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There were rumors about a new student in their class, so the 2-3 classroom was rowdier than usual. It seems they were gonna show up later into class, so they were waiting in anticipation, teacher included. Everyone was dead set on their own idea of who and what the new student would be, so when the door slid open it elicited a different reaction from each of the students(and their cowardly teacher).
So when it was Dr. Takahashi who waltzed through the door, it was needless to say everyone was rather confused. He beckons Haruaki to him, and whispers something into his ear. The classroom fell into their own whispered conversations as the two adults whispered to each other, the doctor eventually pulling away as Haruaki nodded in what was either understanding or agreement. Takahashi walked out of the room, singing out a “Farewell!”.
With his exit was the entrance of what was most definitely the aforementioned new student, someone who couldn’t be more than 152 centimeters, and had remarkably flashy hair.
Their appearance in general was considerably showy, which didn’t quite match the look on their face. As her eyes surveyed her new youkai classmates’ appearances, her expression matched the one that humans would make having seen them. Her eyes darted back to Kuniko, who was just as shocked to see them.
“Aiya-chan!?”
“Kuniko-rin…!”
The gashadokuro practically jumped out of her seat to meet ‘Aiya’ at the front. By the fact they were on a first name basis, they seemed rather close. “You didn’t tell me you were in my class!” Kuniko exclaimed, it sounding both like a question and a statement. Aiya shrugged. “I didn’t find out until right now, so we're basically on the same page…”
They both looked off to the side.
— This couldn’t be Akira-san’s doing, could it?
— Takahashi-san definitely had something to do with this!
When they turned back to the class, everyone’s eyes were on the two girls. Kuniko turned a bright red before shaking it away shortly after, putting a reassuring hand on Aiya’s back. “Kuniko, do you know the new student?” Asked Yuri, confusion and a bit of dread painted onto her face. “I do! Aiya-chan and I are both under Akira-san’s care,” she explained with a calm smile.
Kuniko, along with everyone else in the class cast an expectant gaze onto her. Looks like it's their turn to speak. “Aiya Itou. It’s nice to meet you all…” Aiya had started, but seemed to be interrupted by Mujina and Nyuudou fighting again. Initiated by Mujina, of course.
Kuniko’s face scrunched up in frustration, before she took her full gashadokuro form as a way to silence the two boys quarreling. “Aiya-chan is introducing herself!!! Simmer down!”
It worked as planned… but in turn took out the main subject. Aiya swayed before falling on the floor with a light thump. Thankfully, they weren’t unconscious, but they had gotten awfully pale. “Ah! I totally forgot! Sorry, Aiya-chan…” Kuniko exclaimed as she returned to her human form.
As Aiya opened her mouth to respond, her vision was suddenly filled with her new nekomata classmate. Tamao towered over her, face leaning in close to her face. He had a curious expression on his face, like he had a question on his mind.
Turns out, he did. “Where’d you come from?” A simple question, but Aiya couldn’t answer it. The nekomata looked over to Kuniko, who shook her head, mouthing ‘not right now’. Tamao blinked twice, before moving back, finally giving Aiya the room to sit up.
“Sorry ‘bout that.” He muttered, offering a hand to help them up. Aiya stared at the hand for a few moments, before hesitantly taking it. Her mittened hand made his hand feel warmer, which was nice! But it led him to wonder why they covered their hands anyway. He looked to the gashadokuro again, who changed her previous response from something dismissive to a ‘talk later’.
Class went on as usual, and they learned from the class 2-3 roll book that Aiya is a dodomeki, which put everyone a little on edge. A dodomeki raised by Dr. Takahashi… This should be fun, they thought.
As it turns out, it is as fun as it sounded. Unlike Kuniko, who acts nothing like her guardian, Aiya seems to be just a different flavor of Akira Takahashi, from the way she responds to the youkai around her, to the way she never seems bothered by anything people have to say to them. One thing unlike their guardian is their lack of youkai knowledge. So, like her guardian, Aiya will try to fill that void by trying to investigate and dissect her youkai classmates. The more humanoid ones, at least.
