[fieldbox="Xenon Zhu, red, solid"]Xenon woke up with his hand already on the snooze button and a window in his face. Four days in and he was finally getting used to feeling strangely refreshed in the morning. After a scalding hot shower to ease his nerves, Xenon dressed himself into his uniform and combed his bangs into place. As a precaution to keep his parents from finding out about his nightly magic escapades, he had chosen to distinguish how he looked from school to how he looked when he went out. Granted, the only big difference was whether or not his hair was pushed forward or not to hide his ear piercings, but Xenon liked to think that it contributed to his guise of normalcy.
He had a light breakfast of rice, tamagoyaki, and miso soup accompanied by steamed baby bok choi that he'd received the other day. Oh the raging health benefits of bok choi, he thought sarcastically as he bit into the leafy green. As he was washing his dishes, his bleary eyed father walked into the kitchen and made a beeline for the coffee machine. "Zăoshàng hăo Ba," Xenon greeted as he finished putting up the dishes. "Zăo," his father replied gruffly. Xenon gave an amused look at his father's near death-like state. Well... I know where I used to get that from, he thought.
He picked up his school bag from the back of his chair, giving it a once over before slinging it onto his shoulder. "Wǒ xiān zǒu yí bù," Xenon said as he left the room. "Màn zǒu, Xiao Tong," a muddled reply followed with the whirring click of the coffee machine. With that, he left the house and made his way to school.
While he was walking to school, Xenon was mildly surprised by the sound of his phone notification. I must've forgotten to turn it off, he thought as he pulled up the message. Amagi... Rei... or Kei... or Mei... huh. I don't think I know any of those names off of the top of my head. Then again, I don't really know that many first years in the first place, he thought. I guess I'll just have to look around whenever I have time. Xenon arrived at school shortly after, his eyes glancing around for white hair, to no avail.
Morning classes passed along with no new developments, which Xenon debated as either good or bad. Though, if anything, for some reason, nothing was properly sinking into his head. Maybe it's because I missed last night's show? I haven't missed one in a while after all... When lunch time came, he took a couple minutes to eat as he thought of places to look. There's an awful lot of students here, so just looking around blindly doesn't seem very effective... I have a vague name and a description to work with, but it could still take a lot of time to find this Amagi Mei... Rei... Kei. Amagi-san. Then, it suddenly dawned on him. "Teachers," he muttered quietly. Every first year teacher was bound to have a roster of the students' names. Xenon quickly finished eating, then glanced around... only to find Artisia's seat empty. Guess she went to look on her own.
He made his way down to the school's staff room, when he ran into his own first year homeroom teacher. "Ah, konnichiwa, Suzuki sensei," he greeted politely with a bow. The male teacher's face was blank for a moment before he recognized who he was, "Oh! Zhu-kun. Konnichiwa. How are you?" Xenon smiled as he replied, "I'm doing fine. How are you?" The teacher reciprocated a pleasant expression, "Likewise. What are you doing here?" Xenon's head raced for a moment, groping for an answer, before realizing that he didn't actually need to fabricate anything. It wasn't like he was there to cause havoc or anything after all. "I was going to ask a teacher something," he replied honestly. "Ah, I see. Well, I'll be on my way then. Take care," the teacher said with a nod, then continued walking. "You too, Suzuki sensei," Xenon echoed.
I kinda feel like a fraud, he thought idly as he reached the teacher's lounge. He hadn't lied, or cheated, or anything. Yet, the larger underlay of his search somehow made him feel as if he had. Ah, whatever. I've got a job to do. As he entered the room, Xenon announced his pardon with a bow and made his way over to one of the teachers he recognized as a first year instructor.
"Excuse me, I'm sorry for bothering you, but could you help me?" Xenon asked humbly. "I'm looking for my friend's brother," he added. Just in case. The teacher looked him over, momentarily with her dark brown eyes. She was young, with fair skin and neat brown hair pulled into a high ponytail. It was likely that she hadn't been teaching for very long. "How do they look?" she asked slowly. "White hair and oddly colored eyes," he supplied. "Their name is Amagi... Mei?" Xenon cautioned a guess. The teacher raised an eyebrow at the sudden uncertainty. "It could be Kei, or Rei," he quickly admitted abashedly, "I forget."
The teacher's eyes lit up and softened at the mention of one of the names he listed. "I think you mean Amagi Rei," she said with a chuckle. "He's in my homeroom class," she added. Score, Xenon internally fist pumped. "Though, I didn't know he had a brother," the teacher continued, effectively ending his mental celebration. "Really now? That doesn't surprise me too much. I don't think they're on very good terms," Xenon lied. "Is that why he's always so alone? I don't know why, but he seems to have a hard time getting along or even talking to other classmates," the teacher gushed as she rambled on. She kinda reminds me of Ma's lady friends... Xenon thought as he observed the instructor.
"Well, that's why I'm looking for him," he gently interjected, "So he won't be alone all the time." The teacher paused, looking him over again, "What year are you again?" Xenon gave her a winsome smile, "I'm a third year. My name is Zhu Xenon and I'm in class 3-B." The teacher hummed, contemplating his words. Then, she gave a nod of approval, apparently satisfied with him. "I wish I could counsel him more, but really, he's so impassive all the time," the teacher sighed. "Ah, that's fine. It's not your fault," Xenon quickly buffed her, "Though, it would help me if you, by any chance, knew where he ate lunch." The teacher thought for a moment before replying, "I believe he goes to the roof to eat lunch everyday, but I'm not sure..."
Finally, Xenon thought. "The roof? I see. Thank you, I'll go look for him now... uh," he paused. "Ito sensei," the woman filled in. Xenon nodded and bowed respectfully, "Thank you so much Ito sensei. I'll be leaving now to find him." The instructor nodded again, "The pleasure is mine. I hope you find Amagi-kun. Good luck."
The moment he left the room, Xenon let out a heavy sigh. He'd never been good at dealing with over enthusiastic people, which made it his damned luck that his mother had a horde of crooning Chinese lady friends like Ito sensei. Anyways, time to go to the roof. It was a lucky thing that the school gave a full hour for lunch. As he made his way to the top floor, Xenon figured it would be a good idea to check his phone to see if Artisia had had any luck, to see three texts waiting for him.
First, he replied to Artisia: I was at the teacher's lounge. I was lucky enough to find the gamer's teacher thanks to Jian Xiansheng's message. Apparently, Amagi-san likes to eat his lunch on the roof, so that's where I'm headed now.
Then, he looked at Tian Gui's message. Xenon smiled a bit at the "elusive, secretive" part of the message. It certainly did seem to line up with what he had gleaned from Ito sensei previously. He didn't really feel the need to reply to the text, since, assuming that Artisia received the message as well, she would be able to vouch for his arrival if he was late.
Last was Shouko's message: Hello Koizumi-san. Jian-san found the new gamer's name through a friend last night. He also sent a message saying that Amagi-san (the gamer) would like to meet us at Gekkoukan's track and field area at 1:30, so if you can, I recommend making your way to the school.
Upon opening the door to the roof exit, Xenon found the roof filled with it's usual crowd of students, idly eating lunch together as they chatted along. Then, he noticed a rather familiar presence . "Jian Xiansheng," he said in a surprised tone as he approached the other gamer. "I didn't expect you to be here," he said. Xenon looked around the roof, checking to see if there was anyone else around, "Are the others here too?"[/fieldbox]