Wandering the Academy grounds (CD open to any)

Mika had decided to take some time off from training, and take a look around the School itself, see what they had to offer other then the Training equipment shed, dorms, and class rooms which where all she mostly seen during her time here thus far. and to let her body rest a bit, after all she had a lot of training packed in so far, and while she still needed to catch up to everyone else in this place, burning herself out and hurting her body wouldn't get her anywhere at all if she ended up causing herself injury instead of improving herself.

So with that in mind she decided to walk around, and one thing she realized rather quickly was, many thought she was as old as they were, when in fact she was older in most cases, but that was likely due to her height and over all appearance, her mother had remarked on how young she looked, a trait she clearly took from her Fathers side of the family as her Great grandmother on his side looked like she could be young enough to be her mother, so she considered it a good thing in the long run.

With a smile as she looked over one of the Bulletin boards to see what was planned for the next little while she overhead some students talking to each other.

"Yeah did you hear? Apparently some explosions have been happening around the grounds, some people thought they seen some figured moving around in them.. some are saying that the explosions are fights between the Staff..." One voice mentioned.

"I heard it was some people have been trying to get into the Academy grounds and the explosions was the teachers fighting them off.. they never happen when people are all in classes.. always when there are instructors free.. maybe they do that on purpose to protect some of the students?" another voice said.

"What would anyone want with this place? it's not like any really awesome Shinobi are here right? just some teachers and us students.. why would they wanna get on the grounds?" A third voice added to the conversation.

"Wait? you mean you didn't know? Apparently some of the classes have those guys with beasts in them jerky kin or something like that".

"Jerky kin?... you mean the Jinchuriki? Yeah I heard there are two in Class E... least that's the rumor..."

"Yeah those things... one apparently tried to break out in Class D... some guy name Zaddy told me about it... they seemed like a strange one.. but they changed when they talked about it so I think it's true... apparently the Teachers had to step in and deal with it"

"Well it's just a rumor that there are two in E class.. I never heard it from any of the guys from that class though so maybe it's just fake? I don't know.."

Mika listened to the conversation, the mention of explosions... possible fights with unknown intruders.. and beasts? what was a Jinchuriki? She really didn't know. But for now she continued her wanderings as the students who had been talking had wandered off and she still wanted to look around the grounds of the Academy.

In the furthest corner of the academy sat a young boy with his back against the wall as he flipped through pages of book. It had been months since he had arrived at the academy and yet he was unable to gather the information he was so desperate to attain. He had heard rumors that the raccoon had some sort of mishap where he had to be subdued but the reason as to why it had happened wasn’t clear as the only ones who probably knew were the instructors and he knew that they would’ve shared such information with him. “Tch, useless.” He muttered to himself before closing the book and letting out a sigh. There were a number of things he needed to do but due to his constant struggle with the beast within him he had been slacking off but he felt that today he would be at least able to get something done. “But why bother?” He muttered to himself as he looked up to the sky. Him getting stronger would just be to the benefit of the republic so that they could use him in any way they saw fit but on the flip side if he became strong enough who could really stop him from doing what he wants? “I could be free and you can finally be happy. Sounds like the perfect plan.” The voice in his head said but as usual, he would ignore her. But still what was happiness? He thought to himself as he began to daydream.

Mika continued her path along the school grounds taking it in properly this time around, she had run around it for laps before, but she never really took this long look at the place, likely cause she was always busy with training, that also meant she wasn't really that social, she then giggled "I've heard of a Social Butterfly... but an Anti-social moth?" she joked and giggled at the silly joke to herself, a wide smile on her face, but she needed to do at least this much training, or she wouldn't catch up to everyone else in the school she thought as she continued to look around the school, the Equipment rooms, the training fields and the classes she had to take where about the only places she knew of really, she usually didn't visit the Cafeteria and only ate in the dorm in the morning and then once her training was done with a small snack taken with her for lunch during training.

As she walked she heard other rumors and the like but nothing to interesting... people having crushes, people wondering if they were even allowed to ask another out, mostly the older students who where likely closer to becoming Genin. By this point she ended up in a more secluded section of the academy and as she turned a corner she noticed Maxi sitting all by his lonesome and she smiled and walked over, he seemed to simply be staring into nothing and she smiled as she made it up to him.