And despite his human appearance, Ebisu seems to fall under the category of what she can’t handle, evident by the way Aiya screamed and hid behind Sano the second they looked up to see his smile. He had tried to offer them help with the classwork (under the assumption that she was as low-performing as the rest of class 3), as it was their first day and all! Good-natured one might assume!
But Aiya could see it. Though she wasn’t good at handling her powers, she saw the hatred the temporary teacher held in his heart for youkai. And although she doesn’t know the relationship between the gods and the youkai species, he was here, a god, and clearly despised youkai. Like everyone else, she wasn’t sure what a god is doing at a school for youkai. It made less sense than a human being here. But, she has yet to learn of Haruaki’s special powers that prove important to not only the school, but the whole class of youkai.
“What’s the matter?” Sano had asked Aiya before shooting a glare in his elder brother’s direction. The fortune god simply smiled in response. “I simply offered Itou-san help. Not sure why they’re acting like this,” he stated, looking to the young dodomeki for an explanation. They flinched, hiding further behind the blond.
“I can see it…” Was Aiya’s vague response. She glared into Sano’s nape, a cold sweat running down her face. And then in a low whisper, “The way he smiles... he can totally just kill me and leave no remains!” She backs away from Sano and returns to her seat. Their vague response left the brothers in confusion. Ebisu would think they would become a nuisance on the road, while Sano was somewhat satisfied that they were suspicious about him.
Aiya worked silently, well aware of all the eyes on them. Behind her another brawl broke out, this time between Hijita and Nyuudou. When a classmate called out “Hijita, how are you even doing that!?” Aiya's head whipped around in an instant to check the scene out. The dorotabou had somehow managed to turn into clay. Aiya’s eyes flashed with a hunger for knowledge that was only ever seen in Dr. Takahashi’s eyes, but as to hold herself back from leaping onto the scene and inspecting, they pulled at their hair until the pain overtook the desire. She turned around, hoping nobody was watching.
Unfortunately for her, there was a small group watching. And even worse, they weren’t minor characters. Sano, Haruaki, Akisame, and Renjou. If they weren’t curious about the new student, they sure as hell were now! Haruaki only knew so much about Aiya from the brief whispered explanation Dr. Takahashi had given them―”Aiya grew up in a human society, so she might be a little wary and unsure of youkai.”―was what the doctor had said, which told both a lot and a little about the new student’s character at the same time.
What he didn’t tell Haruaki was that this one sure took after him, which sure would’ve been nice to know in advance! Although she at least tried to hold herself back and not cause trouble. She also seemed to be a high-performing student, too. The assignment was to write a 600 character-minimum response to one of the given prompts on the chalkboard, and Aiya was already on her second page of writing.
The Japanese language teacher hoped that it was actual kanji, and not hiragana. Some of his students liked to pull that card just to fill up the space on the page! When the new student noticed everyone else had started to turn in their essays to the front, they added a final sentence and joined them. (And from what Haruaki saw from a glance, it was in kanji, thankfully.) The bell rang promptly after and Aiya made to leave quickly, only to be stopped by Akisame.
“Itou-san, do you wanna walk with us to our next class?” He asked, beaming. Hijita elbowed him immediately after the nekomata had asked that question. It seemed the mud youkai was back to being mud again! “Idiot, why would she want t’walk with a buncha dudes?” The zashiki-warashi who was right next to the dorotabou, cleared her throat. “Beni-chan, you don’t count…” was what Hijita said in response.
“And you don’t count as one of the dudes, your point?” Beniko shot back, pulling at his cheek. As the two bickered, Aiya gave a blank smile to the group. “Sure, why not?” Aiya’s response quickly silenced the squabble. “Wait, for real?” Akisame gasped, his eyes shining with relief. Thank goodness, the strange group didn’t manage to scare her off!
…Is what Beniko also had said aloud, practically reading the nekomata’s thoughts word for word. “Seriously, how do you do that?!” Hijita and Akisame said in unison while the Zashiki-Warashi wore a proud look on her face, hands on hips confidently. How long had they been standing there? They should be getting to class now!
