Astral Academy/Story/Rewrite

## Chapter One

Asahi didn't dare touch that letter.

It was an invitation to a school called "Astral Academy". It had a paper showing all of the rules, a map, and other cautions you should let a kid/parents know before they go to a new school.

It was the evening on July 30. The orange rays of the setting sun went through his windows, and it made him feel tired. He was staring at the letter for a long period of time, ever since his mother got it out of the mailbox.

*"Asahi, this letter is directed to you," she said, handing him a letter. "You should take the time to read it."*

Admittedly, he just skimmed through it and didn't bother to read it in detail. But just staring at it isn't going to make it go away, right? Thinking that, he sighed and opened it up again.

"*Niyada Asahi, you're invited to Astral Academy, which starts on August 2. If you plan to attend, please go to XXX by 9:00 on August 1.*" he read out loud.

"*In this letter contains the school policy and a map. Please take this letter with you when you visit to confirm that you are a student.*"

"Why is this so formal..." he muttered to himself before starting to read again. "*This is the school policy... any violations of this will result in a penalty. This will usually end up being a conversation with your dorm leader unless it's been happening repeatedly.*" He skipped over most of the policy since rules never really mattered.

"*Extra notes: Dress code can be any gothic-style blouse or collared shirt with the school's pin on it (it will be given to first-years at the mentioned address)... Please pack any items from home into a suitcase... Every item needed for classes will be provided... Students should also come with alternate sets of clothing for casual wear... Hoods and hats that cover your whole head are prohibited for student recognition.*"

He sighed yet again. Was this a dream? He stood up and went to converse with his mother about the matter.

Using the suitcase offered from his mother, he stuffed his most valuable items into it - the book his brother used to read with him, a stuffed bear, a box with a ring, and a treasure box. He had to make it to that school by tomorrow at noon. Time never passed by so slowly.

He looked around at his room, that he used to share with his brother. One day, he had ran away- Asahi hadn't seen him in year. Some of his clothes were still left hanging in the closet. He was the only person who would research about the two's sheep horns - most people would just ridicule them and leave it like that.

Yes, they had sheep horns. Asahi was ashamed of that. He and his brother, Niyada Kira, were born with them, and they were the only ones in the family with that trait. His brother was an avid researcher of this and would even ask renowned scientists about the cause. Was... yeah, he was. Asahi wondered if Kira still cared about or had his sheep horns.

He didn't want to reminisce anymore and decided to get a small snack. Macarons were always delicious. He could spend such a long time just sitting around and eating them.

His mother, who was gardening, came out from the backyard and saw him. "Do you have everything packed?" she inquired. Asahi nodded in response.

"That's good. I recommend you leave a little bit after I make breakfast, so you can make it earlier."

"Alright, mom."

It was the next day. His mother made him a big breakfast, as a way to "commemorate his leave". Eggs, waffles, pancakes, sausages.. He usually never ate this much, but it wasn't like he could really complain.

He happily ate it all up. He went back to his room to grab his suitcase and the letter, before going back to the entrance hall. He really couldn't grasp the reality of his situation - he would be leaving his mother to attend this school. He was about to cry, while holding his suitcase... he didn't want to be alone... again.

"Good luck, Asahi," his mother said to him. He wiped away the tears threatening to fall before giving her a sad smile. "Thank you, mom." He then ran off into the town.

He ran as fast as he could to the designated address- there were many people on the streets during this hour and he didn't want anyone to see his horns. Eventually, he reached it.. it looked like an alley.

Why would a school lead kids to an alley? Curious, he stepped in, and eventually saw a set of stairs that led downwards. What kind of crazy, underground school could this be? As he came down, it looked like a train station. However, there were a lot of highschool kids waiting.

"Hello," said somebody with purple hair. They had waist-length purple hair, along with a purple cape and a crown. "ID or letter?"

Asahi opened his suitcase to look for the letter, which he then handed to the person. They checked it before beckoning for his suitcase,i and then they taped a slip of paper with his name on it and handed it to someone he couldn't see.

"I'm Kosui Kaori, by the way. Male, student council president. You can head over to the purple rollercoasters there."

Rollercoasters... that was their method of transportation? Asahi just couldn't believe it. He walked over to the purple rollercoaster he mentioned, and, staring at it for a good while, he picked the seat with the least people - he was only next to a boy with fire-ish green hair in a ponytail. They awkwardly said hello to each other.

"Hi..." said the boy. "I'm Takumei Akihiko. It's nice to meet you." Asahi nodded back as a way to say *it's nice to meet you too*. He looked at the people in front of him. There was a red-haired girl with a crystal attached to the top of her head. Asahi wondered how that crystal got there. It didn't look like the standard accessory.

Suddenly, a boy jumped into the spot next to Asahi. He had messy and dark brown hair, yellow eyes, and a brown coat over a black blouse and a brown bow.

The most noticeable thing about him were those thin, spider legs on his back.

"Haha, it looks like all of us sitting here have problems!" he announced, making Asahi and Akihiko look at him with weird eyes. "What?"

"The green boy has fire next to his body, the cute one has sheep horns, and I have spider legs that work as arms for some reason. Say "yay" to having physical problems!"

The two of them didn't respond. Asahi was ignoring the fact that this boy just described him as the "cute one". He never cared that much about his appearance.

"I'm Sayu Kurunu, a criminal hiding from the police," he introduced. Wow, this boy was weird. Asahi couldn't even get the guts to respond. "I see... I'm Asahi Niyada." Asahi had only known Sayu for a few minutes, but they would most likely not have a good time together in school.

