Killing Time; Browsing the Campus

First topic message reminder :

When the elevator reached the ground floor, the doors opened with a small ding! Krikor stepped out back into where he and Tear had been yesterday and looked around, seeing if anyone else was around, as well as which of the shops were open.

"H-Hey now," Krikor began, genuinely worried about how nervous Tsubaki was getting, "It's OK, Tsubaki. If I can pass the exam after having my shoulder dislocated, then I'm sure you can pass even if you mess up a little bit." He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. "Just take a few deep breaths and calm yourself down," he said, "everything's gonna be OK."

Krikor then tried to change the subject to try to calm Tsubaki down a bit. "So, Tsubaki," he said, "from the way you're dressed, I take it you like pandas a lot. Did they have them in your homeland?"

Tsubaki was only half-listening to Krikor; the other half of her attention was focused on her still thinking about what it was going to be like. "I'm trying to calm down, but I just don't know what to expect!!" The more Krikor talked to her, though, the more calm she felt, even if she was still pretty nervous. She just didn't wanna mess up and then not get accepted.

"Huh? What? My clothes?" Changing the subject seemed to help a little, since she was thinking about something other than her test, so that was good. "Oh, no, we usually don't wear things like this. I... I don't even remember where I got these from..." She was used to wearing things that were far more exotic. Maybe someone gave this too her. It was nothing more than a crop-top with a panda-themed hood and some shorts and boots that were black and white. "... This actually isn't even anything close to the style of my homeland... Not that I don't think it's cute, but..." Maybe, somewhere along the way, in the part that she couldn't remember, her clothes were altered to fit some sort of taste about being in this land? "Sorry... It's pretty much a blur."

Before too long, though, the same guy who was to issue her placement test, Tear, came back striding in all cool and stuff with something like water under his feet as he moved. Krikor was right about him... And she only wondered what he would do to her in battle. "O-oh, y-yeah! Sure! Placement test! I'm totally all for it!" She was both excited and nervous, but she was ready to get it over with. "Sooo... How's this gonna work?"

Krikor was listening intently to Tsubaki before Tear entered the area. He wondered what she had meant when she had said that it had been "pretty much a blur." What was she talking about? What had been a blur? He meant to ask her, but then Tear had come to collect her for her placement test. "Good morning, Mr. Lacrimoso," he replied when Tear greeted him, "I was just having a bit of a chat with Tsubaki here before her placement test."

Still lost in her head with her own preconceived notions about the test, Tsubaki perked up when she heard Tear suggest that she face Krikor. "I'm good with that!" she said kinda slyly in the background, feeling slightly more relieved. From what Krikor said about Tear, she might have seriously gotten her ass handed to her, and she didn't want to end up with anything dislocated or broken or any kind of injury like that. It would hurt.

"I'd be more than happy to, Mr. Lacrimoso," Krikor replied. He hoped that testing Tsubaki himself would put her more at ease, as opposed to having Tear do it. From her enthusiastic response to Tear suggesting it, he took that as confirmation that it would. "The only thing is that my sword is in my room. Would you mind if I went to go get it? I'll be back here as quickly as possible," he said. Krikor had some skill in hand-to-hand fighting, but he was much more skilled in the use of his sword than he was at hand-to-hand, and he didn't want to make this too easy on Tsubaki. After all, if he did and she won with no problem, Tear might not think that it was enough to permit her entry into the school.

Tsubaki, cheesing rather wide, would silently cheer when Krikor said that he'd be her opponent. "Yes~!" she cried, one joyous shout quietly slipping out from under her breath. "Thanks! I really appreciate it! I hope we can..." Just as she was about to finish, the teacher just started walking and talking really fast, as if expecting her to follow and keep up with him. "Oh crap!" Tsubaki popped up from her seat and waved at Krikor, not wanting to lose sight of Tear, "See you in a bit! And don't go easy on me or anything!" She waved at him and caught up to Tear, listening to whatever he had to say about their next destination. She could maybe use some of it to her advantage... She hoped.

(Pass)

A gentle, but very powerful wave of distortion spread across the entire land, causing the school of Pandemia to be hit. This caused a wave of energy to carry with it all sorts of lost time, cluttered space, unsettled feelings and clouded thoughts by brushing through the corridors of the school, itself and cleansing everyone's minds and spirits. The entire school should have suddenly come to a complete calm once the wave came and went.