Monday Spring Quarter 2016 Week 1
Literature was my final class of the day. After sleeping early yesterday, I felt energized, ready for the new quarter. I walked into the classroom and saw someone familiar.
“Zhuyu?” I called out his name, seeing the man flip through pages of his notebook.
“Hey Tomo. You’re in this class, too?” he asked, returning to the first page and writing down a title in his hand-drawn table of contents.
“Lit 320, right?” I questioned, sitting in front of him.
“That would be it,” Zhuyu confirmed.
“Did you just have a class in here?” I inquired.
“Yeah, I had math. You’re here fast too. You have a class in this building too?” Zhuyu put away his notebook.
“Yep. You know anyone else in this class?” I wondered.
“Jin and Jacque. I told them to take it. I had this professor before, really good lecturer. Goes on tangents a lot, but he knows his stuff,” Zhuyu revealed.
Three minutes before class started, Kisai and Jacque entered.
“Oh damn, Tomo’s in this class too?” Jacque chose a desk to the left of Zhuyu.
“Nice. Did Long tell you about this class too?” Kisai sat on the opposite side of the zero vector user.
“No, I needed a writing credit and there were good ratings for the professor,” I explained.
The buzzer rang, signaling the start of class, but the professor didn’t show up yet. Zhuyu nodded with a knowing look on his face.
“He was like this when I took his class last time. He usually comes in late, maybe another five minutes,” Zhuyu informed us.
“Bro, you serious? Man, I didn’t even have to come to class so early,” Jacque lamented.
The professor arrived five minutes late just like Zhuyu predicted. He was an older instructor, with poofy white hair and a small potbelly, around sixty years old.
“Sorry for being late everyone. I had some business to take care of and got delayed. Let’s see, any working markers in here? I hope everyone is in the right class. Lit 320 with Professor Rem,” the professor introduced himself, checking all the markers.
He handed out syllabuses and made sure everyone organized them in the right order. There were a total of three pages, but he didn’t staple them, which caused confusion for the class.
“The pages aren’t stapled but you should only have three pages. The numbers are on the top. I separated them….,” Professor Rem explained, confusing us even more.
“Nothing has changed. Good old Professor Rem,” Zhuyu commented, checking the corner of the pages.
“Is it suppose to be like this?” a girl sitting near Jacque asked.
“You’re missing the last page. Here you go,” Jacque answered, handing her the missing page.
“Why doesn’t he just staple them?” Kisai compared his stack of papers with Zhuyu.
“Don’t know. Just the way he is,” Zhuyu replied.
Class finally started. The class was two hours long since we only met on Monday and Wednesday. Professor Rem began with history, covering the authors featured on the syllabus. Two minutes into his introduction, he segued into a tangent about preservation of ancient writings.
“Dude, what is he even talking about?” Jacque whispered.
“Don’t worry. He’ll get back on topic eventually,” Zhuyu assured him.
Jacque sighed and doodled, drawing random pictures on his notebook page. Kisai didn’t even take one out, staring up at the board every few minutes. The first hour of class finally concluded and Professor Rem called for a ten minute break. Half of the class left, already knowing they could get away with skipping. Zhuyu, Jacque, and Kisai remained in the classroom. Zhuyu took notes, but even he appeared bored. Crap, my notes were everywhere. What should I focus on?
“Don’t worry. His tests are just matching stories to phrases. There’s no final either, just an essay,” Zhuyu explained the structure of the class.
“You’re saying I don’t need notes?” Jacque closed his notebook.
“His lectures help for the essays we need to write. He also mentions what you should focus on in the books. But yeah, he doesn’t test us on anything that’s up on the board,” Zhuyu answered.
“That doesn’t sound bad,” Kisai remarked, glancing up from his phone.
Near the end of class, Jacque’s head drooped down. He wasn’t sleeping yet but pretty close. Kisai watched videos on his phone, looking up at Professor Rem when needed. Zhuyu eventually stopped taking notes, listening to Professor Rem speak.
“We’ll stop here for today. Hopefully the bookstore manages to get in a few more copies of these books. I heard you can get it online though if you prefer it that way,” Professor Rem concluded, capping his marker.
“Where are you guys headed?” Jacque asked.
“Home. You going the same way?” Kisai replied.
“See ya guys. I’m this way,” Jacque replied, pointing in the other direction.
“Tomo, did Tess tell you to train today?” Zhuyu asked.
“Not that I know of. Are you guys taking the bus?” I inquired.
“Jin drove so I’m getting a ride from him,” Zhuyu answered.
“What? I didn’t say I would drive you home. Go take the bus home. I’m not fuckin’ giving you a ride,” Kisai refuted, a mock shocked expression on his face.
