In Tokyo Transients have to be part of a school, them's the rules. Still, not everyone can go to school during normal people hours like spirits and night demons, so they go to night school instead. The main night school is in the Sleepless Nightless City of Kabukicho, way past its shopping district and neon signs. It's got a huge metal fence around some Victorian ass looking building that natives who don't live in Kabukicho say you should never get near. It's filled with maneating monsters and butterfly souls of the dead they say!
Present
Green Wraith: I barely made it! I ran all this way and now I'm tired...
Blue Wraith: What. We got plenty of time before class you dumb bitch
Green Wraith: Hey wait my clock froze! Aww man...
Kabukicho Academy sure runs and acts like any other school though. The main difference between it and other schools is that most of the students are Transients and that it starts at night.
Red Yaksa: Morning! You guys are early.
Purple Wraith: You say early but it's night.
Black Wraith: Early enough for us.
These people having problems living in the light aren't limited to people with racial reasons for doing so. Some lost their homes and have moved to Kabukicho. Others just strayed into town. And now something's happening at school.
Yellow Yasha: Hi Suzuka! And Miss Ellie! Wow, you actually came to school today.
Suzuka: Hey!
Ellie: Morning...schleepy. I might sleep through class.
Blue Yaksa: Yo Suzuka. You okay for the Fes meeting later? ...a-and you can come too if you want Miss Ellie.
Suzuka: Yeah I know. That's why I brought her to school today and told her she should come in today at least.
Blue Yaksa: O-oh. Well thank you for coming! We count on Suzuka so much.
Black Yasha: You don't have to force yourself, Miss Ellie. Being a model must be t--ahh!
Ellie: It's cool. I can make time if I feel like it. I even got a costume.
Black Yasha: ...o-okay, I'm sorry. T-thank you...
Others talk to Suzuka and Ellie too. People are clearly friendly with Suzuka and awkward with Ellie, especially as Ellie is drawing a crowd at a distance. Suzuka seems more bothered by this than Ellie.
Suzuka: ...you sure this is fine, Ellie? You can tell me if you're uncomfortable and--
Ellie: It's all cool Suzuka. So what if people crowd up at arm's length from me like they always do? That's nothing new.
A chill goes down Suzuka's back.
Ellie: It's how I am when I approach the True Ancestor and all. Anyways...
Ellie looks at a flyer the school passed out for the Festival they're running that has why it was set up and what its goals are written on it.
Ellie: "School festivals are for deepening relationships between students, Transients or otherwise, and for helping them find a place to belong. Kabukicho's school festival has the students take charge to handle the prep and organization to promote school unity." ...well okay. The teachers are giving us something hard. Also that reminds me, when people say Fes, they mean our school festival right?
Suzuka: Yeah, organizers from each class got together while you were out to hash it out.
Flashback
Green Yaksha: Hey how about we shorten Kabukicho Academy School Festival to ChoFes to make it cuter?
Green Wraith: Yeah! Actually, how about we shorten it further to Fes?
Not Fergus: Whichever. But what the hell do they mean by unity!?
Black Yaksha: These words are breaking my brain and now I can't write music!
Organizers were quickly elected when classes were told they'd be the ones to make the festival work. Everyone's enthusiastic, but some of the students are worried about how formal the printed news on the fliers were. One of them faces the others being down.
Green Wraith: Lemme translate for you guys. "Y'all let's be BFFs by throwing Vibe Check the Festival! It'll be the shit!"
Black Wraith: You made that sound hilariously stupid, but that works for us!
Brown Wraith: So it'll be fine if we make it so we can better learn about each other?
Silver Wraith: How about we make the clothes and accessories we had in our home world?
Purple Yaksha: omg ur brain. I wanna decorate the classrooms! ...oh wait, but it's dark in there.
Red Wraith: I sleep during the day so I'm out if I gotta do any heavy lifting.
Not Fergus: Well we don't have to do it like other schools. Just do what we can, yeah?
Green Yaksa: Yeah! The Fes is for us anyway!
Silver Yasha: Let's limit the number of classes who can wear costumes to make it special. We're short on time and that's totally something a school of gangsters would agree to!
Brown Yasha: What theme do we do?
Present
Suzuka: And that's how they hammered out the plans.
Ellie: Hmm. A very Shinjuku-style Do It All Yourself kind of doing things. Kinda cool everyone here is like that.
Suzuka: Doesn't bother me either. I think it's good events are managed according to the students' wishes. And if the school is doing well, so will Kabukicho itself.