Kuniko tapped Aiya on the shoulder. “Aiya-chan, are you walking with them?” she asked with a gentle smile. Renjou and Momoyama were already standing by her as they prepared to leave as well. “Mhm mhm, Akisame-rin invited me to!” Aiya gushed, her swirly antennae whipping around gracefully. Seems she’s got similar freakish antenna-powers that Seimei has.
The two (somewhat-kinda-not-quite-there) sisters exchange a few more words before jorougumo girl informed Kuniko that they should get going soon. The two groups say their goodbyes, and now it’s only the group of troublemakers and their moral compass (Nyuudou), and a few other background students remaining in the classroom. Nyuudou took the lead, opening the door. “Well, off we go?” There was a silent agreement among the five and then they were off!
“So, Itou, how different is Hyakki from your previous school?” Beniko asked.
“I’d say super different, considering there weren’t ever youkai at the schools I went to? I wouldn’t really know, since I never stayed at a school for more than one term, haha…” Aiya responded, a sheepish smile on her face. When the group went silent for a moment, the dodomeki cocked her head. “What?”
“What do you mean? Are you some sort of delinquent!?” Akisame panicked, turning full-nekomata and propping on Nyuudou’s shoulder. If this was his attempt at hiding from her, it was pretty pathetic, thought the rest of the group. Aiya waved her hands frantically to dismiss the notion. “Oh no, no! …Not completely, at least!” They laughed, and the other youkai in the radius jolted.
After Aiya finished her fit of laughter, it seems Beniko and Nyuudou caught onto the fact she was merely joking. However, that left Hijita and Akisame who thought they were dead serious. Aiya clearly has the same twisted sense of humor Dr. Takahashi has, and the same lack of awareness. Birds of a feather, if you will!
“Itou-san, mind explaining the real reason to the idiots over there?” Nyuudou asked with a smile, motioning to Hijita and Akisame. Realization finally flashed in Aiya’s eyes. “Ah, sorry!” She gasped out, before clearing her throat. “Well, I guess you could call it the consequence of having a youkai where they don’t belong! Causing unnatural trouble got me in trouble a lot, and made me an enemy of the students… Before enrolling here, I was put into 17 different schools, all of them I stayed in for under a year before getting expelled or withdrawing!” Aiya explained oddly cheerfully, causing the four other classmates to turn white.
She doesn’t seem sad about this at all?!
Nyuudou quickly composed himself, and gave her a smile. “I mean, whatever got you here, right?” Beniko nodded in agreement, wearing a similar smile. The mud youkai and the cat youkai followed suit. “Yeah, don’t worry about a bad track record! I mean, your new spookology teacher was a total delinquent and flunk out!” Akisame beamed, and gave her a little thumbs up (Still in his little kitty form).
The spookology teacher in question rounded the corner, grabbing the little nekomata by his collar. “Oh? What are you guys doing a minute before the bell? Get to your class, now!” Hatanaka-sensei yelled out, making everyone in the vicinity jump from the booming of his voice. The bunch dejectedly moved to their next class. Well, all except Aiya, who was held behind by the teacher. “Sensei?” Aiya looked up to him.
“Takahashi told me your deal, so you can take a backseat and just observe this week. If you have any questions, you can ask me at the end of class. Or, I guess, you could ask that doctor or Utagawa-san. Preferably me or Utagawa-san. Got it?” Hatanaka explained, his expression and tone getting more dreadful as he mentioned Aiya’s guardian. What could Takahashi-san have done to get him like this? So curious! Aiya thought as she nodded and thanked him.
The bell rang and the two jumped at it, quickly power-walking to the class together. “You can just pick one of the empty seats! I’ll adjust the seating arrangement later!” The weasel youkai said as they practically leaped through the doorway together. “Thank you, Hatanaka-sensei!” Aiya nodded, choosing a seat at random as the rest of the class teased Hatanaka for being late. Aiya settled in the seat next to Harusume, the amefuri kozou, and behind Sano.
By the end of class, Aiya had filled up her personal notebook 40% more than it was originally. She’s going to need more notebooks for this class. And for every class, really! Not because she’s invested in her academic career, but because she’s invested in youkai.
Time seemed to blur together, because before they knew it, it was time for lunch.