| > You scored pretty alright! Your Charm has increased. Except at home. Your parents think 1st is too low.; [Open - closed to Perspective participants] | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 21 2014, 09:34 PM (493 Views) | |
| The One True Nobody | Feb 21 2014, 09:34 PM Post #1 |
|
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
|
This thread takes place on the day Exam Results are posted, but at a different time than Perspective. --- Chika Nakadachi stood silently in front of the exam board, staring at her result. Third place, behind Isoroku Mayoi and someone else and a name she couldn't quite recognize. And not far below her own name, Natsumi Aizawa at fifth. They'd both done fantastic at exams... this late into second year, that was something only the most overbearing of parents wouldn't see as adequate. Even Kyo's parents would probably have thrown a party for her if Kyo had ranked this high, and--...no, come to think of it, they probably would have thrown a party specifically because it was Kyo, who normally didn't give a damn and was happy to rank between fifteen and twenty. Speaking of, what had Kyo ranked? Chika glanced in the direction of the third-year results, but decided it would be better to check her fell second-years first. Since she herself was in class 2-1, that really just meant skimming down along the list from her own name. Hrm. Ryoichi hadn't done that well, but, since he apparently had a very poor memory, that was as easy to predict as Isoroku being in the top three. At least he'd passed, but Chika had to worry for the boy's future. He obviously wasn't pure Japanese, and when you combined foreign heritage with an obvious lack of talent, well... Best not to get hung up on gloomy thoughts like that. Next up was-- "Hwaaaaaaagh, I thought classes would never end!" a familiar voice groaned at the edge of her hearing. Chika looked over her shoulder, and there was Kyo, stepping up to the third-year board and craning a bit to looked down the class 3-2 list. She looked pretty much the same as always in her boys' uniform, but she was wearing the hairband she'd asked Chika to make for her--the one with the barely-visible butterflies and the little slots in the underside, two custom design requests that Kyo had given no answer about when asked why she wanted them. She was using the hairband to keep her bangs out of her eyes? Why was she doing that? It just made it even more obvious that both of her eyes were yellow now, and she wasn't even wearing colored contacts, either. There were bound to be questions about that, awkward ones, too. Chika blinked, opened her mouth... and then closed it. Ever since their time in the ruins, Kyo had been strangely distant toward her. Hadn't quite been able to look Chika in the eye consistently. At first she thought Kyo was angry at her for going into the ruins alone, but that really should have blown over by now... it had been over a week. And Kyo wasn't even acting angry, just... Guilty. She's hiding something. But just around me. The redhead silently watched Kyo's reaction as she ran her finger down the list of third-years, still unaware that Chika was standing there. As she did, Chika could hear Kyo talking aloud to herself: "Oooh, Hanako upstaged Machi, she is not gonna like that... huh, I got eighth? Better'n usual, but... ha, I got a higher score than Treo! Wait, no, he's been outta the country, of course I got a higher score... hrm... Yuzuki's middle o' the class, that's impressive for someone who keeps walkin' out... Madoka didn't do too bad... Alan! Ouch. Twentieth." Chika twitched slightly. Alan Casey. The boy who'd retrieved Kenshin's watch after it had fallen from the roof. The boy who'd lost an eye in the ruins because of her, just like Seiji had lost his fingers. "...Whaddaya think, Cereza? Eight good enough? ...Nah, I needta step it up..." This was spoken quietly, and Chika twitched again, giving the side of her friend's head a chiding look--why was she talking to her Persona out loud in public?! But no, she was taking her phone out now, and mock-typing on the keypad. ...That wasn't a bad save, actually. Anyone who overheard might assume she had just thought to text a friend or relative named "Cereza" about her exam scores at that moment... A moment later, Kyo looked up at the scores again, and blinked at the first name on the list in the class next-door to hers. A smile, part pride and part sadness, worked its way onto her face. "...First, huh? Way to go, Suzume! ...Well, I hope your other friends throw ya a party for that one. I'd do it myself but--gah, why am I talking t' myself?!" And it was only at this moment that Kyo glanced over her shoulders as if worried someone might be listening. She glanced over her right shoulder first, and then her left. Yellow eyes met Chika's brown ones and widened slightly. Chika tensed--she'd been caught. Damn. "Chika! Why didn'tcha say somethin'! C'mon, lemme see your score, how'd ya do?" The green-haired was by Chika's side in a flash, leaving Chika feeling kind of like she wanted to shrivel up out of awkwardness, but if Kyo had noticed that Chika had been