CHAPTER V: First day of school - The first half

ECHIZEN HOUSEHOLD, a few minutes after midnight

It was a cold Monday night in Tokyo and its inhabitants were already in deep, deep slumber.

Well, most of them anyway.

Inside a certain temple... a couple and one of their children, were all in the kitchen wearing serious expressions on their faces. They were looking at a box placed on the counter.

The mother of the household tapped her foot at the rate of 50 taps/s on the temple/house's wooden floor as she irritably pointed at the clothes inside the box. "I don't like this. I don't like this. I don't like this!"

"None of us do, except maybe Reina." Her husband stated as he nonchalantly closed his eyes and stretched his jaw. His jaw was numb from being 'unjustly' gagged and tied up along with his son (by Rinko), and getting locked up in a closet for 3 miserable hours. Apparently, she caught them in their deranged states before they execute their 'harmless' plan on a certain honey-brown haired boy on his way home.

-Flashback-

"Don't breathe damnit, Oyaji! Reina would sense you!" Ryoga vehemently whispered to his father who was positioned right next to him in their 'hiding spot'. They were trying to peek on the two figures talking in the doorway. His father's breathing was bloody noisy, and not to mention it smelled like dead rat.

Their 'hiding spot' was uhh... just the corner of the temple/house. If one looked at their direction, even if they were hiding completely in the corner, you would still see their feet. They were approximately 9 meters away from the door, so at least they could hear the conversation clearly.

The two watched the exchanges intently. And by the end they concluded that there wasn't much to worry about. But, when the two of them were going to leave for fear that someone might catch them, the closed-eyed brat suddenly took Reina's palm and kissed it.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Both of them screamed simultaneously. The two teens were taken aback by the sudden appearance of the two retards. They didn't recognize them immediately because of the noise they were making as well as the odd gestures that they were doing.

One of them had his hands up at one moment then started pointing accusing fingers at the boy while the other one has both of his hands in his eyes muttering something as he crazily shook his head.

It was the younger one who was still shaking his head in denial, and it seemed that he'll be doing so for a while. The older one, on the other hand, was the one who was pointing fingers and shouting frantically. "C'mon, Reina! W-Why don't you beat him up already! Just l-like the last one!" Reina just stared at them, not knowing what the heck he was talking about.

Her father, misunderstanding her silence, went closer to tears. 'My... My Reina... *sob*" and he crouched to the ground and started mumbling sad, sad words.

Fuji 's eyebrows were initially really high above his head, due to various reasons, but then regained composure and smiled in understanding. He let go of Reina's hands and stated that he'll be going home. Reina nodded, waved goodbye, and went inside ignoring the two figures that was then lying on the dirt. But as soon as the door shut, the two instantly got up and went for their scheming-squatting-whispering position in a corner, right below a stand-alone statue in front of the house, letting its shadow envelope them.

For a few minutes they planned. One occasionally nodded as the other talked and vice versa.

"So, do you still have the tranquilizer gun I gave you on your 16th birthday?" Nanjiroh asked his son. The boy grinned sheepishly. "Of course, Oyaji. Who do you think I am? I've been maintaining it for 'situations' like this."

Soon enough, both of them start to chuckle evilly as they put the pieces together.

But, they were so engrossed in their scheming that they didn't notice that someone with a pair of furious eyes and thick ropes in her hands was towering right beside them.

-End of flashback-

"GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The two boys simultaneously screamed earning themselves new lumps in their heads.

"What the heck? You'll wake Reina up!" Rinko fumed.

The two men looked at each other wide eyed. Both of them seemed to have suddenly remembered the events simultaneously, and they were rather sure they didn't want it to happen again. They shivered for a moment and then looked at the cause of their sufferings. She was in a really bad mood since the previous day and they really didn't want to stay in the danger zone any longer.

Nanjiroh quickly caught his composure and brought the conversation back to the original topic.

"We know that the way she is now, she's comfortable in either cross-dressing or wearing Megane-chan. Besides, her new school's girl's tennis team sucks so I'd arranged for her to join the boy's tennis team instead. She wouldn't want the team to be awkward because of her being a girl." he said in an acceptably calm tone of voice.

