports and even practicing magic. If you don't give those things up then you will one day inflict great pain upon your family."
I shook my head, I couldn't believe what I was even hearing. How could a person be this cold, especially a doctor? "I will?"
The doctor put down his tablet on the desk behind Kun. "The next time that this happens, you might become brain dead, or worse. Though, perhaps the second outcome is preferable."
The other outcome...was I really better off...
"Brother..." both of my siblings said.
***
['Present']
Someone shook me out of my memory. I turned to see my older siblings, their eyes filled with concern.
"We're here, Lei," Yen said.
I took a deep breath and sat down on the cobblestone plaza between the two dorms. The white shirt of my uniform was covered in sweat.
Yen sat down next to me and handed me her water bottle.
Wanikiya walked up to me and offered me a hand. "Are you alright? You sound like your lungs are going to burst, and considering your condition that might just be it."
I looked up. My eyes were red. I smiled slightly at my friend and took his hand. "Thanks."
"Hello," a familiar voice said. Eien walked out of the boys' dorm. "I'll be showing you boys around while the girls go with Ms. Key. Now follow me, I don't plan on acting as your tour guide."
"Wait, let me rest," Hikaru exclaimed. His breathing was nearly as heavy as mine.
Sister walked up to him and pulled him by his arm. "Lei gets to rest, but not you. I keep telling you to train your body."
Hikaru sighed in defeat. "Okay! Let's just go. If I end up dying when I get there, it'll be your fault."
Yen scoffed. "Now you're being overly dramatic!"
"Damn, your sister is harsh," Iah said.
I snickered as my sister let go of Hikaru. "Mostly toward a select few." Hika, Kun, and I were her usual targets. But her harshness was also a sign of her affection, as paradoxical as that might've been. It helped keep me on my toes.
**Solar Note: Hope you enjoyed this longer chapter. What do you think of the interactions between the twenty students thus far?**