"Hey there Maxi, how's your day been?" she asked as she sat next to him, a large friendly smile on her face "Haven't seen you in a while, you doing okay?" she continued as her antenna twitched a bit.

There was also the fact that he was yet to meet the Toad boss having been invited to do so by his daughter, which must have disappointed her seeing as it had been so long since the invitation was extended to him. Letting out another sigh, his mind would begin to wonder when he was approached and he didn’t notice the small girl until she had spoken. “Oh its you.” He finally said having recognized the person before him. Normally he would look to leave whenever someone had approached him or would simply tell them to piss off but he liked Mika, she was someone who seemed reliable, and even though she was the total opposite of him he could actually stand being around her for more than five minutes. “It was…decent.” He said after a few seconds of thought, the truth was it was far from that as he lived every day living in torment waiting for someone to take him out of his misery but he wasn’t going to say that to her. “I’ve been in my room. I haven’t had the strength to leave or wanted to. Luckily the instructors understand my emotions and allow me time to recuperate before rejoining the rest of the kids.” He said truthfully before letting out a sigh.

Mika smiled as he acknowledged her and she listened in on what he was saying, he seemed rather... drained? like he was just done with things. As she listened her antenna twitched, he always seemed a bit down, maybe others bullied him? Well they were classmates she wouldn't let that keep happening, but she couldn't just out right ask that would be weird, she would have to do some information gathering it would seem. Though then Maxi started to explain and she listened. It sounded more like it was just he got emotionally drained easily? Well that should be easy to deal with right? Maybe taking him outside to get some fresh air would do him some good!

With that Mika hopped up to her feet again and grabbed his hand "Okay up you get, We are gonna have a walk around the school grounds, if you don't wanna be around a ton of people then being outside should do you some good, at least there you can't be cornered by people if they don't wanna leave you alone right? Plus it just feels better out there then in this building so up up Maxi" she said cheerfully as she hoisted him to his feet, and if she got him to his feet she would start to guide him outside.

"Besides outside the Sun is singing the birds are shining and the Puffy white Sky is lazily floating along the blue clouds" she said with a giggle messing it up on purpose to hopefully get a chuckle out of the boy.

Aren’t we already outside? He thought to himself as he recalled leaving his room and going to the most remote section of the academy where he could gather his thoughts without the chatter of the others in the dorm. Was the monster's influence causing him to hallucinate? Either way, he allowed the small girl to help him up from where he sat and would also grab his book on his way up. “I suppose a walk would do me some good. Been a while since I stretched my legs.” He said out loud as looked to follow her where ever she had planned to go. “Is there anywhere, in particular, you want to go or something you want to do?”

Mika was walking along enjoying the day and she had a huge smile on her face, taking rest days seemed to be a good Idea, she also got to hang out with people so that was a plus to, and as they walked she heard Maxi's question and she looked over at him with a smile "Well not really, I am taking a rest day so I have a full day to do nothing really, so I thought just taking a walk around the Academy was a good Idea, Unless you wanted to go do something?" she asked as she slowed down so she was walking along next to Maxi with a large smile still on her face. She was just a bundle of energy and she didn't mind just spending a rest day hanging out with a friend.

"I mean we could grab some food and have a picnic, I could show you my training set up.. but runing through it would be kind of against the point of a rest day, but I mean I never really had a rest day before so I don't really know what to do during one" she said as her antenna twitched about as she looked up to Maxi "I mean we could just try to find something to do too like games or something" she said with that big smile on her face.

The moment she brought up training, he remembered how much of a hard worker she was. From the information he had gathered it seemed she was out training even most of the instructors at the academy which was a feat in itself but the question was, why? Was it due to boredom? Or was there some other underlying reason as to why she was hell-bent on training this much. Sure he could just ask outright since he was probably going to get an answer from her but it would be more interesting to speculate and figure it out on his own.

“I don’t have anything in mind.” He stated in his usual emotionless tone. All he had planned to do today was respond to his sister’s many letters she had sent and probably sleep. That was it. So he didn’t have any hobbies nor did he really care to have any he just wanted to see out the rest of his days at this academy doing the bare minimum. “Hm, I guess a game could work. I don’t usually play those though.”