intentionally watching her, she gave no sign of knowing or caring. It only took a few seconds for Kyo to whoop with victory and give Chika a pair of (somewhat restrained, out of respect for her physical-damage weakness) pats on the back. "Hey, third in the class! Good goin', Chika! Always knew you were somethin' awesome!" Kyo said, grinning from ear to ear. Chika looked over at her friend and smiled a bit. "Th-thanks... um..." And she looked cautiously around, praying that maybe one of Kyo's many friends would show up to distract the girl so Chika could back up and pull herself together. She felt like she'd been discovered doing something immoral. But it wasn't wrong, right? Of course not. She'd just been looking at her friend without saying anything. That was totally okay. Suspecting her friend of some sort of underhanded trickery, though? ...Given Kyo's apparent penchant for meddling in her friends' affairs behind their backs, probably totally okay, too... |
![]() |
|
| Yes | Feb 23 2014, 02:47 PM Post #2 |
|
Oriyama Ponpoko's face was in flux, shuffling between many, many different shades, shapes, and sizes of uncomfortable, none of which looked like (´・ω・`). He certainly didn't feel like (´・ω・`) either. The quiet boy had been standing and staring at Class 2-4's exam rankings for the better half of an eternity. He had left class early to beat the rush of people to the bulletin because he above all feared the awkward, claustrophobic cluster of too-loud, too-energetic, not-that-great-smelling students that always gathered around the rankings. He was a bit uncomfortable about how no one seemed to notice he had left. He didn't remember hearing his name called during role either. When he first reached the board, he glanced down to the lowest ranking student in the class and saw that it was... Junko Kiyoko. Not him. The very same Junko Kiyoko who had done a handstand right next to him before walking off to talk to other people without even glancing over or asking why he left class early. Well, he guessed that he was pretty forgettable, but— A couple more people from 2-4 jostled against Oriyama as they moved directly in front of him to check their grades. Oriyama gave a little yelp, but no one who bumped up against him gave any indication that they had heard. "Er. Excuse me." The group in front of him, three girls and two boys, poked fun at each other for how the tests trashed them. "Um. Y-y-you bumped into me." Man, were they glad that that was over with! They'd earned themselves a good long night of karaoke and plenty of R&R. The group walked off merrily. "Um. Okay." He sighed shakily and looked at the name for last place, Junko Kiyoko, and his eye meandered to the left to see her rank number: one lower than the total class size. A light sweat broke on his back as his eyes moved up from Junko Kiyoko's name, reading off every name that he came across under his breath. By the time he got to 1st, he hadn't uttered the name Ponpoko even once. Oriyama gulped and stared down at his hands, his feet, his uniform. All still there. He pulled out his student ID and saw that it wasn't expired. Did it have an expiration date on it to begin with? His name was on it and everything. And there he was in the picture, looking like he was uncomfortable being in his own skin! "Oriyama Ponpoko exists." He whispered to himself as he gave a blank stare at Chika and Kyo, who had been fairly rowdy for a while now. Oriyama Ponpoko exists. ...Right? ...(´・ω・`)? Edited by Yes, Feb 23 2014, 02:51 PM.
|
![]() |
|
| The One True Nobody | Feb 23 2014, 03:50 PM Post #3 |
|
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
|
Was that Oriyama Ponpoko? Chika's brain did some quick calculating. Oriyama Ponpoko was an acquaintance of Chika's own--if she said "hi" to him he would probably say "hi" back and it wouldn't look strange at all because they knew each other and that was it. She could totally say "hi" to Oriyama Ponpoko and not look like she was trying to throw up a distracting smokescreen in Kyo's face. Also, he was in Photography Club, so Kyo probably knew him at least well enough to want to say hi if she noticed him here. Kyo was busy reading out the names of other second-years under her breath. It would have to be Chika who took the initiative, but this would take spotlight off of her, most definitely. So Chika took a step back from Kyo and waved in Oriyama's direction, no words, just a small, kind of half-smile that didn't look terribly unenthusiastic at all by Chika Nakadachi standards--in fact at that moment, Oriyama would be able to hear the faint voice of a girl behind him whispering "Omigosh, is gloomygoose actually smiling?" For, yes, in all the stress surrounding Hibiki Kurosawa's rumors of promiscuity and the later rumors of prostitution that had popped up (they had fallen out of favor as the "thing to be talked about" but hadn't exactly died off), one bit of gossip about Chika had made the rounds and somehow managed to evade Chika's ear completely: That she was a complete gloomygoose who never smiled, ever. But it seemed the rumors of her self-esteem's demise had been greatly exaggerated. At