“What are you talking about? Let’s go!” Zhuyu ignored his friend’s statement.
I wondered how Zhuyu took Kisai seriously. It was difficult for me to discern if he actually was sincere without checking his accompanying facial expression. His tone provided a hint, but Kisai sounded dead serious sometimes. It didn’t mean Kisai was hard to deal with, quite the opposite. The man was easy to talk to and the most approachable out of all the heroes.
“Tomo, you need a ride? I can drop you off too,” Kisai offered.
“Uh, I don’t want to…,” I declined.
“It’s no problem at all, Tomo. You’re on the way, right?” Kisai pointed at the parking garage.
“I guess. As long as you’re fine with it,” I replied.
During the ride back, Kisai joked around with Zhuyu. He provided his friend with ridiculous scenarios, asking him for his opinion. Zhuyu, for the most part, played along.
“How are you guys feeling?” I asked about their injuries.
“Better. Tess is always diligent about our rehab so any minor injuries we get are cleared up fast,” Kisai replied.
Oh yeah, he didn’t wear his wrist brace anymore. Kisai dropped Zhuyu off first and circled back to my house. When he arrived at my house, I saw Mom standing out in the front with a smirk on her face.
“Hello,” Kisai greeted Mom, waving his right hand.
“Hi, thanks for dropping Yuki off!” Mom smiled at the man.
“See you later, Tomo,” Kisai said before driving off.
“Mom, you’re home early,” I observed.
“You’re home late,” Mom quipped.
“Yeah, I have classes that end late this quarter. Oh, this is the time you get off work,” I realized.
“How was your first day of spring quarter? You’re almost a sophomore,” Mom asked, opening the door for me.
“Not bad. My literature professor goes on a lot of tangents. Not sure how I feel about that,” I replied.
“You’ll get used to it, Yuki,” Mom said.
“I hope so,” I said, heading up to my room.
The same workload as last quarter. Chemistry and math were my other classes. Might be a good idea to get a head start and get Calc III materials from him. I should ask him later.
“Yuki! Someone’s here to see you!” Mom shouted.
I headed downstairs and saw Mirei. She radiated a calm presence, no signs of any ill will against me.
“This is really weird since we just fought yesterday,” I remarked.
“Don’t worry Yuki. I’m angry I lost, but thanks to Ace and Tess, I can’t do anything. I’m just here to see how you’re doing,” Mirei said.
“I’m very suspicious,” I doubted her.
“I’ve never shown any violent hostilities toward you except when you were in my way. Now that’s over. Since you’re handling things from now on, I might as well take the time to learn more about you,” Mirei pointed out.
“You’re just buttering me up, but I guess it’s fine. How are you, Mirei? Any side effects?” I questioned.
“No, but there’s a difference. I don’t feel a connection with my grimoire anymore,” Mirei revealed.
“Interesting. How was your first day of school?” I initiated a mundane conversation.
Mirei departed after chatting for a bit. She really was an interesting person. Although, I still harbored suspicions about her friendliness.
Tuesday Spring Quarter 2016 Week 1
“Yuki! So glad to see you again this quarter!” Felicity spotted me in the chemistry lecture room.
“I didn’t expect to be in the same class,” I responded, moving my backpack.
“How was your first day? Any cute boys?” Felicity questioned, sitting next to me.
“Unless you count Kisai, Zhuyu, and Jacque, then no,” I replied.
“What? I’m so jealous. I’ve never had a class with Long or Jin before at university,” Felicity exclaimed, looking at me with excitement.
The disrespect for Jacque. Come on, you should be excited about him too. He’s not some side character that you can mock. It was just Zhuyu and Kisai anyways. Then again, Felicity didn’t have the great privilege of interacting with the heroes every day.
“Sure Felicity, it’s really great having classes with them,” I said in a subdued voice.
“I miss having classes with them. Oh well, at least I’m in a class with you! That’s all that matters!” Felicity perked up again.
Classes concluded for the day. I headed toward the train station but received a message from Tess. She wanted me to meet her at the training facility. When I arrived, Tess and Jacque were already downstairs conversing. Jacque glanced at Tess’ tablet as she showed him pictures.
“Tess, you’re not busy?” I inquired.
“No. This is why we should train. Jacque will accompany you. Shigetzu and Ksi will join later,” Tess revealed.
“Where are we going?” I asked about the location.
“An interesting location. You’ll obtain information on the whereabouts of an Artifact,” Tess replied.
“That still doesn’t tell me anything, Tess,” I pointed out.
“It is in the dimension Lionel was assigned to when he first received powers. The Artifact in question is important as Jacque does not have access to an ultimate weapon,” Tess explained.
“You cool with that, Tomo?” Jacque questioned, glancing over at me.
“Yeah, let’s get going,” I nodded.