As they walked she took to the air her wings flapping lazily as she floated alongside Maximilian, "Well tag is an old favorite... but you seem to be having one of those Lazy days, and this was supposed to be a rest day for me so I can't go running around hmm.. we could play a guessing game or a riddle game I guess..." she pondered out loud as she floated about as she started to simply rise into the air as she was thinking, the light playing along her wings as she slowly drifted over Maximilian, a small smile on her face as she drifted about lazily in the air for a while before slowly coming back down to land next to him.

"Well if we are gonna have a lazy day we should grab some food from the Cafeteria and have a picnic, nothing like a meal outside and then a nap.. granted I haven't done that in a long time myself but if I am supposed to have a rest day then I might as well try it out right?" she said with a giggle "Can also see if we can scrounge up a chess board or Shogi.. maybe even Go if we can find a good board and some stones to use if you wanna try a game like that" she said as she looked at him and smiled that large energetic smile of hers the light catching on her large red eyes as she looked to him "What you think of those Ideas?"

He silently pondered the choices she presented to him until one of them appealed to him. “A picnic does sound nice.” He finally said after being quiet for some time. He hadn’t eaten in a few days and was starting to feel the urge to have something and on the plus side, it was with someone he could actually stomach and not in that noisy cafeteria. “Are we even allowed to take food from the cafeteria outside?” He found himself asking as he had never seen anyone do that before, sure he saw people eating food outside the cafeteria but it wasn’t food from the cafeteria.

“ I don’t know how to play shogi or chess, but if you know and you’re willing to teach me I’d be fine with that too.” He said having thought that over. He had never seen anyone play that before he had only heard others discuss it so maybe it was a good time to actually learn it and make it a hobby of his, that’s what his sister would’ve wanted anyways.

Mika smiled a bit and nodded "Well if they don't allow us to take food out we can just try to sneak it out, but I don't see why they wouldn't allow it, I mean they sell snacks there and I see some students walking around with those snacks and enjoying them so it should be fine right?" she said as she walked along with him as she started to lead him to the Cafeteria, a bounce in her step as she lead him along, Training was always fun for her at least, but Maxi seemed the type to not consider that fun, well she didn't just see it as fun, it was something she had to do to make sure she could match up to everyone here who likely had help from their Clans, preemptive Training and all that, she was here without such backing from a family that had no history in such things, and on top of that she couldn't use Chakra like everyone else could so it was all she could do but Train to make up for what she thought would be a massive Difference between here and everyone else.

But even then she had to have days like these, just training alone and not trying to get along with people would be rather pointless Especially when she would have to team up eventually so trying to get along with the other students was something she would have to consider doing, and Maxi was her friend so why not learn more about him? And he had looked down or drained earlier but he already seemed more lively at least to her.

Getting to the Cafeteria Mika Grabbed a Tray and headed for the food, happily waving to the workers "Hello Hazel! How's your day been?" she called to the worker who smiled to the small moth.

"Oh hello Mika, it's been a good day, Usually don't see you around, most you do is pop in for supplies for your own room" the woman said with a kind smile.

"Oh I am having a rest day and ran into Maxi here so we are gonna have a picnic and play some Chess or Shogi... though it's probably gonna be Chess since I know that one better.. We just came to get some food and umm..." she looked around conspiratorially before leaning in "Do you have any honeycombs? I wouldn't mind a large serving of that" the Moth girl asked.

"Oh you don't have to be so quite about it, we have some don't worry I can give you some we got a lot and not many grab them... so many kids prefer the other stuff... so glad someone likes them as much as me" the woman giggled as she served Mika and gave her a little plate with several large Honeycombs on it.

The Little Moth girls eyes seemed to sparkle with Excitement as she looked at the large Serving of Honeycombs "Thank you!!" she said happily as she moved to the end of the line with quite a few sandwiches and drinks, mostly all were healthy, but the glaring difference was the large plate of Honeycombs which she seemed to be taking great care in making sure didn't fall or spill in anyway.