that moment she heard Kyo mutter, "Geh, dammit Nana, y'let Spencer-baka upstage you? Where's your samurai pride?! Oh, who'm I kiddin', she doen't care..." Chika blinked, and glanced at the list a little too quickly--she didn't notice Kyo watching her out of the corner of her eye (and Oriyama straight up wouldn't be able to tell from this distance). Chika found Nana's name on the list and frowned a little. They'd been studying together and everything, though, hadn't they? It felt more than a little disappointing to see her ranked as low as 19th. And she'd been planning to mention her own score next time they saw each other... maybe it was a good idea not to rub that in Nana's face? Well, she was a lot busier than Chika was, but Kyo was usually pretty busy, too, and she'd made 8th, so was that really an excuse? ...What was Sachiko going to say when she saw that result? Would she be upset with her daughter for scoring low, or just happy that it didn't look like she was dropping out as the woman had so optimistically predicted when they'd met on Matechi Street that night? Kyo watched Chika's face for only a few seconds, and then glanced over her shoulder to see who she'd been waving to. Her eyes fell on Oriyama, and she grinned--a much wider, more energized grin than Chika's. "Ponpoko-man~! Oi, whatcha lookin' so rattled for?" And Kyo instantly moved away from Chika and over to Oriyama's side, almost as if rather than walking, she had risen off the floor a few inches to just slide-glide through the air. Before either of them knew it she was next to Oriyama and squinting at his class results, trying to determine where his name was. One thing was for certain, just one thing, and Oriyama could take comfort in this fact for the rest of his days: Kyo and Chika were both temporal anomalies that dwelt in the dimension between matter and antimatter and could see people who didn't exist. Or, maybe he just actually existed. That was a hypothesis pending scientific confirmation, though. |
![]() |
|
| Yes | Feb 23 2014, 05:51 PM Post #4 |
|
When Chika gave her kind-of-half-smile, Oriyama instinctively glanced behind him, half to catch the snippet of gossip from the other girl and half to confirm that Chika Nakadachi was actually directing the greeting to him and not someone else. As his head snapped back, he waved towards her, confidence in his state of being waxing. But as Kyo made her way over—did her feet ever touch the ground?—he felt his confidence sinking. "Oh uh..." Nothing much. Just having an existential meltdown. "T-t-t-today's just been uh... weird. Need to c-c-catch up on m-m-my sleep. Or s-s-something." |
![]() |
|
| The One True Nobody | Feb 23 2014, 07:30 PM Post #5 |
|
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
|
"...Huh," was Kyo's intellectual response to Oriyama's answer. "Well, don't let the exam bug keep ya awake at night when exams've been done and over with this long already. Make sure ya get rested up and stuff. Uh... which class're you, again?" For of course, since Oriyama wasn't listed on the board, Kyo's eyes had skimmed the entire list in search of his name--and hadn't found it. "...You're in second-year... right?" she asked uncertainly. "Oi, Chika, you seen Ponpoko-man's name anywhere on here?" Chika frowned a bit, as Kyo stood on her toes to compensate for her lack of height and squinted at the list. "I know I remember seein' ya in on most o' the exam days," the green-haired girl said dubiously. "...Um, Chika, you see it yet?" The redhead scanned the list, her brown eyes shifting from puzzlement to something like insult as she went from one class to the next without any sign of either an "Oriyama" or a "Ponpoko" to be found. "...They'd better not've forgotten t' grade Oriyama-san's exams," she said in a low voice. "Or I, for one, am gonna have some words for the faculty when we're done here." Kyo clicked her tongue. "Tch. I'll have some words for 'em myself. Ones ya can't say on television, those're the kindsa words I'll have!" |
![]() |
|
| Natscookie | Feb 23 2014, 08:03 PM Post #6 |
![]()
Shitpost Senpai
![]()
|
Earlier that day, after the pure catastrophe that her grade had been - second place, for crying out loud! -, Machi had suffered a minor mental breakdown. Unacceptable, she thought at first. Though, when realizing who she lost the place to, exactly, her mind was put at ease. Hanako definitely deserved the spotlight. More than content with the parting gift, the blonde girl decided not to be upset with the issue at hand anymore; it didn't matter anyway. After the following class, she decided to go scan the results once more to check for her friends' scores, which she had selfishly neglected earlier. Befriending way too many students at that school as it was, she decided to view the lists class by class, starting with 1-1. As she arrived, a few students seemed to gather there, though definitely not as many as earlier that day. She threw a greeting trademark smile towards Chika and Kyo, though her memory failed as her gaze passed Oriyama's face. Well, no one could blame her from forgetting one face she had met among hundreds, could they? Her eyes went past 1-1, finding Aleph in the eleventh position. Indeed, their relationship was strained, but that didn't mean she didn't care at all. Pleased with the result, she was about to glance towards the 1-2 sheet, though couldn't help but overhear the discussion near her. A name was missing? "Pardon my interruption." Machi spoke up after clearing her throat. "Perhaps we should bring this to the Faculty Office? I'm sure it must have been some sort of typo in their data." |
