Chapter One: New Beginnings

I stared up at the school, a quiet whistle moving through my lips. I was impressed, to say the least. Koria Academy, one of the world's largest and wealthiest learning institutions, if not the largest and wealthiest. I grinned slightly and began walking forward. Everything that I saw was put in place solely to impress people, and not for practical use. Gardens, statues, giant statues... the works. The office, as I recalled, was in a building a little ways off from the massive main building. Nodding, I headed towards it. Considering the road from the entrance was straight, it wasn't particularly hard. As I approached the main doors, a loud bell rang, and a torrent of students flooded out of the doors.

"These classes are so easy... I wish they'd give us something harder to do!" somebody said to one of their friends as they passed me. Blinking, I kept my eyes and ears open. It was never a bad thing to be listening for information.

"Hey, were you watching Mr. Norga in gym today? That guy's such a pervert! He wouldn't take his eyes off of my Artemis!" somebody elbowed the speaker, hard.

"One, you're a pervert too, and two, Artemis is mine. So's Aril."

"Sure, Derek. Dream on." Continuing to chatter, the pair of boys moved on. Aril and Artemis, huh? I might just have to remember those names... Though, more likely than not, they were snobby rich-girls who wouldn't look twice at anyone less popular than they were. I couldn't stand those sorts of people; they seemed too shallow. Pushing my way through the throng of students, I eventually managed to make my way to the Office. True to the style of the school, the decoration was outrageous; gold was the preferred color here. More likely than not, considering how much it cost to go here, everything was actually real. I wasn't entirely sure if my senses were supposed to be offended or not.

"Name and purpose of visit?" a dry voice asked. I looked up and found a woman sitting behind a desk. Interestingly enough, she fit into the school's theme. A forty-something secretary, complete with glasses, suit, and that bun hairdo. I was sure she was getting paid to make herself look like that, just so the school could say that all of its staff fit in.

"I'm Rai Aquarius. A new student." I explained. The woman, bored, nodded and typed something into her computer. A few beeps later, she picked up a packet and a map and handed them to me. I opened the map, realized it was larger, and unfolded it completely. After glancing around and noting points I would probably need to remember, I put the map away and looked through the packet. One of the items inside was my schedule. Noted at the top was my dorm; Ryu Dormitory. That had been on the north part of the map, if I remembered right, as well as my Student ID. After the secretary raised an eyebrow, I headed back outside. By now, the flood of students had trickled down to just a few students, the type who stayed behind to do things in their classrooms.

As I wandered in the general direction of where my dorm was, I ended up passing a number of other students. Some of them glared at me, as if upset at the way I was dressed. They'd get over it; black was my color because I didn't know anything else that matched itself well. Stretching, I stepped up my pace a little, eager to investigate my new home.

"Oh, John is so cute!" a girl squealed nearby. "And he said yes when I asked if he wanted to get together sometime!" I realized, not at all to my surprise, that I didn't care. As I rounded another corner, though, I found myself staring at a dormitory of several stories. More importantly, however, was that it had a large golden dragon, one of those snakey ones, encircling it. The plaque over the door read 'Ryu'. I blinked.

"...Wow." I said, not quite sure what else to say. I checked the map and my schedule to be sure I was in the right place, then stepped forward and opened the door. "Hello?" I called. There was no response. "...Maybe they're not back yet." I muttered, stepping inside. I had no proof either way, but I was fairly sure more than one person lived here. Besides, school had just gotten out, and they probably had social lives of some sort. I took a look around.

Ahead and to my left was a large flight of stairs that lead up to what looked like the living room, and directly in front of me was a long hallway with several doors along the right, but only one against the left, past where the stairs made it impossible to put a door. There was yet another door at the end of the hall. I began walking forward, peeking in as I passed. The right wall had a nice-looking kitchen, the left a set of stairs going down. I would have checked it out a little more, but by then I had become aware of hearing somebody. The exact words were, unfortunately, beyond my ability to make out. Shrugging, I walked to the door at the end of the hall and stepped inside.

Moving completely on instinct, I ducked backwards as somebody's foot came flying at my face. I managed to move out of the way two more times, by moving to the side, before the foot slammed into my chest and threw me against the wall. I rubbed my head and looked up, then twitched. I had just gotten pummeled by a girl? Okay, she looked fit and nice-enough looking, and the long white hair was pretty unique, but it was embarassing all the same.

