Cp! Cp!
“This is the cssroom for css S1-D2. If you have somehow come to the wrong pce, now is a good time to leave!”
“No one? Alright, then let’s make sure everyone is here, shall we?“
A middle-aged man with ashen hair and a pair of gsses is currently standing in front of Michi and her cssmate.
He’s currently scanning through their faces with some kind of magic. It makes Michi, and a few other students, a bit uncomfortable. The rest, though, don’t seem to have noticed anything.
It’s understandable, since this is, after all, a Schor css. Most people here aren’t trained to be fighters.
After a minute of silence, the teacher nods to himself
“Seems like everyone is here. Let’s get started.”
Upon hearing that, Michi breathes a sigh of relief. The teacher hasn’t noticed Aya sitting in her pocket.
‘You worry too much. A Tier 6 won’t be able to find anything.’
It doesn’t even sound like she’s bragging, with her matter-of-fact tone.
Michi doesn’t reply though. She wants to actually pay attention this time.
“My name is Yamakawa Iori.” The teacher says as the letters appear in the air. ”Call me Professor Yamakawa from now on.”
“I am a Tier 6 Magician, specialising in Enchanting. I will be your teacher for both your theory and practical Enchanting lessons.”
”I am also your teacher in charge. If you have any queries in the future, you can come and find me.”
“Now, each of you should introduce yourself. We will work together for at least this entire year, so it’s best we start to get to know each other now.”
Everyone is going by order of the alphabet, so Michi’s turn will take a while.
Some students simply give their name, but there are also people who are more than just excited and would spill out their entire life story if given enough time.
There isn’t a single significant character from Rise of EsGod in css S1-E2. Though, that doesn’t mean there are no side characters.
For example, the top scorer of the Qualia Academy selection test in Akatsuki is sitting in this very cssroom. Well, top scorer in the Schor category.
“Good morning, everyone. My name is Mizuhashi Kurami. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” The girl speaks in a succinct voice, and sits down after that short introduction.
She has some kind of gloomy air to her. To which, Michi must say…
’Her name fits her well, huh?’
’Mizuhashi…’ Aya, however, seems to be mulling on the girl’s family name. She doesn’t say anything though, and Michi’s turn is coming up, being only a letter away from Kurami’s ‘K’.
She thinks a bit about how her self introduction should go, before just deciding not to think so much about it. It isn’t like this is a life-or-death matter. It’s the opposite, in fact.
“Hello! My name is Amemiya Michi. As you can tell, I come from Akatsuki. My hobby is reading, and I like anything book-reted. Please take care of me fromnow on.”
So, she just gives a simple one, which hopefully doesn’t draw too much attention, and that seems to have worked well.
After the self-introduction, next is the briefing on school regutions and various procedures like applying for leave or signing up for activities.
“All of this information can be found in the eQualia app. You can refer to it in the student handbook section.” Professor Yamakawa concludes.
“With that, we are done for today. Carry on with the rest of your activities.”
The moment the Professor leaves, murmurs break out among the students. This is the first day, so there is a lot to talk about. Humans are social creatures, so this is to be expected.
Michi, though, is still blurry on what the Professor just said. Her acuity for nguage only applies for written text, not spoken words. So, pying to her strength, she takes out her phone and finds the student handbook the Professor was talking about.
The regutions are simple enough, and Michi only takes a minute to read through them. What she is interested in is…
‘Schor students can apply for combat csses as electives? Interesting…’
The combat csses don't start until 2 weeks ter, and the deadline for application is until the end of this week.
And she is going to apply for sure. After all, the protagonist, Leonard Morell, is going to be there. While she doesn’t want to touch that guy ever due to his ability, she still wants to keep an eye on him.
More importantly, Michi herself needs combat experience. She has never been in a fight before, and her ability to use words to cause mystical phenomena has only been used for day-to-day convenience.
‘Just call that ability Word of Power or something…’ Aya says exparatedly. Truly, it’s not a bad name, so Michi adopts it on the spot.
Aside from her Word of Power, her Wind Control and Water Control was acquired a week ago, and she has had no time to train them.
Joining the combat css is sure to be beneficial. As for what ability she’ll be using? Wind Control is her choice, since it’s her strongest ability by far, currently at the peak of Tier 0.
She navigates to the application form on the eQualia app, but before she manages to fill it in, she realizes that it’s time for their next css.
Most of the subjects taught to first-years are foundational ones, with the remaining few being specialized lessons.
For her Enchanting css, the foundation courses required are Mathematics, Physics, Magic Theory and Magic Language. Plus two specialized courses, Mana Circuitry and Inscription, and the Enchanting course itself.
There are more than one css for each course, with different schedules, allowing students to be more flexible with what elective course they choose to sign up for.
Michi hurriedly picks up her textbooks before heading towards a cssroom, where her next lesson is. She definitely doesn't want to be te for her first css of the year.
The lessons aren’t exactly that bad, but the first day is quite hectic to Michi, who has not gotten used to the flow of things. That, and since it’s the first day, every lesson has a 15-minute briefing of important information, like the scope of the sylbus, the evaluation methods and such. And they are all different too. Each Professor has their own way of evaluating students, and they get to decide who fails and who passes.
