The foyer of the Spirit Chaser Academy was most definitely not what Nikko expected it to be. It was a large square room with tatami mats layering the floor and woven bamboo lining the walls, resembling a Japanese dojo. Across the entrance was an unmanned counter, with two doorways located on each side. After spending most of her days in the alternate realm in the futuristic cityscape of Mabaroshi, and walking through the elegant limestone architecture of the Renault, she would not have pictured the school of new spirit chasers to look like it could blend into ancient Japanese times.
Daisuke approached the counter, with Nikko following closely behind. Sekai and Yuuta remained by the entrance, still bickering amongst each other. Daisuke placed his right palm onto the face of the counter and tapped on it with his pointer finger twice. A shroud of mist began to materialize behind the counter, growing denser by the second. Eventually, the mist solidified into a young woman with long golden hair, pupil-less white eyes and pointed ears.
“Oh! D-Daisuke-sama!” the woman stuttered and blushed. “Y-You’re here early!”
Daisuke flicked his left wrist upwards, where a hologram of the time appeared. It read 8:27 am. “By 3 minutes.”
“Y-Yes!” the woman said quickly. “N-No! I mean… yes! You’re 3 minutes early!”
“Anyway,” Daisuke waved his hand in Nikko’s direction. “Kiki, this is Sugimura Nikko, the girl I enrolled into the Academy the other day. Her class assignments has all been prepared, yes?”
“Y-Yes!” the woman, Kiki, replied immediately once again. “Um… yes! H-Here are her equipment.” She ducked under the counter and rummaged around for a while, paused to look up, smiled sheepishly at Daisuke and Nikko, then lowered her head again to continue searching for Nikko’s equipment.
Daisuke flicked his wrist once again. The time was now 8:29 am.
“F-Found it!” Kiki yelped from under the counter. She rose to her feet and handed Nikko a thin, metal panel, the size of a smartphone, and a stylus. “S-Sugimura-san, this is your very own student e-book! A-And stylus. It comes with a free stylus. Well… the stylus is part of the e-book. I mean… it’s 2 in 1. Wait… t-that means it’s free!”
“T-Thanks,” Nikko took the e-book and stylus from Kiki. She held up the panel and turned it around in her hand a couple of times. “Um, how exactly do I use this?”
“Double tap any side of the e-book,” Daisuke said.
Nikko did as Daisuke said, and the panel suddenly split itself down it’s shorter length and extended to about a 25 cm length with a holographic screen in between keeping both metal ends attached. The screen lit up, with a text reading ‘SCA’ in a large font and ‘Spirit Chaser Academy’ in a smaller font underneath it. As the text faded away, an anonymous profile icon appeared on the left side of the screen, with Nikko’s full name next to it. A small rectangle flashed under her name, with the words ‘Please authenticate account’ flashing along within the rectangle.
Without further instructions, Nikko placed her right thumb onto the rectangle, recognizing it as a fingerprint scanner. The rectangle soon glowed green in colour and the screen changed to what looked like a home screen of a social media platform. “Wow, this is cool!” Nikko exclaimed.
“You can double check and edit your information in your profile as we walk to your first class,” Daisuke said as he began walking towards the doorway on the left. “Thanks, Kiki.”
“Y-Yes!” Kiki jumped on the spot. “I mean… t-thank you! N-No… I mean you’re w-welcome!”
“Thanks,” Nikko waved at Kiki as she followed Daisuke through the doorway. Sekai and Yuuta, who had finally stopped their quarrelling, trailed behind her and greeted Kiki as they walked past the counter and through the doorway into a corridor.
Nikko tapped on her profile icon, where the screen displayed multiple tabs including student information, announcements, timetable and other options. She tapped on timetable, and it showed her schedule for Thursday, which was today. A session called ‘Homeroom’ was allocated from 8:30 till 8:40 am. The time displayed on the task bar of her e-book read 8:35 am. She’s already missed half of her very first class.
“Don’t worry about homeroom,” Daisuke said, noticing that she was looking through her schedule. “That’s where they call the roll. And chill for a bit before your actual classes.”
Nikko continued reading through her timetable. ‘SC History’ was her next class at 9:00 am, followed by ‘Spirit Channelling’ at 10:00 am, ‘Elementary Combat’ at 12:00 pm and Elementary Elements’ at 2:00 pm. All her classes except for homeroom filled up an hour timeslot, meaning she had an hour break from 11 to 12, and 1 to 2 pm.
“Huh,” Nikko scratched her chin. “There aren’t as many classes compared to high school.”
“You’re expected to do your own training during your breaks,” Daisuke said.
“Expected,” Nikko repeated.
“Practice makes perfect,” Daisuke looked at her. “I’m expecting big things from you.”
“Way to pile a whole heap of pressure onto someone who still doesn’t know what’s going on half the time.”
“You’ll be rewarded for your achievements.”
“Are you bribing me?”
“I heard you like ramen.”
“It’s a deal.”
Daisuke laughed softly and faced forwards. “Sugimura, just try to settle in, ok? I know you’re still new to this whole thing, so take it at your own pace. Everyone learns in different ways.”
“Gee, thanks,” Nikko smiled at him.
They stopped outside a classroom. “Here’s your class,” Daisuke said.
“So… you’ll be waiting for me when my classes end, right?” Nikko asked as she held onto the frame of the classroom’s sliding bamboo door.
“Yeah,” Daisuke nodded. “Enjoy.”
“I’ll try,” Nikko replied.
“Make some friends, Nikko-san!” Sekai grinned.
“Yeah, what she said,” Yuuta followed up. Nikko saw Sekai smack Yuuta on the shoulder out of the corner of her eye as she pulled the door to the side and peeked into the room.
There were about 15 students in the class, who all stopped whatever they were doing to simultaneously turn their heads to face Nikko. “Uh, hi,” Nikko mumbled as she slowly tiptoed into the class.
A middle-aged man, seated in front of the class, stood up to welcome Nikko. He wore glasses, a white shirt and tie tucked under a sleeveless sweater and brown cargo pants. “Good morning,” he greeted. “You must be Sugimura Nikko.”
“T-That’s me,” Nikko replied. “Good morning, sir.”
“I am Professor Shunji,” he introduced. “Welcome to the SCA.”
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