"Not bad... for an amateur." the girl said, smirking as she took a drink of water from a bottle on a bench nearby. "If you're here to join the Artemis Fan Club, their office is in the main building." This Artemis person people were talking about had a fan club? My opinion of her dipped lower. She would likely be unreasonably good-looking, but have an awful personality, all shine and no substance.

"Actually..." I replied. "I live here." The girl raised an inquiring eyebrow. After a moment of digging around in my pockets, I pulled out my Student ID card. My dorm name was written on the bottom of it. The girl shrugged, seeming more relaxed, and I put the card away. I stood up a moment later and held out my hand. "I'm Rai, Rai Aquarius."

"Your last name is weird." she replied, shaking my hand. "Shri Haramin. What kind of a last name is Aquarius?" I shrugged.

"What kind of a last name is Haramin?" I replied. This one evidently stumped her, because she laughed, grabbed a disc-shaped weight, and showing complete disregard for safety smiled and tossed it at me. I caught it and only just managed to stop my hands from slamming into the ground as it pulled them down. "How heavy is this thing?" I sputtered, struggling to stand upright. To answer my own question, I looked at the markings. It was a two-hundred pound weight, designed for use on machines. She had lifted it with no signs of trouble. I swallowed and set it down on a bench.

"Wimp." she said. "Ah, well, I suppose it was too much to hope for that you'd be strong enough to have fun with. If you want to train up, though..."

"Maybe later." I replied. Shri smiled widely and picked up the weight I had set down, sticking it back on the machine. As she began benchpressing on it, I quietly observed her. Magic-users, once fairly common, had dwindled over time, but not to the point it was unheard of to be one. Last I remembered, the number was that one in a hundred people or so could cast spells. Beyond that, there were a number of lesser bloodlines with unusual abilities. This girl's shocking strength probably had something to do with that. Interesting, and unusual, but far from impossible.

"You're going to need somebody to show you around, right?" the girl asked as she continued her workout. I nodded, just once. "Ack, I figured that would be the case. The others actually have social lives of some sort, so they won't be back for awhile." she set the weights down and hopped to her feet, grabbing her towel and slinging it over her shoulder as she began to walk towards the door. "Come on." I followed obediently. "Back there is, obviously, the exercise room. Don't break anything or I shall be very angry with you, and you do not want me angry with you. On the left is the kitchen, Mia's realm. Don't cause trouble unless you want to be hit hard with a Frying Pan. She's very kind and forgiving, but isn't a pushover. On the right is the baths and bathroom, I'll assume you don't need instructions for that. The pair of doors down there is the main entrance, and next to that is the living room. Games, movies, all that boring stuff."

The white-haired girl smiled and lead me over to a large flight of stairs. I followed her as we ascended them.

"The table over there is basically the gathering place of Ryu Dorm; we do homework there, talk about things... girly stuff, you know? Everything else from here on up is bedrooms. If it has a name on it and that name isn't yours, don't go in without an invitation. Ever. Especially if it's Artemis' room, that girl has problems as it is." So Shri didn't think highly of the apparently famous 'Artemis' either. That was good to know. "I have no idea which room is yours, though, so you'll have to wait until our beloved Dorm Dictator gets home."

Dorm Dictator? That did not sound good. What kind of a freakish place had I found myself in? "So..." I began. "Is there anything else I should know about this school? People, places, teachers to avoid..." Shri thought for a few moments, then nodded.

"A lot of people in this school are judgmental. If you don't fit in exactly to their idea of acceptable, then you are to be shunned. Ignore them. Mr. Norga, one of the Gym Teachers, you shoud also avoid; he's usually busy staring at girls like me. And tread softly around Artemis, things might get... troublesome... if you don't. Other than that, you'll be able to cope."

Artemis, Artemis, Artemis. Lots of talk about her; she was obviously very important around here. I made a mental note to deflate that girl's ego several notches when I met her. Shri stretched widely and swung her arms around a few times.

"Well, I need to get back to my workout." she said. "A girl has to stay in shape, after all." she headed back down the stairs, leaving me standing there all alone. I sighed. Well, things could be worse; it seemed like I had a friend here. I began heading towards where the bedrooms are, intending to search for mine. I had almost made it when I heard the front door open. I backtracked and looked over the railing to find a fairly cute yellow-haired girl standing in the entrance.

