Chapter 13

Here I stand and stare, as I take my first step into a modern school once more after more than a decade.

 Academy city, as the name suggests, it is a city of several schools and institutions of higher learning from kindergarten to university level that learn side-by-side along with the scientists who research on quirk phenomenon and higher technology, the latter being one of the primary reasons for its establishment. It is the most advanced city in the world and its technology is said to be 20 or 30 years ahead of the world. Academy City is composed of 23 districts, called School Districts which are simply numbered from one to twenty-three and each of these districts have a specific purpose

Academy city, being a city-state independence has it's own government body that commands absolute power regarding policies, as adults have no say regarding policies being implemented. There is no suffrage since with a population of 2.3 million people, 80% of the city's population are underaged students.

The idea for Academy city was first conceptualised before the quirk era hence it was different from I-island in numerous subtle ways.

It is a place where various intellectuals gather for research and experiments established by numerous universities and research laboratories. These can range from vending machines to Security robots to scientifically grown animals and plants without neglecting the study of quirk phenomenon.

It is also one of the last places in the world conducting research on various space programs.

Schools in academy city are always bigger than schools in other prefectures save for a few exceptions like U.A. and I-island.

On the outside, It looks like a typical Japanese middle school, featuring a four-storeyed main building, connected to another building with an elevated hallway and likely has an accessible roof. On the inside is also mostly normal but with the presence of more tech. The only thing different is that class lessons are more advanced and the expected standard passing score went from 60 to 80. {A.n: from C- to a B+ I think.}

Don't get me wrong, Keine's temple school was fun. We had all sorts of cool lessons like practical herbology that made me feel like an alchemist or elegant lessons like calligraphy that me look like a scholar.

A modern school like this on the other hand, We had to sit on a chair and listen to a teacher drone on and on about this or that subject for a few hours a day.

Sounds like a total waste if I can just have some other head do that in my stead. But I suppose part of the reason for going to a middle school like this is social networking(no chance), or more importantly, surveillance.

I originally wanted to go the same school as Touma, the protagonist of [Toaru] franchise but I don't know, or rather, I don't think that the name of his school was even mentioned in the series.

But then I remembered that Touma was supposed to be an upperclassman 3 years ahead of me. So I just picked any random middle school in academy city and hope I'm not to far away when stuff happens.

Speaking of years, I made progress with my power during this time.

I'm now half as fast as those with an average speed-based quirk. Nowhere near fast enough to catch a bullet, but fast enough nonetheless.

My agility has adapted to the concrete jungle but I also made sure to occasionally train in forest so I wouldn't get rusty.

My Danmaku has reached hard mode but still far from insane mode. My spell cards are stronger and faster now too and I can now use head lasers. Not eye lasers, but head lasers. They are bigger, hotter, and they hit harder.

Not much progress on magic since, as Marisa told me, the grimoires can serve as a reference at best. I have dark magic affinity so I can do some curses and small jinxes and even a bit of light magic with my holy affinity, which I have no idea why I have it in the first place.

A rokurokubi with holy affinity, I wouldn't believe something like that exists if other people told me. It's like the equivalent of Dracula being a jacked-up, tanned lifeguard at a beach. Ridiculous.

I have a hypothesis about why I have it; since I am a youkai, and I also now have the family name of Recovery Girl, add in the recognition of the public when my 'origin' story was released, tied my being to the Shuzenji name alongside my true ties to Gensokyo.

I made the best out of that happy accident, by learning how to heals others.

Since I didn't want to make my supernatural nature too obvious to Nezu, I made my spiritual energy gush out of my neck where my head separates from my body in the form of black smoke. I then imbued the smoke with healing magic to achieve my very own recovery spell.

Recovery Girl was pleasantly surprised that my 'quirk' had a healing factor. I managed to convince her that I simply used the energy inside my body in a different way. Since I can multiply my head and use Danmaku, she and Nezu was somewhat convinced.

Therefore, like Recovery Girl, I go around various places in the country to help heal others in a bunch of hospitals because healing quirks are rare. I can use the experience and I get paid for it too which is nice. It's one of the reasons why my acceptance to Academy City was easier than most people.

It would normally require a ton of paperwork done even with connections and money but being a healer helped quite a lot. The only small demerit is that I have to work Part-time in hospitals for a set amount of hours every month but that isn't too bad.

I also kept contact with Marisa. Although she hasn't told me the reason why she left Gensokyo, she assured me that it wasn't any sort of fallout. We've also been helping each other, though it's more like a tutor-student relationship since she teaches me and I pay her for it.

Apparently, my visit to the Luna Nova Academy has yet yet to be approved. The Nine Olde Witches, a title for a powerful magic casters handed down since the beginning of the school, are extra vigilant to any outsiders because the old practice of witchcraft is 'forgotten.'

Witches have existed since ancient times, with some tracing the roots to religions and mythologies of the time like the Celtic, Greek, Roman and Norse, which eventually declined.