Rinko groaned irritated, making the two nervous. "It's sooo disappointing that she's back to this again. A year ago, she agreed on dressing normal again after finding out why her two most trusted best friends and brother left her for those years. Then, that BLASTED MANIAC just had to come to the picture." Evil aura came out at her mention of 'maniac'.

They shuddered in fear, yet thankful because the aura wasn't directed to them anymore.

"He was severely punished anyway, no use stressing over that issue." Ryoga smiled both in relief and at the recollection a past memory. Other than Reina's 'massacre', he and his father err... made sure that the maniac's ego won't go that high again.

Well, actually the poor boy's self-esteem was crushed to the point that he was sobbing "I want to be reborn as a termite." after they were done with him. The two thought and laughed evilly to themselves at a sudden thought that passed by both of their heads.

'Maybe that Fuji-brat will be next.'

"I guess we'll wait for her to decide on her own, then, when she'll return to acting her gender..." Rinko sighed in defeat, bringing the idiots back to their senses.

Nanjiroh and Ryoga just nodded in agreement.

...

SEIGAKU MIDDLE SCHOOL, the next day

It was a bright and peaceful spring morning when Ryoma arrived at her new school. It was only 7:30am and practically no one was there yet... which was why it was peaceful in the first place.

"I'll be going then, kiddo!" Her brother shouted and she waved him goodbye. She was lucky that her brother's classes would start a week later than her's, that way he could take her to school every morning for a week until they find a certain arrangement to keep her from getting late. She took a deep breath and went closer to the gate. She noted the gardening there was pretty neat. In fact, she was rather preoccupied with the blooming cherry blossoms inside the brick fence that she did not notice the bronze plaque practically right in front of her:

'Seigaku middle school'.

Half-an-hour later, Reina was still walking around. She couldn't seem to find the gym where the opening ceremony was going to be held. It was followed by the orientation, too, and she needed all the 'orienting' that she could get.

She let out a deep breath. It was going to start in thirty minutes and she might not make it in time. She didn't really want to have supposedly avoidable attention to her because she was late, as well. She walked faster as she approached a corner and almost bumped into something big (this means things bigger than her, which were a lot of things). But thanks to her good reflexes, she managed to stop just when she was an inch away from the said bigger object. The object's and her eyes met for a second and both of them simultaneously took two steps back.

"I almost got into an accident because of your carelessness." She said arrogantly, visibly annoyed at the new obstacle to her destination. She looked at the object. It was a guy. He had jet-black hair, violet eyes, spiky hair, and bushy eyebrows.

'Bushy eyebrows?' she said to herself recalling the name she gave to one of Tezuka's teammate. For a moment she considered that maybe this guys was 'Bushyeyebrows-kun' but then pushed it aside... it was too much of a coincidence to even dare hope.

'What a cute kid.' The guy with the bushy eyebrows, on the other side, mused for a second but quickly shook his head upon hearing the comment. "You know, gaki, if maybe you weren't walking so carelessly then it wouldn't have been a problem in the first place!"

"Don't you know the law Bushyeyebrows? The one in the straightway, namely me, has the right of way. Technically, you should be getting a fine right now." She replied stoically but it was obvious that she was mocking him, she was about to give him more insults but she managed to stop herself. By nagging herself.

'GAH! Stop it Reina! You don't have time for this.' She looked at the boy and recalled his utterly annoying insult. 'He's going to pay for calling her LITTLE...' She looked at her watch, flinched, and added an afterthought '...later.'

The teen pondered at what the kid said for an instant, but didn't know what he was talking about because he didn't have much knowledge about traffic laws. He attempted to counter the boy's know-it-all comment with something not particularly smart when he abruptly walked past him.

"Mada Mada dane, Bushyeyebrows-san." He muttered with his back to the teen.

"O-Oi!" he tried to halt the said little boy, but the said child just ignored him. He was walking really quick, to the point that it impressed him. He continued to follow the kid, determined to make an eventual comeback.

After a few minutes of following him, though, he finally noticed that the boy was just walking in circles.

'Why does he look like he's in such a hurry when he's going nowhere, anyway?' He asked himself, perplexed, as he continued to follow the kid who was, apparently, just walking anxiously around.

But soon enough, the stoic boy suddenly looked like he was going to panic. He tilted his head. 'He was going somewhere, but then why didn't he look like he's going anywhere...?'