"Shri!" she yelled. The disturbingly strong girl walked back out of the exercise room. "There you are. Somebody new is joining our dorm today, and-" Shri pointed towards me. The new girl looked up and sighed. "Figures. Can't keep a schedule to save their lives." I began walking down the stairs. "Okay, you're early. Better than being late, I guess. I'm Aril Yelani, Head of the Dorm." Her manner was as brisk as her words. After a moment as she held out her hand, I politely shook it. "You can leave, Shri." the white-haired girl, on her way back to what was apparently her favorite room, stuck her tongue out at Aril's back. I grinned. "Dream on, we're all out of your league." Aril said, misinterpreting the reason for my smile. "Shri is just friendly to everyone. Your room is on the third floor; you get the whole place to yourself."

At that moment, for no reason whatever, the image of a white feather popped into my head. I quickly shook my head to clear the thought.

"Uh... I'm kind of tired." I said, trying to stay focused. "I'm going to go check out my bed, okay?"

"Sure." Aril replied, shrugging. "Just note that if you cause trouble for anyone here... ever... I will make you suffer for it." I nodded and walked up the stairs again. After a few moments of searching, I found a ladder and used that to head up to the third floor. Unlike the first two floors, which were brightly lit and quite clean, this place looked like nobody had had been here in months. I reached around, eventually locating the lightswitch, and turned on the lights. More differences were revealed.

The first two floors, apparently, were just for show. They were ornate, stylish, and well-maintained. The wall in front of me was just... blank, as was the wall behind me, and everything else I could see. On either side of me, the hallway turned, to what I could only assume were the bedrooms here. I chose to go right and followed the path once around the building. Opposite the ladder, all the way around the building, was a door that lead out to the golden dragon that encircled the dorm. There was a walkway atop the creature, but I didn't go out to test it. My room was on the left side of the dorm (if you were looking from the ladder), and after a moment, I pushed it open.

This floor might have been plain outside, but the room was surprisingly ornate. The theme was a sort of dark red color, with rich, plush carpeting, a comfortable-looking four-poster bed, and a mahogany desk. Situated across from the bed for easy viewing was a large flatscreen television. I swallowed, impressed. This was nice. You couldn't accuse the academy of skimping, that was for sure. After a few seconds of thinking, I took off my shoes and hopped onto the bed to test it out. It bounced slightly, and I smiled. Hopping up, I closed the door and set out to explore the rest of the room.

The closet was filled with all sorts of apparel, inluding several copies of the school uniform (which I understood was optional to wear except at formal events) and a number of casual clothes in my favorite color, black. However, aside from the comfortable furniture, the room was empty of anything that would make it truly a home, and not someplace you rented for the night. I hadn't brought anything with me, either. Well, I'd get used to the place sooner or later. As I flopped back onto the bed, a pair of wireless headphones plugged into a charging stand next to the bed on a table caught my eyes. There was a note on them.

If you are going to watch TV,

put these on.

The rest of us don't need to be

bothered by hearing loud noises

from up here at strange hours.

Besides, sound only comes

through these anyway.

Management

Aril, more likely than not. I was not at all surprised; that sounded like her. Stretching widely once more, I curled up on the bed and focused my thoughts. That feather that had made its way into my mind... it seemed somehow... familiar. Not that I was making any sense at all, even to myself. What kind of normal person has hallucinations of feathers?

I lay on my bed for some time before there was a rapid knock on my door. I slid off the bed, walked over, and opened it. Shri was standing outside. "...Uh."

"Uh?" the girl inquired. I shrugged. "Well, whatever. Mia's taking everybody else out to dinner tonight, so it's just you, me, and our ever-popular leader tonight. Aything in particular you want to eat? I'm not Mia, but I can still cook pretty well." I scratched my head and thought. Was there anything I felt like eating right now? Something tasty, something good, something... edible.

"I have a strange urge to eat pizza." I finally said. Shri nodded and crossed her arms.

"Pizza it is, good sir." she said as she straightened her back. "Come on, let's see if you have any talent in the kitchen. Aril won't yell if it looks like you're working." I raised an eyebrow as I followed the girl down the ladder, then the stairs. As we entered the kitchen, Aril looked up from a small laptop computer, reading glasses on her face. The girl pulled them off and glared.

"Hurry up." she said. I shrugged and rummaged through the refrigerator, eventually coming up with some cheese I could grate and some tomato sauce. Shri grabbed the sauce from me, as well as some flour and water from a filter.

"I have no idea if two parts flour and one part water applies for pizza, but oh well." the girl said cheerfully as she began mixing the two. I began grating the cheese into a bowl. "Make sure you get a lot of that; exercising makes me hungry." I nodded and focused on the task. Not that most people needed to focus on something so simple as a repetitive motion. Unfortunately, by the time I was done grating the hunk of cheese, it didn't look like there would be enough.