Suzuka speaks favorably, but part of her looks unhappy. Ellie notices, but before she can ask...
Suzuka: ...but I'm worried about whether you'll be able to enjoy the Fes you decided to join in on. Especially the theme this time is Vampire Castle.
The Fes is an event made for interracial understanding, but since it's also an Event if needs things for attendants to enjoy, so the night people decided to pick vampires as an attention grabber as one does.
Suzuka: I don't think they're doing this to tweak you, but it still bothers me. You're supposed to be human after all, Ellie. If you're too heavily drawn to the vampire side...
Ellie: Pffft, worrywart. But yeah being a stand-in for the neighborhood union can be a lot of work. It's nice that you think the people of Kabukicho can be put into a framework of groups though.
Ellie's life sometimes becomes the talk of the town. She has her admirers and haters, as many as the rumors flying around her. She's at the center of it all, distanced from them all so much that it's hard to see her for who she really is. The Kabukicho students have their own ideas too and look at her as the Kabukicho Queen from a distance. Suzuka's the only one to walk around school with her, which is exactly why she worries about her.
Ellie: I'm fine Suzuka, I'm always doing whatever I feel like. And maybe the vampire theme was made for me as Queen? Everyone in class recommended me to handle cosplaying, so I wanna do that one costume. I'm still just doing what I want.
Suzuka: Oh. Well if you're that into it, I'm fine with it. (smiles as if she worried for nothing)
Ellie: Oh right, that one costume. Thanks for getting it ready. I'm looking forward to the design your friend makes.
Suzuka: Yeah it'll be great. She's the one who made my suit, so she's sure to surprise a model like you.
Classes start, and school goes on just like it does for any other place. Since it's a night school, the students have a moonlit night sky to look at instead. The moon is a fickle thing, sometimes up when classes start and sometimes down at that time. The students admire it for being so whimsical.
Two teachers enter a classroom.
Kresnik: Hello everyone. The school festival...the Fes as you've chosen to call it? It's good to see you're making good progress on it.
Purple Yasha: Heeey, come help us Nicky. You must not have anything to do if you're just doing the rounds.
Kresnik: I am patrolling, I'll have you know. Very important teacher work. Figure out the preparations yourselves.
Red Wraith: Then how about cancelling class until the Fes is over, Krester? Come on, talk to the headmaster for us?
Kresnik: Students are supposed to be learning, so cancelling class in favor of events is counterproductive. And as I've said already, stop calling me by nicknames.
Red Wraith: Boo, you're no fun. It's too long to call you by your name and title!
After night school, some of the students work all night on getting the festival ready in what little time they have. Kresnik is there to check on the students staying, but...as soon as he talks to them they drop what they're doing to talk to him. Also they treat him more like an equal than a teacher.
Sandayu: Aww, you get along so well with them Kresnik-Sensei. You using all your teacher's luck to get them to like you so much?
Kresnik: ...you can just say they don't respect me as a teacher, Mister Sandayu.
Kresnik's coworker just smirks and watches him.
Sandayu: Hey y'all, how 'bout a nickname for a lil ol' man like me? (casually joins the conversation)
Kresnik: (Old man?)
Students: What's wrong with Sandayu?
Sandayu: HEY you can't just call me by my first name!
Kresnik acts serious while Sandayu jokes around with them. They're opposite approaches, but both want admiration from the students. A thoughtless remark or a problematic action could turn into a commotion in Tokyo's teaching community. But their being able to communicate without crossing lines is thanks to mutual permissive relationships.
Kresnik: (...maybe that's what the students are feeling, but I'm sure it's also because he has real skills.)
Kresnik thinks about Sandayu's previous job before he was a teacher as he investigated him for reasons some other time. In Wa no Kuni there are several ninja groups and one of them was the Iga. The Iga had what they called like the Three Masters and all of them were Sandayu. He used the body split ability to act as all three to raise ninjas, be a skilled teacher and act as an Agent familiar with the human mind as he keeps as conveniently close to the students as he wants. He can slip away into the night, without anyone noticing.
Purple Yasha: ...what's up Nicky? Hungry? Bathroom?
Kresnik: Am I a large animal to you people or something? Never mind. Anyways I remembered I had some work left, so we should be going back to the teacher's office. Let's go, Mister Sandayu.
Sandayu: See y'all tomorrow! Don't stay up too later!
The two leave, so many responsibilities to hold in their respective positions. It's still not time.
End of Episode half
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