"Well, we're going to different places, actually. Eiji's a healer and I'm a fighter, so we're in different classes. You'll probably want to follow me if you don't want to be sitting in boring lectures and the nurse's office all day." Aiki laughed softly and Eiji stuck out his tongue at them. Suddenly, a shorter blonde boy with purple toned eyes came up to them with a bright smile. "Hey, Eiji! Aiki! Good to see you back! Were you sick or something?" He asked, to which Aiki considered for a second or two. "Ah… something like that. Nice to see you too, Roka."
(Roughly what Roka looks like)
Farah nodded and prepared to follow Aiki before a new person approached them, questioning Aiki about their absence. She quickly and quietly stepped back, allowing them to have their own conversation. She felt very out of place among the collection of First World teenagers being a young adult from the Otherworld.
Roka chatted with them for a bit, but soon waved and ran off to class. Eiji watched him leave with a soft smile until Aiki nudged him and teased him. "We should get to class. See you soon, Ei!" Aiki took Farah by the wrist and pulled her along to his own class while Eiji went the opposite direction.
Farah waved a pleasant goodbye to Eiji and gasped softly when Aiki’s fingers closed around her wrist. She let herself be pulled along, mainly because she hadn’t the faintest clue of where they were going. “Roka was nice,” she commented as they walked.
"Hmm?" Aiki glanced up when Farah spoke, still leading the way to their classroom. "Oh, yeah. He's nice. Eiji interns with the nurse and Roka screws himself up a ton, so that's basically how they met." He laughed softly. "Roka got some bad genetics mixed with his… mind control electricity thing, so he's got chronic migraines and epilepsy. He's in the nurse a lot."
“Wow, that doesn’t sound good. But Eiji must love it,” Farah barely even heard herself say the last part. For about five seconds, her mind went blank, and the sounds of the school became muffled like she was underwater. Then, just as suddenly, the feeling vanished. The only outward show was her wrinkling her nose in confusion.
"Well, he's good at tending to him." Aiki laughed softly. "And it's definitely good training for his healing thing. But yeah, Roka is pretty nice. He's in a course that's the same as mine, but we're not in the same class. Oukami is in his friend group, actually, along with… Koji and Kenishi, I think. Hiroki hangs around with them too, but I think that's because they and Kenishi are dating. I mean, not that you know who any of them are, but y'know… context."
Farah nodded, trying to follow along as best she could. “Right… I don’t think I’m going to remember any of that. I may be a Mind fairy, but my working memory tends to be a bit behind.”
"Yeah, that's fine. I'm just kinda rambling." Aiki shrugged. "Kenishi is cool. He's a metal guy. Hiroki is a shapeshifter of sorts, and Koji uses… ice? Ice and snow and cold stuff. He hasn't been around as much though, lately. Koji, anyway. I heard some rumors that his power is actually damaging his body, so he can't use it right now."
“First Worlders have powers that are much different from fairy abilities,” Farah remarked. “Fairies draw on core elements in nature to produce our magic. Where does your power come from?”
"Uh… it's just in our genes, I guess. They're genetic." Aiki shrugged. "Our bodies are built specifically for our powers in most cases. In Koji's case, I think one of his parents has some sort of fire power and the other has ice, and he got the ice power, but heat tolerance instead of cold tolerance? Something like that, so the cells that contain his power are starting to destroy the ones that don't."
“Ah,” Farah sighed softly. “I’m sorry for him. That sounds terrible. Couldn’t a healer like Eiji do something to fix that?” Her eyes darted around, searching for the classroom like she knew where it was while her fingers tugged again on the hem of her skirt.
Aiki shook their head a bit. "Not entirely. They just found out recently, apparently, so the only thing they can really do is try to keep it from spreading until they can find some sort of cure. It's already done some damage, apparently, since he's lost some feeling in his fingertips. Um… it's not a fun word to bring up, obviously, but it's kinda like… um… cancer. There's some treatments, but not a cure."
Farah nodded slowly. “Sorry to divert away from this, but… where is your class? And what will it be about?” Farah’s curious nature was beginning to show through her relentless questions.
"It's just to the right here, and my first class is history. I'm… not great at it, but you'll probably find it interesting." Aiki shrugged and led Farah into the classroom, pulling up a chair beside his desk so she could sit down.
“A First World history class… Interesting.” Farah sat gracefully and looked around the classroom to observe the students. She smoothed her skirt repeatedly. “I despise skirts,” she quietly murmured.
"Sorry… I don't think her pants would've fit you, though." Aiki smiled sheepishly and turned his attention to the lecture. A couple students glanced over their direction, confused by Farah's presence, but didn't say anything.
Farah nodded in understanding and did her best to avoid the gazes of the questioning students. “What is the topic today?” she whispered to Aiki.
"Um… we're just going through the last unit on modern history." They replied softly. The teacher went on about the powerful heroes within the last century, some of which were still alive or working today. Aiki scribbled down some notes with a soft sigh.
Farah paid close attention, enraptured by the information. She found it was almost a 180° difference from the manipulative information Rosalind had fed her years and years ago. It didn’t take long to realize that most of the information about the First World was either warped or completely wrong.
Aiki occasionally glanced over to Farah to make sure she was doing okay, but mostly just paid attention to the teacher. The teacher pulled up a slideshow filled with pictures and information about various heroes and notable people who used their powers for good in some way. He eventually ended the class by announcing that the next unit would be on notable modern villains and various evildoers.
Farah arched her eyebrows. “Didn’t you say there weren’t many magical villains in the First World?” she asked them quietly when the teacher wasn’t talking.
"There's not as many anymore." Aiki replied softly. "There's still some who are active, to be fair, but with the amount of heroes and law enforcement we have, there's less. There were more a longer time ago when people weren't brave enough to fight back. I'm sure 'modern' just means within the last few centuries plus the few notable current ones."
“Ah,” Farah sighed in acknowledgment. “We only have the Burned Ones. Well, and Rosalind…” she added bitterly. At the thought, her heart sank as she wondered what life at Alfea and in the Otherworld had come to without anyone to stop Rosalind. That wasn’t entirely true, there were other powerful fairies, but Rosalind had them pressed under her thumb.