![]() |
|
| Yes | Feb 24 2014, 08:25 PM Post #7 |
|
"Oh, er... 2-4... It's... There. I didn't see it either, and... The thing... The class size... The number's bigger than the last place position." Oriyama said as he gestured limply to the 2-4 posting. "Um... I checked a couple times... But uh, n-n-nothing. Yeah it uh... it could be a mistake." He tipped his head up and down and felt the heat rising to his ears. Despite his large frame, Oriyama looked like the smallest person gathered there. He put his all into keeping from jumping out of his skin when he heard a voice behind him. His shoulders still jerked upwards and his head turned stutter-stop to see... "Ah.. Uh... K-k-k-kijimuta-san...?" The boy glanced to everyone around him. It was really nice of them to get angry on his sake, but weren't they kind of making a big deal of it? He gulped as he imagined Kyo and Chika storming the attendance office to demand what on earth was going on. It was awe-inspiring in a scary sort of way. "Uh... Um... M-m-maybe I can do this by myself...?" |
![]() |
|
| The One True Nobody | Feb 24 2014, 09:33 PM Post #8 |
|
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
|
Kyo was the first to cotton onto the fact that the sudden attention was making Oriyama uncomfortable. Chika--who Kyo had expected to catch on immediately--just frowned and said, "Wouldn't it help if someone went with ya t' back up your word? Speed things up--?" "Ah, alright, alright," Kyo said, cutting across Chika with a sort of that's enough, hold up wave of her hand. "If Ponpoko-man wants t' deal with it himself that's fine. I'm sure Machi's right--just a mistake, prolly. But dude, don't sweat it so much, yeah? It's not like y'can even get in trouble over this. If y'were marked down as 'absent' ya'd still be on the list, so if your parents ask make sure ya mention." The green-haired girl immediately pointed to proof of this: class 2-3, where the students Toru Watanabe and Seiichi Akamatsu were indeed on the list at last place, marked down as non-attendees. "Oh. Right," Chika said, eyes returning to the same class she'd been eying when Kyo had pointed out Nana's score. The sight of Toru Watanabe's name was certainly a bit of a sobering thing for the girl, if nothing else. She forced herself to look away, and gave Machi a smile of the same sort she'd given Oriyama a few moments before, and a nod of greeting. Come to think of it, she'd met both Machi and Oriyama in more or less the same way... by losing her cool during a break and hiding out in each of their respective club rooms on different days. Kyo slipped her hands into her pockets and casually rocked back on her heels. "But dude, if they give ya any trouble or anything, we'll back ya up," Kyo said with a bright smile. "Ain't fair if you get left out, right? Us high school 'brats' gotta stick together for the common good, don'tchaknow." |
![]() |
|
| Natscookie | Feb 27 2014, 08:06 AM Post #9 |
![]()
Shitpost Senpai
![]()
|
Machi smiled ever so politely as Oriyama seemed to recognize her, in an attempt of putting the boy at ease. A quick inspection easily revealed he wasn't used to that kind of attention, a feeling she once related to all too well. "I will be happy to accompany you, Ponpoko-san." She remembered what Kyo had called him - hopefully that was his surname. Not only that, but if the error was in fact quite serious, her status in Taiyoutono's food chain could certainly help move the process along. For just a moment, her eyes drifted back to the score board, to 1-2's to be exact. Her smile couldn't help but get wider once Machi noticed who was in the third position, out of pride. "In any case, this should probably resolved as soon as possible, lest it escalate and harm further grades as well." |
![]() |
|
| Yes | Feb 27 2014, 09:12 PM Post #10 |
|
"Eh, uh... Th-th-thanks a lot... I... uh... Don't know what else to say." Oriyama's face began to colour as he shoved his hands into his pockets and looked straight down at his toes, his head dipping down level with his shoulders. Realizing how he must have looked, he straightened up and struggled to maintain eye contact. "Uh b-b-but, I'd uh... I want to g-g-g-talk to them on my own. P-p-put myself out there. My p-p-parents have done everything for me, s-s-so just this once I uh... want to do something of my own will and power." |
![]() |
|
| 0 users reading this topic | |
![]() ZetaBoards gives you all the tools to create a successful discussion community. Learn More · Sign-up Now |
|
| Go to Next Page | |
| « Previous Topic · Taiyoutono High School · Next Topic » |
| Track Topic · E-mail Topic |
1:26 PM Jul 11
|









1:26 PM Jul 11