After the rise of Christianity, witches came to be persecuted by the church, who also spread misinformation to slander them and justify its actions. Particularly during the early modern period, they were targeted in large-scale investigations and purges, known as the witch hunts, with thousands of witches and innocents alike being killed, many subjected to torture to draw out confessions before being executed. 

Around the 20th century, Wicca, a new system of witchcraft was officially recognised by a magical researcher who was said to have dug up pieces of an ancient mythology or religion predating Christianity which ancient witches were said to be priestesses of, from before it was twisted by Christianity, and carefully reproduced the texts from before witches were considered villains, releasing his own collection of self-taught knowledge, doubling as a report on the 'truth' of witches.

Wicca has a number of taboos and rules which its modern witches are bound by, the most prominent being the Rule of Three, which states that the effects of any magic used by a witch, for a good deed or a bad one, would be returned to them threefold. 

These witches are also given a stack of blank paper when they start down their path and write down the knowledge they obtain in it until their death, creating their personal grimoire which would either be taken by their disciple or by the church upon their death.

So in a sense, Ancient witchcraft is heavily restricted due to its freedom of use and potential. Meanwhile modern witchcraft, Wicca, is openly encouraged by the church to those who can use magic so it can empower it's own ranks while keeping them on a leash.

'I was right not to trust the church. I said it before and I'll say it again, this world is crazy.' I sigh as I take my seat in class after tuning out the principal's speech at the opening ceremony.

My seat is located near the very back of the class in the middle row. The protagonist seat is two places to my left and behind. The classroom doors are two places to my right and one behind.

As the the other students took their seats and the teacher arrived, we started every introverts first day of school nightmare, the self-introduction.

One by one, the students would stand up from their seats and introduced themselves. After going around the class, it was finally my turn.

"Shuzenji Kizuki." I said in the most monotone voice I can muster and promptly sat down.

A few people gave out wry smiles as most of them seemed dumbfounded. The teacher took notice and laughed a bit before he made the next person go up to move on from the awkwardness.

"M-My name is Uiharu Kazari. I'm f-fond of eating sweets and I like to help those in trouble desu."

I was originally uninterested in paying attention to the rest of the introductions but hearing the name of the person sitting on my left made me look over at her as she sat down.

She is a small girl who sports short black hair and has golden-brown eyes. She has thick eyebrows but her most striking feature is her headband made out of flowers.

'A character from the [Toaru] franchise is here. At least enrolling in this school wasn't a complete waste.' I thought as a slight feeling of relief washes over me. 'I can use her to know about the current flow of the plot, or whatever else that resembles it.'

As the final person finished there introduction, the first day of school officially started.

It was as dull as I thought it would be.

Other than our homeroom teacher being the decent kind, nothing else really stood out from the norm.

As I collected my things and prepared to leave, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

Turning to look at the person behind me, Dark straight hair with patches of small green leaves and average body frame. His left eye was entirely black and the other has a flower growing out of it instead of an eye. From his raised hand, I can see something similar to veins underneath his skin wriggling which I would later find out to be roots.

He waved his hand at me and introduced himself. "Yo! The name's Tsuyuki Haruaki! Just call me Haru!" He grins as I continued to stare at him.

"...Kizuki." I hesitantly replied as he nodded. "Everyone else in class is fairly normal, as fellow misfits we should get along! Yorushiku!"

"Whatever." The corner of my mouth curling up a bit. 'A classic case of an introvert being adopted by an extrovert. Well, having a friend my age isn't so bad.'

The two of us kept talking (mostly him) about all sorts of things as we slowly left the school. I'm starting to warm up to the guy as I begin to speak more than 3 words at a time.

"I've been meaning to ask, what's with the big bow on your head?" He asked. I suppose that the bow attracts more attention than my choker.

Rokurokubi like myself have a thin scar at the neck that trace where our heads detach. To see the scar would signify an absolute show of trust. And to leave it uncovered is worse than streaking rogue. Even Sekibanki only showed her scar to but a handful of others, myself included.

"...It's from my sister. Haven't seen her in years." I said, downcast. From Haru's expression, he probably thought that she died.

"Oh, uh, sorry..."

"It's fi-" "KYYAAA!!"

All of a sudden, a girl's shriek sounded out. Both me and Haru turn out heads to see a beet-red Uiharu clamping down on her skirt. "Heya!" Stepping out in front of her was a smiling girl, a bit taller than herself and with long, black hair adorned by a single white flowery hairclip on the left side. 

"W-what are you doing all of a sudden?" Uiharu shrieked, glaring at the girl furiously and embarrassed all at once. Who wouldn't be? School has just ended and there are a few people outside of the school gates where they currently are.

"Aha~, I figured the best way to introduce oneself is by breaking the ice," the girl rubbed her neck with a silly grin. "Besides, I wanted to check that you were wearing your underwear properly."

"Why would you even think that?!" Uiharu exclaimed in exasperation. "And even if you were worried, couldn't you just ask?!"

As they begun to argue- er, talk to each other, Haru nudged my side and whispered "Pretty bold of her to flip a skirt in front of the school gates with other people around. You think she's one of us?"

Deadpanning at him, I replied "Dream on." And continued walking.

"Oi! Wait up!"