Then, as if realizing something, he abruptly looked at the kid in incredulity. 'Could it be that he's LOST?' His eyes twitched at the thought. 'No one gets lost like this! Right...?'

But it was the only explanation at the child's actions.

"Until when are you going to follow me around, bushyeyebrows?"

He blinked and incoherently muttered "Uh- I..." then mentally punched himself. "Who are you calling 'Bushybrows'?" He exclaimed angrily as if he just realized he was being called such.

"I said 'Bushyeyebrows' but 'Bushybrows' is definitely better. I'll keep that in mind." She said mockingly. His eyes twitched (again), and then a comeback suddenly came to him. He grinned.

"You sure are arrogant for someone who gets lost a lot." This time Reina's eyes jerked.

"He called me LITTLE. And NOW he's insulting MY sense of direction?' She angrily exclaimed to herself as if those things weren't true.

"Ne, Bushybrows" She called him as her eyes continued to jerk involuntarily. "Not only are your eyebrows thick. It seems like your skull and your face are, too. Don't you have anything better to do than following me, an innocent bystander of your stupidity, around and making some lame comments?"

Bushybrows turned red in annoyance. "For your information, kiddo, I do have things to do in my club til' 10am because earlier classes are suspended because of the entrance ceremony." He cleared his throat. "It's just that my manly pride won't take your insul-" his little speech was stopped when he (finally) realized that he wasn't talking to anyone anymore.

He looked around. The kid started walking around again. Then Bushybrows being dense as he was, only noticed that the haughty kid was actually wearing a uniform similar to his.

"Hey, Gaki! Are you a freshman?" he shouted at the kid about 20 meters away from him.

"Who the heck are you calling little baka-brows?" The boy shouted back. The teen was annoyed with the kid making yet another nickname for him. He was tempted to leave the boy alone, but he's quite dutiful (in his standards) so he couldn't just let his new Kouhai go get lost when he's supposed to be in the ceremony.

"Aren't you supposed to be in the entrance ceremony? It's starting in 5 minutes!"

That made her freeze. "I'm going there now!"

"But you're not anywhere near the gym!"

"URUSAI! Baka-brows. Just tell me where the gym is!" She shouted making him almost lose his footing.

"D-Don't tell me that's where you were trying to go to since we met? That's unbe- Pfft-! BWAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAH! *cough* SAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA! *cough* GAHIHIHIHIHIHIHI!"He thought that the kid must be cursed or something. Then, after seeing the kid was gesturing to go and leave him to talk to himself again- he suddenly felt bad. The boy was rushing to the ceremony and he was there not only refusing to help the lost boy but was also serving as an obstacle.

"Follow me." He said sounding as dependable and calm as he could. Ryoma raised an eyebrow.

"Why should I?" She asked skeptically at the boy who was pretty much hysterical just a few seconds back.

"Then don't if you want to be late." Baka-brows shot back.

"Che." was the only way she could reply, being pretty much in a state of panic. But then an image of her entering when the ceremony had already started passed by her head.

She did not want to have a flashy entrance. Doing that will result to the earlier birth of an unwanted could only let out a sigh of defeat.

"Fine."

He grinned sheepishly. "I thought so."

As they walked, baka-brows started to talk. "My name is Momoshiro Takeshi, kid. I'm your senpai. Call me Momochan-senpai."

"What's with the odd placement of 'chan'?" She asked pretty much forgiving him for his earlier misdoings. He was helping her out now and she never really thought that he was a bad guy in the first place. An idiot, yes, but he was definitely a good person. He even conveniently reminded her of Ryoga.

"I just thought it was cute." He said proudly, as if men liked to be called 'cute'.

"So... what's your name, kid?" he asked, and stopped right by the gym's door.

"Echizen Ryoma." The kid stated. Momoshiro winced and pondered. 'Sounds familiar... Mah! I'll find out eventuall-'

"I'd be going in now, then." She gestured waiting for him to follow her, but instead he waved and started to walk away. Ryoma batted an eyelid.

"Aren't you going in? Aren't upperclassmen supposed to be attending the ceremony, too?"