She was right that they could just sneak it out but what if they got caught doing it? It wasn’t that he was afraid of the consequences; it was more like there was a high possibility that they would get caught considering the fact that he was under surveillance 24/7. He thought they were excellent at hiding in the shadows he always knew he was being watched by those men in black and quite frankly it helped in boosting his already high levels of paranoia. Still, he doubted that they would go out of their way to show themselves to stop him from having food outside the cafeteria and if they did well they were clearly trying to make his life even more miserable than it already had been.

When they had entered the cafeteria, he had taken a step back and allowed her to speak to the lunch lady as it was obvious that they were on good terms while he wasn’t much of a people person. Still, he couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous of how easy it was for her to walk up to people and make friends. People were either afraid of him or his poor attitude would drive them away not that he blamed them anyway, if he was them he wouldn’t want to be friends with someone like him, anyway.

Once they finished their conversation, he would help her out with collecting the food they would need before heading out of the cafeteria. “Where are we going to get a chess board from?” He found himself asking as he scanned the surroundings for somewhere nice to sit.

Mika walked along carrying half the food, and smiling widely as they headed off for a nice spot she knew of... granted she knew of the spot due to her time training, but it was shaded... but at this point it also had a fair bit of craters and the like from her training her fighting style. As they walked Maxi asked a very good question and she smiled over to him [color:ef44=blue["Oh don't worry I can just make one, won't be pretty but my parents taught me a bunch of things, though mom mostly taught me how to weave"[/color] she said as they walked and the smol moth girl lead the way to her training are, currently devoid of any of her training gear since she always made sure to put it away when she was done with it.

What she couldn't put away was the little craters in the ground and shards of rocks all over the place, but she moved to a nice shady place right under the large untouched tree and kicked some of the stones away, sending one flying with a especially hard kick as she started to set things down "Just set the things down here and give me a moment" she said cheerily as she walked over to the bushes and pulled out a few of the parts of the training dummies she had destroyed in her training and had been rather to embarrassed to take them back in that condition, grabbing a large piece of flat wood that would work as a board and some smaller stones and sticks she walked back over to where Maxi was and sat down.

[colorblue]"Okay gimme a moment..." she said as she reached into her Kunai bag, which she had started to wear habitually by this point since she was always going out training, and she started to use the Kunai to carve the chess board pattern into the plank and then carving the small bits of wood into very very rough approximations of the pieces as she worked though she spoke up "So how have classes been treating you?" she asked happily as she worked.

He wasn’t sure what she meant about making one. Sure her words indicated that she was going to make the chess board from scratch but how would she do that? Did she have the materials back in her dorm? Or were the materials to make them somewhere in the school? Either way, he followed her to the training grounds. He silently wondered if it would’ve been better for them to find a tree somewhere and sit under instead of the training grounds where they could get interrupted at any time but she probably knew best as she frequented the grounds more than he ever did.


Setting the food down where she had pointed to, he simply sat down next to it as he watched the girl make a chessboard out of scraps lying around. “You’re pretty resourceful aren’t you.” He found himself saying while watching her carve the board up. “Classes?” He found himself saying as if he was unfamiliar with what she was saying. “I haven’t been to classes in a while now actually. Was surprised that no one came to get me but considering my status at this academy I guess they thought it was best to leave me alone for a bit.”

Mika continued to carve the pieces for the chess game as she sat with Maxi, happily humming away as she worked, granted they were not in the actual training yard, she had led him outside on the grounds of the academy, though she was told these too were training grounds and she had set her stuff up in this far corner as to not disturb others with her training, it was a nice shady corner thanks to the trees and bushes, and it had a lot of verticality to help her training so she quite liked it, eating out here was something else she was used to doing though granted she never expected to be eating out here with someone and so that was new for her but it didn't bother her any she was just glad to have a friend to enjoy the time with.

Hearing him mention how resourceful she was she smiled "We lived out in the Land of Echoes for a while, not a lot of shops around that could make things, so we had to make our own stuff all the time, running the Courier business helped a lot with getting money and traveling to get things we couldn't buy, but well with me growing and another sibling on the way we moved to the republic.. that and I wanted to be a shinobi" she answered.

