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A loud alarm goes off as a bright light illuminates the room. The blonde in the bed next to it groans and turns to it, sliding the alarm off, making the room dark and silent again. She rubbed her eyes, trying to rub the sleep out of them. From the other bed, a strawberry blonde shifts and sits up, yawning loudly while brushing her hair a little with her fingers.
“First day of school, Iruma. How we feelin’?” The strawberry blonde simply groaned and laid back down, trying to curl back up under her blanket. The other teen giggled softly and sat up, leaning over and turning her lamp on, brightening the room once more.
Kaede Akamatsu, the Ultimate Pianist. She had just started high school at Shiba Academy, but just a week later, she was scouted by Hope’s Peak Academy as a pianist for her multiple awards and invitations to play at concerts. She was hesitant, since she thought her talent was lame compared to others, but she accepted, as it was said your future was pretty much secured if you graduated from the school.
Making her way around the room, she began getting dressed and ready for the day, her first official day as a student of Hope’s Peak. She’d been nervous for this day, but was going to power through. She knew she was going to meet so many different and talented people and she wasn’t going to make a fool of herself.
Once dressed in the uniform, she realized her roommate hadn’t moved since curling back up. Kaede rolled her eyes and grabbed a pillow from Iruma’s bed before smacking her. This startled her as she shot up, her hair getting in her face. “What the fuck, man!?” “It’s time to get up! We have class at 8:30!”
Iruma groaned, moving her hair out of her face. “It’s Hope’s Peak, they don’t require going to class, we just have to excel in our talents, which I can do right when I wake up on my own terms.” She stole the pillow from the teen’s hand and laid back down, curling around said pillow.
“Come on, Iruma. It’s our first day, just think of how many people we could meet, and all our classmates!” Iruma huffed, not moving. The pianist pouted and thought for a moment, trying to see how to get her out of bed. An idea then popped into her head.
“If you come to class for the first day, I’ll buy you boba tea and bunny apples.”
That made her perk up. Kaede giggled. She knew the girl’s love for boba, and she was always munching on those apples working on inventions.
After a moment, the strawberry blonde groaned once more, finally giving in. “Fine, fine. But I’m holding you to that.” The pianist smiled brightly at her roommate’s grumpy face. “Thank you!” “Yeah yeah.”
While Iruma tried to wake herself up more, Kaede grabbed her school bag and placed some sheet music in for later, looking forward to the kinds of musical instruments the school had. “I’m going to head out and grab some breakfast. I better see you in class, or no tea or apples.” “Yes, Mooooooom.”
With one last giggle, she placed her room key in her jacket pocket and walked out, heading down to the first floor. She remembered seeing vending machines and hoped they had something like breakfast. She wasn’t much for breakfast, but she did need something small.
As she stepped into the main hallway from the stairs, the blonde spotted the vending machine. She hurried over, looking for her wallet in her bag, not seeing as she bumped into someone else, causing them both to fall.
“Oof! I’m sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going!” “It’s quite alright! Ibuki shouldn’t be in the middle of the hallway!” ‘Wait, Ibuki?’ Looking up, she saw a girl with long, black hair with highlights, with horn pins on her head.
The same ones she remembered from middle school.
“Mioda-san! It’s been so long!” Mioda looked over and gasped, her eyes widening. “Kaede! Hello, hello!”
Kaede had been a keyboardist for Mioda’s band before realizing she liked classical piano more. They were friends until she left for high school. She should’ve realized she would’ve been scouted as well, considering how talented she was with any instrument.
“How has Kaede been? Ibuki is sorry for not keeping in touch!” The blonde smiled. Mioda still hadn’t lost her third person talking. “I’ve been okay, I was scouted for being talented on the piano, which is a bit surprising.” “Not to Ibuki. Kaede always had it in her!” “You’re too sweet.”
As they caught up on the last few years, Mioda bought Kaede a cinnamon bun as an apology for standing in the middle of the hallway, and the older of the two helped lead Kaede to the main school building, as well as her classroom.
“Let's catch up some more! Ibuki will be in the music room after school, so Kaede should come by!” “I would love that!”
With a final goodbye, Kaede entered her classroom and found a few students already inside. Chabashira and Yumeno, two girls Kaede met when they were moving in, were talking with another girl with white hair. There were other new faces, so the blonde decided to meet them first.
