6 Meeting Another Student

"Kiro Midori? Pfftt!" she started laughing, covering her mouth with her hand, "Hahaha! Like the colors?! Hahahaha!" she continued laughing for a while, even attracting the attention of the reception staff--who seemed slightly scared of her--and Kureo. Finally, after what seemed like an overly long time to be laughing over something that wasn't a joke, the girl stopped before wiping an imaginary tear from her eye, "Ah~ That was funny, Ki-chan. Though I must say, your name suits you!*"

(*A/N - His name literally means Yellow (Kiro) Green (Midori), and he has Yellow Eyes and Green Hair, so his name suits him. Sue me :P)

Feeling slightly annoyed with how she just laughed at my name, I kept a straight face as I ground my fist into her head 'lightly'.

"Ow! What was that for, Ki-chan!?" she looked aggrieved as she looked up at me with indignant eyes. I just took a page from Kureo's book and kept an innocent and calm face as I looked at her with mock confusion.

"I don't know what you're on about, shorty," I smirked toward the end of my sentence but went back to my passive face purely to mess with her and make her think if she ever saw it. Looking at the girl's very petite frame I wondered why I felt any dread from her earlier. I was about 143cm tall which is above average for a 9-year-old, while this girl in front of me was a whole half a foot shorter than me.

Her eye twitched as she grabbed my collar, trying and failing to pull me down to her level but this failure didn't stop her as she looked at me with eyes that had gone slightly bloodshot from glaring at me so hard.

"My height is completely average, got it? I'm not short, I'm just waiting for a growth spurt is all," her voice was incredibly serious and seeing her like this, I couldn't help but crack a smile which seemed to really set her off, "You think this is funny, broccoli head?!"

Hearing her my smile disappeared as I felt oddly annoyed by what she said.

Grabbing her collar and bringing her to my eye level, I glared at the crazy shorty in front of me, "You wanna fight or something, shorty?!" I felt one of my eyes squint while the other opened up further, showing the whites of my eyes fully.

...I may have picked up a bad habit from Kureo Mado-jiisan...*

(*A/N - Look up a picture of Kureo Mado and you'll see what habit he picked up.)

But despite being surprised by my strength, the shorty didn't back down and instead pushed her forehead against mine, her red eyes trying to bore holes into my yellow ones.

"Haah~? You really wanna start this, veggie?!" her voice picked up in volume and one of her fists drew back to throw a punch and as I was getting ready to throw her into one of the couches, a gloved hand came and grabbed us both by the backs of our necks.

"Now now, children~" Kureo's tired voice came out as he put us down a bit of distance away from each other, or at least enough distance that he could stop us before either of us could cross the distance and attack the other, "You should be getting to know one another, becoming friends, and living a fulfilling Academy life~ Not trying to maim one another~!"

Taking a deep breath I just looked at the girl with an impassive face. She returned with a small frown before averting her gaze causing me to sigh at the budding Tsundere--Wait. What's a Tsundere?

Oblivious to my thoughts Kureo started dragging me away as the girl went back to her console.

But as she walked away she spoke to me without looking toward me.

"My name's Tanya Quinn...remember it, Ki-chan."

I couldn't help but feel how lonely this girl was from her voice alone. I mean, with her personality, it must be hard to make friends, huh? Plus, she'd much more intelligent than her peers, so relating to them must be hard...

...Why did I have to be unlucky enough to be relatable to such a person?

Letting out a sigh I shrugged off the old man's hand that was dragging me and started following him on my own accord.

"...Where are we going then, Mado-jiisan? My room?" I spoke after a bit of silence and when he called the button for the lift.

"Yes," he said but carried on as if he forgot to say something, "Well, that's the first stop. Here's your key as well, brat," he didn't wait for me to turn to him and threw the key at my head with a sharp flick of his wrist.

...Damned old man.