Though as Maxi made mention of the classes she tilted her head and her antenna twitched a bit, the smol moth girl looking a bit puzzled clearly not to aware of what Status he was talking about, "Well you should consider coming to classes, they are rather informative, but I guess that might be more because I am not from the republic so this is all kind of new to me... As for your status here I don't really know what you mean, but I think if you try to be more open to people maybe things will get better? I mean your open with me" she said clearly not aware of what he was, as she finished making the chess pieces and placing them on the bored, the white pieces denoted by her having removed a layer of the bark to make them lighter in color.

"Have you ever played chess before?" she asked so she would know if she would have to go over the basics or not.

She had an odd background, to say the least. Maximillian thought to himself as he continued to watch her make the chessboard from scratch while listening to her story. Though could somewhat understand how annoying it could be to be traveling around and never settling down, he couldn’t understand why would anyone willingly choose to become a shinobi, especially someone who was free to do whatever they wanted. Still, he wasn’t going to spew his rhetoric right here as they were here to have fun, not to debate.

While he did enjoy her company, it seemed as if she was a bit oblivious to what was going on in the republic. Sure she was new here but surely her parents would’ve gotten wind of what had happened earlier with the Bijuu attack and their subsequent sealing. That and everyone in the academy knew who the five were so her reaction to his statement confused him. Was she hanging around him not knowing what he was? “Um, being open with people won’t solve the issue, unfortunately.” He finally said having struggled for a bit to try and formulate a response. Since she was basically clueless, it made no sense he tried to explain what happened to her, as it was probably for the best that she remains ignorant.

“No, I’ve never actually played it before. I saw my mom play a few times but she never taught me or wanted anything to do with me quite frankly.” He whispered.

Mika set up the board properly as he replied to her, "Well your open with me, and we seem to be good friends" she said with a smile as she put her Kunai back in her case and her antenna twitched as he mentioned not knowing how but having seen his mother play it, but that she never taught him... the rest of what he said made her antenna twitch even more and she sat there thinking on that a moment before shrugging "Well not trying to know her own son reflects more on her and tells more of her character then it does yours, you seemed to have turned out fine despite it and I think that's great says a lot about you that your not some antisocial person that shuns anyone that tries to get close to you, I mean if you were you wouldn't be hanging out with me" she giggled as she scooted closer so she could teach him the rules.

Mika wasn't completely clueless, the issue was the recent happening were not overly covered in the history books she had read she had been trying to study up after all, as for her parents they just figured it was about as dangerous as the land of echos which due to it's location the creatures there and running through with Packages and the like though in all actuality it was likely less dangerous for them in the republic, her family had to change occupations of course once they moved here and their own little side hobbies now turned into full time jobs it all seemed to be a bit working out for the family of Faunus.

"So this is the pawn.. it can only move in a strait line and it captures pieces diagonally to the left and right ahead of it and if you can get it to the other side of the board you can trade it in for any other piece you have lost already like this..." She demonstrated on the board before moving to the next piece.

"This is the Rook, it can only move in strait lines, but it can move along those lines as far as it wants in on move as long as it's not obstructed" once more she demonstrated on the board.

"This is the Bishop, it moves on Diagonals.. as far as it wants as well as long as it's not obstructed, think of it as covering the directions the Rooks don't" the explanation was of course followed by a demonstration.

[color=blue]"then there are the Knights... they move in an el shape and are the only pieces that can jump over other pieces like this" she also demonstrated with the Knight so he would get what she was talking about.

"Then there is the queen, she can move in ether diagonal, or strait lines as far as she wants till she hits an obstruction, she can't jump over things like the knight can though many consider it the strongest piece cause of it's movement, though honestly I think the Pawn is the strongest piece... but anyway this is how it can move..." once more she demonstrated the movement of the piece and how it captured.

"And last is the King... it can only move one square, but in any direction, it's the most important piece as putting the king into checkmate... so it can't move anywhere and be safe.. is the object of the game, but it has a neat little rule if you don't move the Rook called castling, it lets to swap the places of the one rook and the king but only if you haven't moved ether of them... the king can capture other pieces but only if they are in it's way and only if capturing that piece doesn't put it into check and that piece it's capturing isn't the one threatening it... so like this" she explained then played out the exceptions to it's capturing rules, and the castling before setting the board up proper again.