"Ah. In here, it's optional to attend the ceremony." He grinned. "It seems that the principal, back in his schooldays, disliked the mandatory attendance of upperclassmen in the freshmen opening ceremony... so he changed the rules once he got to power. I really liked the old man for that, frankly."

"The only old students who usually attend are the ones with friends and/or relatives among the freshmen. Besides, like I said before, I still have to do some club activities." then he chuckled confidently out-of-nowhere.

"I am a regular at our tennis team, after all." He bragged.

"Is the tennis team here good?" She asked, curious. Her father wanted her to go here because it had a good tennis club, but she didn't really know how true it was.

Momoshiro cringed at the apparently blasphemous question. "Y-You don't know that this magnificent school is the number one school in our prefecture? We have a number of National-level players a-as well!" He exclaimed, obviously baffled by the kid.

Ryoma just stared at him to make his point.

"N-NANII!?" He shouted making Ryoma's sensitive ear ring for a whole minute. "How can you not know the Seigaku tennis club?"

"URUSAI, LIZARD-KILLER!" She yelled back, although in a much more stoic tone and volume, as she tried to massage her ears. Then her eyes widened. 'Did he just say Seigaku?'

"Did you just say Seigaku?" She repeated.

He grinned. "I knew you must have heard the name bef- Wait. Why do you sound like this is the first time you've heard the school you are entering?" Then he remembered 'Lizard-killer?'.

Ryoma just stared at him again, this time because she was incredulous at her own... obliviousness. 'So THAT's why the school sounded so familiar when Tezuka-san said it.' She smiled. She was going to the same school as Tezuka!

'Isn't he the captain?' She scrutinized the boy who was still looking rather disbelieving at the kid's antics. 'If this guy's a regular then he must be good, after all...But...'

"Your captain allows you top play with your ankle like that?" She asked with her eyebrows closing in. "He should know that it needs some rest." She lectured stoically. Of course, she was aware that Tezuka probably knew about the injury and probably ordered the idiot to rest, but it seemed like bushybrows was a stubborn one.

Momoshiro was taken aback. "S-Since when did you notice?" he asked along with a mental afterthought 'and why Lizard-killer?'

"Since the time I met you, I just couldn't care any less back then because you were annoying me to no end. But now, you are pretty much tarnishing Tezuka-san's name by not following his orders."

Momoshiro's eyes widened, absolutely surprised. "You know Tezuka-san but you don't know the school you were entering? And not to mention you have a disturbing case of getting-lost-a-lot."

Ryoma frowned deeply at the last line. "You idiot. What's the last line doing there, anyway? You can't even formulate correct sentences."

A vein appeared on his already hot head. "Okay Little Mr. Smarty pants. Why do you not know the name of the school you're entering, then?"

Ryoma flinched (again, darned Lizard); she did not want to answer that (and he even called her little again!).

She pondered as she rummaged for memories, and a good one popped out. The probable reason she didn't know was the fact that the one time her father mentioned the school's name, she was watching television. That and Reina being Reina, she just wasn't curious enough to ask.

"You're making me late." She just replied and started walking to the door.

He cleared his throat. "Then I shall take my leave, then. But you're pretty observant, aren't you? I was hiding it rather well, you know." He said as a compliment, he thought might as well have a good final impression at a Kouhai.

"Not really." She replied apathetically, and then smirked as she entered the gym.

"You're just not good at hiding it." She sardonically pointed out. Momo's eyes twitched.

"TEME-"

And she closed the door.

...

She liked to make fun of Momo so much. He reminds her way too much of her brother, except for his spiky hair that could kill lizards falling from the ceiling. She just chuckled internally at the sight of his final expression. But her fun was abruptly put on halt as she turned around.

Everyone was already line up, staring at her, and she mentally cursed Momoshiro. 'Oh crap. I'm already late. Curse that lizard-killer.'

She mentally slapped herself and walked towards her section as she recited '1-A, 1-A, 1-A.' as if they're going to come to her.

As she looked for her section the crowd seemed to have recovered from some sort of shock. Then murmurs, whispers, gasps, and squeals pretty much exploded in the Gym. Her sweat dropped looking appalled at the sudden reactions. She would love to glare them off, but there was too many of them. So she decided to save her energy and she just decided to tune all the noise out.

