A Lady Never Tells Where She Hides Her Triforce Piece

Link is a Moe Anime Girl

I couldn't help but wonder what my new classmates were going to think of me after I was late to school on my own first day. I mean, it wasn't the first day. Just for me and my sister, because we just moved here. But she wasn't late. Tris didn't oversleep at all. She woke up in time to make pancakes from scratch for both of us and everything. But I couldn't get up, because I was stuck having those weird dreams again.

The ones I always end up with, where there are all these weird fantasy things like fairies and stuff. Sometimes there are forests full of elf looking kids. Sometimes there are vast oceans full of pirates. And that one with the yeti in it, I swear it freaks me out so bad that one day I'm gonna piss myself. But in all of them I'm a guy for some reason.

I was definitely not a guy in this universe, I can tell you that. This school has uniforms with button up blouses, and let me tell you, it took me forever to get the top couple of buttons shut. Even after that, it just kind of felt precarious, like if I moved around too much, one of them was gonna pop. Which is bad. Because, uh, this school is partially a front for training shinobi. Like, most of it is regular, but a handful of students are there to learn to fight and crap. And, uh, I was about to be one of those. I already was semi proficient with swords, bows, and crossbows, and just needed to get better. And to learn how to focus. And, uh, not oversleep. But, other than that, I'm pretty good, if I can say that about myself.

And so if I was going to make a remotely decent impression on my classmates, I had to hurry my ass up. That meant rolling two pancakes up like scrolls and clutching them in my fists while I charged down the sidewalk, and chomping on them whenever I got a free second. Damnit. The weird male dream version of myself would be able to summon a horse at a time like this. But then I'm not sure where you leave a horse in a school parking lot. I guess you just let it go wherever it wants until you summon it again?

I wished I had a horse. It's not easy to run and cram a rolled up pancake in your mouth at the same time. Speaking of things that rollup, I had to make sure I remembered my ninja art scroll. I had it on me, hidden... somewhere... but like I'm gonna let anyone else know where.

And the whole time, I just kept thinking to myself... do not fail me, button.

Once I got to the school building itself... crap. That's a big school. Multiple buildings and everything. And it's not like I could have asked any student I saw where I was supposed to go, because not every student is part of the ninja program. Not every student knows the ninja program exists. They're not supposed to know it exists. So yeah. The information I got said something about a hidden door in one of the buildings, but... so many buildings. And the buildings are numbered, but they're not even in a straight line, so I feel like I've passed building two on the way to building one. Unless I didn't.

I must have paced past the same place enough times that the other students started to notice, because they started staring at me. A couple of them came up to me and asked me if I was new, if I was lost, if I needed help finding anything. That kind of thing. Which leads to another problem.

Ever heard of selective mutism? Like, when social anxiety or trauma or other weird mental stuff all combines in your brain and makes it so you can only talk some of the time? And when you're freaking out because of being late for school and not even being able to find the secret passageway to your classroom, that's obviously going to be an instance of not being able to say words? And then people are asking you stuff and you know you can't tell them you're looking for a secret passageway even if you could form words so you shake your head no and are kind of like "AAAAA."

And they ask you what's wrong? "AAAAA." What class are you supposed to be in? "AAAAA." Can you not say words? "AAAAA." Why can't you say words? And at that point you can't even go "AAAAA" and instead just give them a look. A look that says, without words, "if I can't say words, and you're asking me why I can't say words, how do you expect me to be able to suddenly say words about why I can't say words?" And I just kind of stormed away after that one.