"Akashi..."
She stood by the rusty metal gates, eyes drinking in the infrastructure within. "You said university would be different..."
Her shoulder jerked forward as someone bumped into her. She bowed quickly, instincts taking over before she could even register the action. "S-Sorry! I'm so sorry."
A short blonde man peeked over his shoulder as he shuffled forward, breath shaking in the cold, "Watch where you're going, hybrid."
Her eyes softened as she deepened her posture. "Yes, I'm... I'm really sorry."
Typical humans. Always too caught up in their own little bubbles to care for others. Not that she expected them to.
She sighed as she straightened, walking forward as more students slowly poured onto campus. Things always moved slower on Mondays.
"Hopefully this time I'll be able to make some friends at least," she murmured to herself.
For the most part, she didn't really expect anything from campus life outside what Akashi had said.
She didn't trust the world, but she could always rely on him. After all… he was the only one she had left—
"E-Excuse me, I'm looking for the Department of Essential Study. Could you help me? I'm new here..."
The two teachers standing there, probably talking about last night's fight, paused briefly as they looked up at her.
One of them audibly scoffed and rolled their eyes.
"What do you want?" the man said. "Can't you tell we're busy?"
The lady, whose green eyes seemed to judge her through metallic gray frames, huffed. "I doubt being busy would matter to these students."
"I just... I just want to get to my lecture before it starts," she said, chuckling nervously. "They say to be 20 minutes early, right?"
Both teachers let out unimpressed hums, until the man pointed at one of the guards in blue and gold.
"Ask him. He has time for you." He didn't wait for her thanks, just carried on talking with the woman.
She bowed anyway.
Walking up to the guard, she checked her phone again. 11:34 AM. The lecture was in 16 minutes.
There goes her 20-minutes-early streak.
"Hello—H-Hi, can you maybe help me—?"
The guard didn't wait to hear her out. "Sorry, I don't talk to demons," he said before turning away, his body dissolving into golden mist.
Her eyes loosened again.
"Oh..."
Of course, it took a while before she finally found herself in the right place.
As she walked in, she could feel all the glares piercing through her purple hoodie—the professor's especially.
"You. What is your name?"
She froze on the third step. "A-Akira. It's... Akira, sir."
The old man's eyes narrowed. "Ms. Akira, hm. I suppose you're aware of when the lecture starts?"
"Yes, I am."
"Then why come 20 minutes late? Or perhaps that's normal where you're from?"
That earned a soft, satisfied hum from the students.
She wasn't one of them.
She pressed her books closer to her chest, cheeks flushed. "N-No, sir. I'm—I mean... I know what time the lecture starts."
The teacher smirked. "Interesting. So why come late despite that fact?"
Silence.
The uncomfortable kind.
The old geezer's smirk widened, about to pass another comment when a girl raised her hand.
"Uh-Uhm, Mr. Watkins, you said energy and essence can sometimes converge to form a dissonance. How exactly does that happen?"
Akira remained frozen on the spot, as if waiting for permission.
Permission was granted.
"I suppose someone here is still interested in learning," Watkins cooed, turning to the board. "You may be seated, Ms. Akira."
Her posture tensed slightly when she heard her name.
"Thank you."
The rest of the lecture continued as usual.
The professor stopped to answer mundane questions, students' heads bobbing as concepts that sounded simple became harder in practice.
By the end of the lecture, Akira was stuck between a busy woman on her left and a sleeping guy on her right.
She had initially chosen to sit next to the girl who asked a question earlier. Maybe, just maybe, she could be a friend too.
[ "You need to find common ground with others, Aki. That's how you make friends." ]
A memory from earlier that morning.
"Common ground..." she thought.
She balled her fist, and with a deep, shaky breath, turned slightly.
"Pretty intense, right?" Akira said quietly, pointing at the equation. "My brother calls it S.E.E.D... uh... Spatial Energy and Essence Dissonance. It's… complicated."
The girl blinked, nodding slowly. "Yeah… noticed."
"Do you struggle with it too?" Akira asked.
"No… I think I got it."
"But it seems like you're trying to figure out which constant to use there—" Akira said, finger blatantly accusing the paper of being too complicated.
The book shifted the moment she touched it.
"I'm fine. Really, you don't have to worry about me," the woman replied, pulling the book slightly closer.
Akira's mouth thinned. "Y-Yeah... I'm—I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry."
"It's fine, really," the woman replied quickly, returning her focus to the equation.
Seems like it doesn't really matter what you try.
Akira sighed as she packed her things, the sound of scribbling beside her intensifying along with the scent of ink.
A quick glance showed that the girl was, indeed, not fine.
But she'd learned enough to know that if she wasn't needed, she wasn't required.
So she stood up, preparing to leave when—
A sigh of defeat.
"Wait."
Akira stopped halfway down the steps.
"I...I do need help."
Akira's eyes lit up slightly. "Yeah, sure."
After a few minutes of explaining, awkward chuckles, and analogies that were a bit too ridiculous, Akira managed to teach her—not just the equation's factors, but the entire foundation of the topic.
"Wow," the woman said, staring at the page like Akira had just performed some kind of trick. "You know a lot about this stuff, huh?"
Akira's cheeks flushed. "Yeah, well... a little. My brother's the one who taught me all this when I was a kid, so—"
"Your name. It's Akira, right?" the woman asked.
"Y-Yeah, that's right. Akira Hashinada."
"Cool." The woman packed her bag, then stood and offered her a handshake. "My name's Yui."
Akira's heart fluttered.
The hand being offered to her—it was real.
Really real.
Her hands rose slowly.
She wiped them against her side, then tried again. "My name's Akira..."
Yui laughed. "Yeah, I know that."
"Oh, r-right, sorry, I was just—"
"No need to apologize, it's cool." Yui walked past her. "So, Akira, I'll ask you again when I need help, yeah?"
She paused for a brief moment. "You'll talk to me again?"
Yui's brows furrowed slightly before she smiled warmly. "Yeah, of course. Why not? Besides..."
She leaned in to whisper.
"Between you and me, your methods are way better than Mr. Watkins." She giggled as she walked away. "But don't tell him I said that, okay?"
Akira's smile widened, a little shaky at the edges. "Okay. I promise I won't..."
Yui waved one last time before disappearing through the doors.
Akira stayed there a moment longer.
"She... wasn't afraid..." she murmured, her hand still slightly raised.
Maybe he was right.
Maybe all she needed was common ground after all.
And as she walked through the streets, she kept glancing at her hand every so often.
Because maybe—
just maybe—
she'd made a friend after all.
And when she finally arrived home, the familiar sight of the black metal gates—the ones she always returned to with a heavy heart.
For once…
her heart wasn't as heavy as it used to be.