Using my enhanced sense of hearing I heard the key coming at my head and my enhanced reflexes allowed me to react to such a stimulus, so I quickly moved my head to the side and out of the way before catching the key once it traveled past my head. Holding the key I looked down at it and saw it had my door number on it.

Room 409.

Looking back up from the key I looked toward the old man and asked him a question, deciding not to glare at him--What can I say? His eccentric nature is growing on me.

"What's the second thing we're doing? Finding your daughter?"

He clicked his finger at me and did a finger gun at me, "Bingo," before chuckling at my eye roll.

. . .

Overall my room was pretty good. One decently-sized bed which had enough room for two adults--So more than enough for me--a study desk with a bookshelf right next to it that had an assortment of books about Quinque Manufacturing and other subjects Ghoul Investigators need to know, along with a wardrobe with a lot of clothes.

When I asked the old man, he said something about the CCG providing clothes for me every year (in case of growth spurts), I just had to go to the reception and place an order.

Finally, I had an en suite with a sizable bath and shower.

Like I said before, it was nice. Especially the bookshelf filled with books. I could tell those books would keep me interested for a while.

Anyway, right now the old man and I were on our way to the Quinque Studies room as Akira (the old man's daughter) wasn't in her room and that room is the most likely place we'll find her, according to the old man. Her room was opposite mine and is Room 410 in case anyone in my head is wondering.

...Keep those screws tight, Kiro, and stop talking to both yourself and whatever you think is in your head...

My mantra over, I continued following Kureo through the facilities of the Academy. We'd already gone past a Gym and a Martial Arts Dojo, and Kureo had already pointed out the massive Library building to me.

The Academy was very much like a complex, with multiple different buildings all within proximity with one another. The Gym and Martial Arts Dojo are a part of the same building, the Library was a building all on its own. There were five other buildings: Three different Education Buildings, one for Elementary-level material, one for Middle School-level material, and finally, one for High School-level material, and the last buildings are for Quinque Battle Training and Quinque Manufacture and Research.

The Gym, Martial Arts Dojo, and the Dorms are on the north side of the complex, the Library's in the west while the Education Buildings are in the South, which leaves the East side for the Quinque-related buildings. The center had a field and a fountain in the middle, it was there to provide a place for students of any age to relax from their studies.

Overall the entire complex seemed to be around 500 or 600 meters in width and length. So, pretty big, I guess.

By the time I'd made a crude mental map of the complex, we were in front of a tall building. With my enhanced hearing, I could hear the multitude of machines working away inside it and felt pretty excited to see what would be inside.

. . .

Entering a room with multiple desks with many different kinds of weapons spewed over the desks, we saw a teenage girl alone in the room and obsessing over the details of a simple-looking sword Quinque in front of her. She was looking through some kind of magnifying glass at the minute little details of the Quinque and she exuded an aura of concentration and stoicism.

"Akira!" Kureo let out a joyful voice, very different from his usual tired sounding voice.

The blonde girl spun around with an excited expression, her purple eyes sparkling with the same excitement.

"Dad!" she, ignoring my presence completely, ran toward her father aka the old man next to me, and jumped into his arms.

While she was doing this, I used this chance to see how different she was when compared to the original series. Really, she just looked how she did whenever she was shown in her Academy days in the series. She had longer hair than in Canon, and she looked much younger and shorter, giving off a feeling of youth. Though that didn't stop the slight sadness I could see at the edge of her eyes, as if she'd cry at the mere mention of anything personal to her.

Mainly her mother's death, if I had to guess. But that proves she's pretty normal by Dove standards.

"How's my little Dove-in-training doing?" Kureo happily hugged Akira back as he rubbed her back. She, eagerly, pushed him away to answer his question and looked up at him with a shining expression but that expression froze as she noticed me.

"...Who's the kid, dad?" her excited voice disappeared for a more calm voice as she tried to put on appearances in front of me.

Doesn't she get it's all too late? I've already seen the 'daddy's girl' part of her. Well, I guess I can use this to tease her in the future.