Vermelha stepped off of the train into the train station yawning, an indication of a nap. Yoshiwara, despite being smaller than Ashina, was far more beautiful, to the point where the two were incomparable in that facet.
Sakura petals danced through the air, the population was far less which meant less trash and less pollution. The buildings were made of pristine white bricks, or were entirely shaped out of steel and were sturdier. The people wore Kimono, Dresses, Suits, and much more casual and modern clothing.
Vermelha put her hand on her hip, breathing in the air which felt as if she was ingesting mana directly out of the air molecules. "This is somewhere I could stay."
A Sakura petal slowly fell on Matsumi's nose, causing him to blow hard to get it off. "I've never seen a place like this!"
"Definitely fancy. Seems like they stuck to their roots. I don't see a trace of technology or hardly any usage of it. Not even a phone in sight."
"It kind of reminds me of where I'm from. Where do we go from here, though? There's so many places!"
"Maybe the center city. I believe we can register as residents and students. I hope. They do have a nice shopping district though." She put her hand to her face in thought. The games sounded nice but shopping was more her style. She didn't want to have to use any technique if it wasn't absolutely necessary. Then again, getting a feel for what's to come may be beneficial to her. She knew she was going to have to test the waters of these areas.
"Then we can get ready for the games!" Meanwhile, Matsumi's only reason for even considering joining was for the games. It's what he knew best, he wasn't a fighter and he definitely wasn't smart enough to think of some crazy invention. When it came to games, having fun, and doing what he wanted how he wanted, he was an expert. "Center city, here we come!"
Vermelha and Matsumi arrived in the center city where the registration office was, waiting in line. She relaxed a bit knowing there was a wait since the first day of classes was officially tomorrow. "It's definitely way hotter here than Ashina. The temperature difference is almost ridiculous. Yet they're about 1 hour away from each other. Insane."
Matsumi's eyes were darting around the place, his feet tapping the ground and shuffling uncomfortably. He was getting extremely bored of waiting."Probably some magic stuff makes it that way." His demeanor changed from that overwhelming positivity to a calmer and quieter tone in his voice. The way he acted was completely dependent on how much fun he was having in the moment.
Vermelha and Matsumi arrived at the front of the line. She filled out her information and received a small plastic card shortly after, as well as some papers to take with her to the school. "All right. We should be all set. Thank you God we made the deadline."
"Ugh!" He was almost at his breaking point from waiting and having to think about the information they kept asking him. He took longer than Vermelha but still snatched the card quickly. "I can't deal with more of that waiting and waiting!"
"You're acting like a four year old. Relax. We got in that's the important part right?"
"Huh?" Her comment almost going as far as to annoy him, to even suggest that he should be okay with dealing with such a boring situation. "Whatever. You said it starts tomorrow?"
"The classes start tomorrow. The event is in a few hours from now. If we get to the school we might be able to sign up."
"Really?! It's in a few hours?!" His demeanor lit up, his boredom disappeared as quick as it came. "We have to get there on time! It's life or death!"
"I don't know if it's that serious. Worst case scenario we just watch. I still think it'll be exciting."
"No way! We have to hope for the best case then!"
"Alright, Alright. Let's go then. Looks like it's called Sakura No Hana."
"Sakura No Hana? Okay, let's go! I'll be right behind you, Verme! Or in front of you sometimes."
After about twenty minutes of walking, Vermelha arrived at the school. A pristine exterior on the outside. However, the atmosphere felt cold. Desolate. A complete opposite to the weather outside. From thick air to empty. Nobody was cheering or screaming for the event to happen. It was calm, almost calculatedly peaceful. Big banners hung outside and inside the school, perfect angles. No flaws. The volleyball tournament was in two hours or so. Vermelha looked on silently. She didn't know what to expect, it was suspicious how perfect things were.
"This...isn't what I expected. Didn't you say the games were some important thing? Why is everything to quiet?" Matsumi walked in behind her, his head peeking out from his position.
"I think they're focused. There's no celebration. They're taking this very seriously. Yet there could be fun inside." She shrugged her shoulders. "I guess we'll have to wait and see."
"The feeling in this place is totally off. I'll take your word for it."
"Let's go in. We need to register if we want to play in the games right?"
"Right." Matsumi stepped in front of her, his head turning at every new thing he saw while walking and looking for a registration.
"Are you looking for someone?" Directly in front of Matsumi's face was a blond haired boy, rather short. Shorter than Matsumi. Shorter than Vermelha. Probably no taller than 5 foot two. He looked at him, a lifeless look on his face, but there wasn't necessarily despair. Only a lack of emotion. He was close to the two, almost like they were buddy buddy. But they weren't. They were strangers. He was a stranger. There was some kind of aura that came with the boy in front of them. Far different than the schools. The average person got shivers down their spine from him, but that didn't bother him because it was simply his nature. His mana was constantly leaking, he couldn't control it to be honest. The natural state and action of his Mana in specific was to feast on its hosts willpower. To scare others with his mana, meant that his willpower was far greater than anyone's and whether that was due to how he was born into this world or that his willpower was 'strong', which was a vague term anyways, wasnt up to him. He existed as he was, and that was apparent from the first time Vermelha laid her eyes on him.
Matsumi bumped into the boy, he didn't expect someone to stand right in front of him suddenly. That and the fact that the boy was so short, for someone of Matsumi's oblivious nature he had no clue what he was gettinf into. He wasn't paying too much attention to where he was walking. "Oh, we're looking for the team if this is the place. We wanna play." Matsumi looked down on the boy.
"Ah. Well you are sort of late. However; we're short a few members for our team. I only choose people who actually want to play. Not the common man who says they want to play. He examined Matsumi and Vermelha. Vermelha was fine. Matsumi seemed like an average boy. In that moment Tengoku almost ignored his request altogether. "I don't sense any Mana from you. You sure you're going to play?"
"No mana?! That means I can't use magic?! Verme, is that true?!" He extended his arms to have her examine him.
"When a person has no control of their mana its dormant and stored inside of their body. Learning to control your mana is like unlocking another passageway to breathe; and it leaks out from you. It constantly exists around you and from there it can be used based on your mana type and rank. It's something that always passively exists around you. You probably can't see either of ours because you're not experienced with it yet."
"And you just do that? I have to try! But whatever, whatever. We still wanna play!"
"Well you seem eager. Do you have any special abilities? Any talents that might be useful to us?"
"Special abilities? Yeah, I'd say I can do lots of things."
"Hm." He looked at Matsumi for a few seconds again. "Well.. if i'm being completely honest the firepower we have anyways should be enough for Ashina. No Mamba or Anilius this year, and they're pretty much coming with a full new student team. So either way we'll win. Plus, we could probably use someone with your energy levels for morale. We're not that excited about playing them, and everyone I have is rather…cold to say the least. Sure. Come along."
"This is gonna be fun. I told you, Verme!"
"Well i'm also interested in what you can do outside of not having any mana. There's a person I know that's similar to you, except he doesn't need mana. He just kind of fights with what we has."
"You already know what I can do then. I'll show you more in the game."
"Alright then. We're actually boarding the bus now. You made it just on time. You guys free to ride?"
"Yeah, we are. We don't know where it is though. You'll have to take us."
"That's what the bus is for." He lead them to the bus after a few minutes, everyone stocking their bags and getting on, where they were preparing to take off to go to Ashina. "Feel free to move the stuff. We'll give you a dorm when you come back if you're still interested."
"I don't have much. I just need my feet and arms!" He followed quickly. Vermelha and Matsumi boarded the bus as it took off, heading for Ashina.