"Ah, crap..." I grumbled. Another packaged chunk appeared by my head. Turning, I connected the cheese to a hand, the hand to an arm, and the arm to Aril. "Thanks." I said, taking it. She merely shrugged and went back to her computer to work. I was feeling much better; she had her nice side after all. I supposed she was just the type who didn't smile all that often. This dorm would be much more fun to stay in, it seemed. It didn't take long for any of us to finish, and after Shri spread the cheese across the finished pizza, she slid it into the oven and set the timer for fifteen minutes.

"Now we need to find a way to pass the time." she said, smiling as she sat down at the table. After a moment of hesitating, I followed suit.

"Do your homework." Aril replied without even looking up. Shri stuck her tongue out again. "I saw that." Shri immediately pulled her tongue back in and swallowed nervously. "You had your fun earlier, Shri, and your grades have slipped a little recently. Except for Gym, that's been perfet since day one." Shri sighed.

"It's because the teachers suck." she grumbled. "They try to keep me interested when all they do is talk about the reproduction rates of algae on farms ten years from now. Why can't they relate things to interesting stuff? Then I'd do fine!" Aril merely raised a eyebrow.

"That's easy." she replied. "It's in the program to make things as simple and non-interesting as possible. Everybody likes different things, and they have to alter their lessons to the lowest common denominator so it's fair for everybody." Shri just stared. "I don't like it, either, but I can't think of anything better that doesn't involve far too many teachers. Now get to work; you might still finish before we eat. Or I could keep the Pizza back until you finish..." Shri ran out of the room. "Aquarius."

"Yes?" I asked. The girl's eyes flicked up as she kept typing.

"Why are you here?" she asked. I blinked blankly. What was she talking about? "This is a girl's dorm, yet when my mother told me that you, a male, were coming, she seemed to think it perfectly all right. That's including the fact that we have Artemis here, and she's trouble enough without a boy living here. Obviously, I'm not being told something, and I don't like it." I chose my words carefully.

"I didn't know anything was... strange." I replied. "I just got to this school, after all. The limit of my knowledge is that they assigned me here." Aril grimaced. "Sorry... that really is it." Shri came back in, holding a stack of books and some papers. Throwing a dark glare at Aril, she set them down on the table and got to work. "I don't plan on causing trouble, though."

"Oh, I'm sure of that. It'll find you anyways." the yellow-haired girl replied, turning back to her small computer. Shri tugged on my shirt.

"Hey. What's the answer to this?" she asked, indicating one of the problems. I looked at it and decided to read it aloud to see what they meant.

"By cutting down beautiful forest trees, a lumberperson makes $20 each hour. What do you think of his or her way of making a living? In your group, discuss how the forest birds and squirrels feel, and write an essay about it." I read. Aril stopped typing and looked up, this time moving her whole head. "You're kidding." Shri shook her head.

"Well, that explains why her grades went down." Aril observed. "Shri isn't good with people's feelings." Shri snorted.

"I'm still better than you." she replied. Aril merely shrugged. Grumbling under her breath, Shri began sribbling down an answer. "My group... came to the conlusion... that we do not care about... the birds and squirrels' feelings... because... we are... cruel, cold-hearted people... who do not care... about our planet's... future." she set her pencil down and nodded in satisfaction. "Good enough." the girl set about working on the rest of her homework as Aril shut down her laptop and put it into a bag. The timer went off, and with a wide smile, Shri got the pizza out of the oven and slid it onto the table. "Enjoy." she said sweetly. I had the feeling there was a veiled insult there somewhere, but I wasn't sure exactly where. Aril merely took a slice, blew on it to cool it down, and bit into it.

"Isn't it a bit... hot?" I asked. Both of the girls stared at me like I was an idiot. "Hey! It should be!" Shri shrugged, grabbed a piece of her own, and bit in. Narrowing my eyes suspiciously, I took a piece and almost dropped it the moment I touched it. It was hot, almost too hot to hold. The girls didn't seem bothered, though. Setting it down, I grabbed a clean plate from a stack of them on the counter and transferred the slice to that. I waited for a moment, then started eating again. It was a little more bearable now.

"Well, it's edible." our dorm leader muttered. "If simple." Shri threw her eraser at Aril. Aril caught it and set it down on the table. Shri grumbled to herself and devoured her slice of pizza, then snatched another and devoured that as well, glaring darkly the whole time.

It was a calm beginning to what was going to become one of the most important times of my life.

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