Heart Strings

Chapter 1: Foreign Object

"Alright, here we are! Akademi High!" Jaku chuckles to himself as he stands just outside the borders of his new school. Cherry petals litter the walkway leading to the school gates and other students are already making their way in. Jaku quickly follows, but then he realizes he has no idea of where to even start. Luckily as soon as he gets past the gates he sees a teacher managing them. She appears to teach some sort of gym class judging by her tracksuit, and Jack walks over.

"I don't think I've seen you around before." The teacher says. "Are you new here?"

"Yes, I'm a new student." Jaku replies.

"Oh so you're the Jaku the staff was talking about!" The teacher says. "I'm Kyoshi Taiso, just refer to me as Taiso-sensei."

"Any idea where classroom 2-1 is?" Jaku asks.

"If you take the nearest staircase to the right, should be around the corner." Taiso-sensei replies.

"Thank you!" Jaku says as he locates his shoe locker and switches out his normal shoes for the mandatory uwabaki. Before he can head for the staircase, something- or rather someone- knocks him to the ground. Pain shoots into Jaku's arm as he hits the ground hard and his bag goes flying. He then looks up at his perpetrator, a young man who has dishwater blond hair, a nasty scar on his forehead, a black jacket along with a red graphic tee and black jeans. A carrier of some sorts is on his back and he looks at Jaku smugly. "What do you want?"

"Sorry about that." The blond kid says sarcastically before walking away and laughing. "I swear that black hair kid is probably gonna end up in the occult club. Nobody ever talks to them, how suiting!"

"I heard that!" Jaku shouts.

"Whatever jerk!" The blond kid calls out before he vanishes from Jaku's line of sight.

"Oh my goodness! Are you okay? I saw you fall!" A more mature sounding voice calls out. Jaku is still flat on the ground as he feels a set of hands slowly wrap around his shoulders and he's slowly lifted off his feet. Jaku is expecting to see a teacher when he turns around, but instead his crimson eyes meet with a pair of caramel eyes. The girl standing before him has long brunette hair that she has tied into a sort of half bun secured with pink and green hairclips. She has a red armband with a flower on her left arm, and a big yellow flower decoration sits on her head.

"Ugh... First day and I'm already a target..." Jaku mumbles to himself as he finds himself looking away from the girl that just helped him.

"Is something wrong?" the girl asks.

"No, it's nothing." Jaku replies. "Thanks for helping me."

"On a second note I don't recognize you... Are you new here?" The girl asks some more.

"Yeah. I transferred here because back at my old school I had serious problems with people bullying me." Jaku replies.

"Aww... That's so sad..." The girl says, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Did you have many friends?"

"Not very many. Those that I still knew kinda forgot about me when the year ended." Jaku mumbles.

"Wanna walk around with me?" The girl asks. "Sounds like your mind is really clouded, maybe a walk would help clear your thoughts."

"Sure..." Jaku replies. "I'm so surprised... You don't even know me yet here you are treating me as if I were your younger brother."

"I get that quite often." The girl giggles as she and Jaku walk around outside campus. "By the way, I never learned your name."

"I'm Jaku, Jaku Chan." Jaku replies.

"I'm Uekiya Engeika, just call me Uekiya-senpai." The girl now known as Uekiya says. After Jaku collects his bag and makes sure nothing fell out, the two walk around for a little bit and just as Uekiya predicted, Jaku feels a little more refreshed and able to think straight. Jaku thanks his senpai for reaching out and with that he begins to head for his classroom. Following Taiso-sensei's advice Jaku takes the nearest staircase to the right and just around the corner is classroom 2-1. He drops off his bag and decides to roam around the halls for a while as he has a copious amount of time before class starts. That's when he stumbles upon a room that's already been opened, presumably by club members. The room has tatami mats lining the floor, various wooden dummies have been placed off to the side, and in the middle of the whole room is a training baton of some sorts.

"You seem interested." A voice chuckles behind him. Jack turns around to see a young man with messy black hair and black eyes, and a white headband is tied around his head.

"I guess." Jaku chuckles. "Is this a martial arts club?"

"Sure is." The young man replies. "I'm Budo. You?"

"Jaku." Jaku replies. "I'm relatively new here."

"Well if you ever feel like it, you can come stop by and spar. If you really want the full experience you can join." Budo says.

"I will take that into consideration." Jaku replies. "I guess I'll see you around!"

"Oh you're right! Class starts in a few minutes!" Budo says before he quickly rushes off. Jaku takes this cue to head into his classroom, and just as expected many people are already there, including the sensei.

"Well, this is my new classroom." Jaku says to himself as he talks with the sensei to get a feel for what it's going to be like at Akademi.