‘That’s nepotism waiting to happen…’ That’s the first thought Michi has when hearing about this.
Though, it seems that each member of the teaching staff is keeping the other in check. If one Professor wants to give his son higher grades, for instance, first of all, that’s just one subject, and second, other Professors won’t just sit there and let it happen.
Aside from that small doubt, Michi feels that everything else is excellent. The school facilities are great, and the lessons are easy to follow too! The Professors here aren’t just experts of their respective fields, they are also experts at teaching.
She is quite satisfied with her first day, before she realizes she hasn’t talked to her cssmate even once.
Having someone she can comfortably have a conversation with like Aya, she hasn‘t felt the need to talk to anyone else.
”You better go and make some friends… Don’t bme me when you become an involuntary loner.”
Now that they are back in Michi’s dorm room, Aya is back in her human body. She is reading something, as always.
But this time, that something isn’t random internet trivia, it is the books that Michi has brought back.
“Just… Whatever. Did you find anything interesting?” Michi swallows her retort, before asking about the book.
This one is of particur interest to her. ‘Perfect Memento of the Youkai Country’ is the title, and there are 16 volumes in total.
Why is Michi so interested in these? Because they seem to be the chronicle of the realm where the Picture Scroll is sealed. Aya has confirmed this after some reading.
“Nothing yet. But look at the author’s name. They call themselves the Kamishirasawa Cn.”
“Kamishirasawa? Kamishirasawa… Wait, Hakutaku?” After mulling over the name, Michi suddenly notices the connection. The Kanji used to write Kamishirasawa is the same one that’s used to write Hakutaku, the name of a race of Youkai.
“That’s what I thought too. It seems like that pce is a nd ruled by Youkai, and the cn of Hakutaku is tasked with recording history, with that being their expertise and all.”
At that moment, Aya’s eyes light up. It seems like she has found something noteworthy.
“Oh, look! How the Youkai Country was founded. This might be important.”
Michi leans over to take a look, and slowly absorbs the content of the pages.
“The Youkai Country dates back 5 centuries ago. Back then, the Youkai popution was in a decline due to the growing power of humans.
”Thus, their leader, the Youkai Sage, created the Youkai Country using her ability. She separated a region of the world from reality and turned it into an illusion, creating a safe space for Youkai to live in. A human vilge was also brought in and maintained by the Youkai for a constant source of fear.”
Aya slowly recounts what the chronicle has recorded.
“From this book’s account… By today’s standard, the Youkai Sage should be at least a Tier 8… Maybe even Tier 9.”
She does have a point. Michi has never heard of a Tier 8 being able to accomplish anything like the Youkai Sage was able to.
Unfortunately, that’s where Aya’s findings end. Well, there are 15 more volumes to go through, and there is bound to be something that can let the duo find the Youkai Country. Michi really does want to go back to that bookstore one day.
Michi, having finished registering for her electives, turns back towards her school work. She is quite a good student, and can probably make it through with her talent and Esper Abilities alone even at this prestigious institute, but it never hurts to study more.
Soon, the room falls into silence, save for the occasional turning of pages or a pen scratching against paper.
Author's Yapping:
SpoilerI find creating the Academy settings, as in the professors, the staff, school facilities, lessons, and all the other thing pretty difficult. So it's a bit of a mess.
There are new names again. Let's go through them one by one.
Yamakawa Iori is written as 山川庵. Yama means 'mountain', Kawa means 'river'. Iori means hermitage, you can understand it as a pce for seclusions and retreats. If the word 'hermitage' confuses you, it comes from the word 'hermit'.Fun fact, Iori is the Kun reading for 庵. The On reading is An (あん), and it's used in the name Suzunaan (すずなあん). Me and my Touhou obsessions...
Next, Mizuhashi Kurami, 水橋暗み. Mizu means 'water', Hashi means 'bridge'. 暗 means 'dark'. This girl is originally going to be the clingy and jealous type, and her name is created based on this design. She isn't as extreme as a certain other Mizuhashi-san though.
And finally, Hakutaku (白沢) and Kamishirasawa (上白沢). I'm sure you see the resembnce. 上 generally means 'up', 'on top', 'high position'. 白 means 'white', and 沢 means swamp. Hakutaku isn’t originally associated with history, just that again… Touhou, y’know.
The Youkai Country (妖怪の国) is obviously based on Gensokyo. But it will be very different.
Also, since we are here, can I rant about how horrible the Hepburn Japanese romanization is? I personally use a fixed romanization for each Kana. For example, とおか (tooka, 十日) and とうきょう(toukyou 東京), here the とお and とう have the same pronunciation, and while Hepburn romanization denotes them both as 'tō', with the 'ō' denoting the long 'oo' vowel, I would use the one I put inside brackets.
To me, I can instantly see how to transte it into Kana, and back. It is just so much more convenient. Yet everyone and their mother is using Hepburn romanization, and now my 'Toukyou' is now Tokyo, and my 'Youkai' is being auto-corrected into 'Yōkai', and it is so annoying. And the worst one of them all, Tōhō, like please...
[colpse]