Soon enough, she found the line with a teacher holding the card '1-A'. The teacher smiled amused at her and stepped aside for a moment to let her in the line.

Her homeroom teacher, Takeda Maya, was pretty for someone in her late 30s, she was a sweet and kind educator whom all of her students, past and present, adore.

Takeda smiled at the sight of her student. 'So cuuute~! She didn't look like her ugly perverted father at all!' All of Reina's teachers and the medical staff were informed of her situation for convenience. Although, upon hearing her name Takeda was the one who was at first against her cross-dressing. Even if there were no official rules regarding the subject, tradition was tradition.

'That's just like Nanjiroh! That bastard has no concept of civilization!" She even thought angrily at that time.

She was forced to keep it a secret upon hearing the child's reasons, but it really didn't help cool her down. The sight of the girl herself did. Rinko was pretty, but Reina really has such an angelic face that you didn't know how she got it.

"Sensei." The girl said, looking at her. "Echizen Ryoma." She said to ensure she was on the right class. Takeda only smirked.

"Welcome to the school, kid."

...

"That's all for our entrance ceremony, dear students. As a reminder for those who were late *cough* and had yet to get their respective schedules from the administration please proceed to the office in the second floor of the main building. For most of you who already have their schedules please stay on your line and wait for your homeroom teachers to lead you to your room where the class orientation will be held in half an hour." The principal announced at the end of the program. Ryoma looked at her watch, it said 9:30am.

The principal said that the admission's office was located in the main building's second floor. And knowing that she'll probably get lost again she hurried to go and look for her future destination.

*1 hour and 20 minutes later*

She sighed in relief as she finally arrived at the office door. Sure, it took her over an hour but that's because the school was huge. She noted that the Administration's room definitely had a different feel to it. It had a beautifully designed brown door that stood out among all the plain green sliding ones. There was a huge wooden plaque that said 'Admissions office', too.

Making it all the more embarrassing that she didn't find it immediately.

She took a breath and opened the door.

A cool breeze of air from the air conditioning gently hit her face, and she surveyed around. There were only a few people in the nicely decorated and air-conditioned room. One of the people there was an old kind-looking woman who immediately stared at her as she entered the room.

"Ah, Ms. Echizen." She smiled then looked at Ryoma from head to toe. "I wonder how much cuter you'll look on our girl's uniform." The woman commented out of the blue with a grin that made Ryoma shiver.

Ryoma couldn't say anything. She saw how hideous the uniform looked and she knew would never EVER want to wear it.

"You're very late for the orientation, you know." The old woman abruptly said in a lecturing tone. Ryoma stoically just stared at the old woman, wondering what would happen to her. The old woman sighed.

"I'm not going to do anything bad to you." Ryoma cringed. Did she just read her mind?

"Just ask your classmates for what was discussed. Make sure you get to your homeroom by orientation's second-half." Then, the woman stood up and gave her her schedule. "If it didn't make things so complicated, we would've put you with the 3rd years. But P.E. and HomeEc had to be taken with your fellow freshmen, so we didn't know where that would put you after this school year."

"So we just decided to take advantage of your test scores by entering you as an official student-teacher. It's a job here given to students who had shown great intellect in certain subjects. We'd give you a good allowance and other benefits, of course."

Ryoma was intrigued by the words 'allowance' and 'benefits'. Especially by the allowance part, of course.

"The allowance is sort of like a salary... while the benefits are a sort of payment from you to us."

"Huh?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. The last time she checked, 'benefits' and 'payments' weren't synonyms.

"You do know not all of us agree with your cross-dressing. This is Japan, after all. Even if they aren't written tradition is tradition."

"Ah." Ryoma just muttered in understanding. In other words, the tutoring was like a condition for the staff to keep their mouths shut. She shrugged.

"Fine."

...

She scratched her head at the sensation of leaving a fully air-conditioned room. She stared at her left, then to her right, and went to her homeroom.

Well, at least that what she tried to do.

She knew that the 1st year's rooms were located in the first floors, the second years on the 3rd floor, and the seniors on the highest floor. Several minutes of walking later though, she stopped in front of a random room and looked at the wooden board on top of each door- indicating the section occupying it.

It said '2-B'. Ryoma blinked.

"Huh?"