A boy with a dark hat sat in the back, his face in a book. Always being one to start a conversation, Kaede sat at the desk next to him and tapped on his shoulder. He squeaked and looked up. “Um…yes?” “Hi! I’m Kaede Akamatsu! What’s your name?” “Er…hi…I’m Shuichi Saihara.” “Nice to meet you, Saihara!”
After a bit of pestering, Kaede got him to put the book down and engage in conversation, though she seemed to do more of the talking. More students filed in, Saihara saying hello to his roommate and Kaede seeing her own roommate finally show up.
Around 8:25, Saihara was looking around the room, probably looking for someone. “Everything okay, Saihara?” “Um, yeah. My friend isn’t here yet though.” “Oh, they must be late.” Frowning, the bluenet turned to another student, a large male with green hair, and asked about his friend. Kaede assumed they were roommates. She turned her attention to her book bag, her mind wandering to her music.
“He’s always like this…” Saihara popped her thought bubble. “Oh, who?” “My friend, Kokichi Ouma. Gokuhara, his roommate, said he wouldn’t wake up, and it’s too late to go now. I’ll have to do it at lunch.” “Alright, good luck with that. It was nice talking with you.” Saihara nodded as a teacher with bright orange hair came in, a big smile on her face.
“Hello everyone, I’m Chisa Yukizome! Welcome to Hope’s Peak Academy!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As class went out for lunch, some people stayed in the classroom with food while others left. Kaede gave Iruma the money to buy her things before she herself left. She wasn’t hungry for food. Rather, for music. Her fingers were just itching for the keys of a piano.
She transversed the hallways filled with people, saying hello as she went by, before coming into the club wing. With almost sheer luck, she found the music room immediately. The room only had a piano, so it might’ve been one of many music rooms. Either way, Kaede found what she was looking for.
Grabbing the pieces of music, she arranged them into the order they needed to be, before settling on Clair de Lune to begin her lunchtime concert alone.
As soon as her fingers hit the keys, she was transported to another dimension, getting into her music and playing it flawlessly, as she had done time and time again.
5 minutes later, Kaede wrapped it up with the final few notes before the room was filled with silence again.
“Debussy, huh? What an amateur.”
A small scream escaped the pianist and she turned to the voice. It came from a short male in the boy’s uniform with a checkered scarf, his dark purple hair left wild around his head. She didn’t realize she had an audience. But his comment was finally sinking in, making her frown. “Gee, thanks.” “I mean, come on, even a child could play that piece. Give yourself a challenge.”
Kaede’s eyebrows furrowed more. Who was he to be saying any of this? Clair de Lune was an easy piece, but it still had its challenges. It was an intermediate piece. From his uniform, he was another Ultimate, and how he was talking about music, he may have been another musical Ultimate, she knew there was a pop idol in the class above her, and Mioda was a musician as well.
Before she could defend herself, she spotted a familiar dark hat standing behind the purple-haired male. “Kokichi, there you are! I’ve been looking for you!” “Aww, Saihara-chan was looking for little old me?” “You know him, Saihara?” Kaede spoke up as she put the music sheets back in her bag, not in the mood anymore. The bluenet nodded, looking a little embarrassed.
“This is my childhood friend, Kokichi Ouma.” “Yup, Saihara-chan and Kokichi Ouma, Ultimate Supreme Leader, middle school besties!” The blonde looked between them dumbfounded. Someone shy and timid was best friends with someone so rude and arrogant? And he wasn’t even a musician!
“You’re not a musician!? Who are you to criticize my music preferences!” “I’m a leader, I have many talents, sweetie.” The blonde was growing more frustrated with this boy the longer she was with him.
Ouma turned to Saihara and patted his cheek. “I’m going to find Gokuhara, don’t wait up~!” And with that, he ran away. Saihara looked at Kaede and bowed. “I’m sorry about him. He’s very…” “Arrogant and rude?” The male gave a weak giggle. “Yeah. But he has a sweet side. He just isn’t very trusting.” “Yeah, okay. I’ll take your word for it.”
The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Guess the blonde had spent most of lunch looking for the music room. But now she knew where it was, so she would have more time to play for the rest of the year. “Wanna walk back to class together?” “Yeah, sure.” Saihara gave a small smile as Kaede grabbed her bag and walked to the door, beginning the walk back to class.
She couldn’t get her mind off that little leader. Ouma. He was so rude and acted like he knew everything about everyone. Just the thought of his face made her angry.
All Kaede could hope for is that the boy would learn to be nicer. One thing was for sure, and that was that she couldn’t be friends with someone like him unless he changed his attitude. Until then, he was just a little brat she would have put up with.