"I hope I explained it well enough, I think I covered everything" she said as she sat there and thought about it, her antenna twitching as she did so.

Are we friends? Maximillian thought to himself having heard her utter that word. He had never thought about her in such a capacity truth be told, she was just someone who didn’t rub him the wrong way and someone he could be at ease around, was that what friend meant? If that was the case she might be the only actual friend he ever had, which made him feel strange inside. It was a feeling he couldn’t really describe, it was feint but he could tell it was different but he would push that thought to the back of his mind. “Yeah, I suppose.” That was all he could say as it would be rather difficult to explain his family dynamic without dampening the mood and it would be better if they just focused on the positives instead. The positives huh? That’s a new one. He thought to himself as he was never one to look toward the positives. Still, he felt he was ready to play once she had finished her explanation.

“Man, you’re too good at this.” Maxmillian said having lost for the umpteenth time. They had been playing for hours at this point and he had only come close once to winning only once and even that was short-lived as she had managed to turn it around rather quickly. Still, he wasn’t mad that she was beating him; he took this as a learning experience, and truth be told it was fun. “Maybe one day I’ll get better at this.” He said out loud as he looked at the board one last time.

Mika smiled as he nearly won one of their games, she did take it easy on him at first but she quickly realized he had caught on to that, or it had seemed like it and he didn't seem to be having fun when she had, at least to her it didn't seem that way, so she had started to play properly, and of course she won, but she also seen him improving quickly "Yeah... holding back was a stupid Idea, how would he get better if I didn't play properly?" she thought to herself, as they continued to play, but once she started to play properly she noticed him getting more into the game and they ended up playing for hours and eating while they played.

as they ended she smiled up at him as he said she was good at the game and she nodded "Well I have been playing this longer, my parents have some problems beating me now, so I am starting to even beat them now" she giggled as she moved her rook to lock him into a checkmate ending that game.

"You will get better the more you play, you can study and study other people play and read up strategies but actually doing it helps you get a better feel for the game and learn yourself, That's what my Parents told me anyway" she said smiling as he looked at the board.

"Well it's also My parents wanted me to learn logical thinking because I had wanted to be a courier and out in the land of Echoes it could be a dangerous thing to do, so knowing how to do things and think ahead was important, then the family grew and we moved out here to the republic and well it became important for me becoming a Shinobi" she said with a smile as she looked back at Max.

"I have a lot to make up for when it comes to becoming a ninja, kind of like you here with Chess, I have more knowledge and experience, I have to start at nothing and catch up to everyone here at the academy who grew up around this stuff and all come from clans that likely gave them all special training or teachings or something, so I just have to work hard to catch up, and eventually I will become at least passable as a Shinobi" she said with confidence still rather blind to her own situation.

“You’ll do just fine.” He said before standing up and brushing the dust off his clothes. It was time for them to part ways yet again but he’d be lying if said he didn’t enjoy his time with her. She was one of the few kids that didn’t look at him funny nor was she one of the weirdoes that frequented the academy so she was a good person in his eyes. “I think it’s time for me to go, I have to meet an instructor about something important, I hope we can hang out again soon.” He said before turning around and walking away. It was time for him to get something important done since playtime was over.

-Exit

Mika smiled as she cleaned up the things from the Cafeteria, and the impromptu chessboard she had made, but she looked up when Max had gotten up and brushed off his clothing, she continued to clean up the things they had brought for the meal and the game, as he spoke and he mentioned having to go see and instructor about something her antenna drooped a bit as she heard that, she had hopped they could talk more as they took the things back to the cafeteria but she nodded and smiled up at him "Ah okay take care of yourself" she said as he left and she finished cleaning things up.

Looking to the Chessboard she had made for their game she had meant to give it to him as a present after the game, but he had left rather quickly and he seemed to be in a hurry, she would save the pieces and the board itself to give to him later when she ran into him again, it just meant she would have to carry it with her till then to make sure she could give it to him, thankfully doing so wouldn't be to much of an issue since she had four hands, and she could time up the pieces in a cloth or something... OH or she could make a box for them to help keep them neat in his room? She smiled at the thought as she got things together to make that before leaving to take things back to the cafeteria.

~Exit