"*Notice: The train will start soon. Please fasten your seatbelts.*"

Huh? Asahi seemed to lose track of time. He looked up at the top of the rollercoaster/train, and saw a glass roof being put over it. Akihiko had fasten the seatbelts for all three of them causing Sayu to kick around like a child. "It's starting it's starting it's starting!!" he exclaimed. "Please be quiet..." Akihiko muttered under his breath.

It began to move, briefly shocking Asahi. If there was one thing he was scared of when he was a child, it had to be rollercoasters. It was moving relatively slow though, but it was fine. He closed his eyes as the train continued to exit the station. If it wasn't for that announcer, he would've been fast asleep by now.

"*Notice: At 12:00, every student will be handed a meal of their choice. Menus will be handed out at around 11:30 am.*"

"They'll make food? While in this train?" Akihiko was pondering. Asahi didn't think it was all that uncommon- aren't you sometimes given food in airplanes? However, he only went on a plane once.

The train exited the station, and instead of there being solid ground, there was nothing there but the sky. How could there be rails floating in the sky? "W-we're in the sky?!" Akihiko asked, and when Asahi turned around to see him, he looked like he was panicking. "Are you alright? Could it be that you're scared of heights?" Sayu asked.

"That doesn't matter," Akihiko said. The person in front of them, with light brown hair, turned around to face their row. "Akihiko, you've always been scared of heights, haven't you?"

Akihiko stood back a little bit. "Haha... well, I can't argue with you. We went on a ferris wheel once together and I was convinced that I was about to die."

The two of them laughed, and Asahi was just sitting there like he was a third wheel. "Sorry for butting in like that," the boy said. "I'm Shakkuri Mizumi, Akihiko's childhood friend." Akihiko nodded. They then went back to talking.

"How's your brother doing? Zenya," Mizumi asked.

"I... he... I haven't seen him in a long while," Akihiko responded, in a low whisper so others couldn't hear, and he looked very sad. "I told him that I was invited to Astral Academy, and he only smiled and said 'I'm happy for you'. I haven't seen him... since he won't come out of his room."

"Oh," Mizumi said. He went back to his seat. Asahi hoped Akihiko's brother was doing alright. That discussion seemed to have made the atmosphere gloomy, but it's colors came back when a menu dropped onto Asahi's lap. "Is that the food menu?" Sayu asked almost immediately, scooting over next to Asahi. Akihiko also went closer to see.

It was full of fast-food options like burgers and fries, something completely unexpected for a school like this. There were also good drink options. Suddenly, the lunch lady was going around and asking what people would like to order. She quickly got to the back of the first-year section.

"I'll have pasta and a fruit smoothie," said Akihiko. "A.. pizza for me, and lemonade." The lady turned to Sayu expectantly. "Give me whatever. Preferably your worst." She nodded, jotted our orders down, and walked back to the front.

"What did you mean by that?" Akihiko asked, looking at Sayu. "I want to see if they can give me food poisoning."

"Please don't get food poisoning," Asahi murmured, but Sayu could still hear him.

Suddenly, conveyor belts appeared (seemingly from nowhere) and was in between and to the side of every row. Plates of food started to roll down, people grabbing the one with their name attached.

It was pretty normal. That is, until Sayu's meal arrived. Then, the conveyor belts stopped moving so that students could eat using them.

When he said "give me your worst," they really listened. It was pasta with an unnatural amount of red sauce and some... eyeballs poking out. And some garlic!

"What... is that?" Akihiko asked. His tone was both serious and scared, but he was showing clear disgust.

"It's the worst they could give me," said Sayu, grabbing his fork. "Blood pasta."

Asahi looked away from him when he ate it, but he noticed that Sayu wasn't even fazed from eating what looked like human eyeballs. He ate his pizza slowly.

"Do you not eat eyeballs? Sometimes they're a good snack," he said to Asahi. Asahi scooted as far away from him as he possibly could, like Sayu was the plague. "Sa- Kurunu. Please don't talk to me ever again."

Unexpectedly, Sayu stayed quiet. Still a bit nervous, Asahi went back to where he was sitting originally and started to drink his lemonade. You could never go wrong with some lemonade.

Asahi couldn't remember much of what happened next. After lunch, he got sleepy and fell asleep almost immediately. Sayu was discussing doing *things* to him, but got quickly shut down by Akihiko every time. "Don't cause Asahi any trouble."

He woke up to the announcer's voice saying that they arrived. He opened his eyes to see he was in another station- the school's station.

"So this is Astral Academy..."

## Chapter Two

The walls were brown, illuminated with lanterns. Over to the side, there was a long staircase.

There was a line of people grabbing their suitcases. He waited until it was his turn.

The purple haired boy from before handed him his suitcase as well as a small pin. "This is the pin which is part of the dress code. You are required to wear it during school hours," he paused to shuffle through some papers. "You're in... dorm A. Okay, next?"

The person behind him went up to get their suitcase. Asahi walked forward, while dragging his suitcase. The map which was part of the letter was still in the case, so he crouched down and took it out. It was bigger than he thought- even maps of the separate dorms. Zipping his suitcase back up, he went back to what he was doing- finding wherever he was supposed to go next.

He walked up the stairs, his suitcase following him. He ended up in a courtyard. There were a bunch of students there.. Asahi noticed that some of their suitcases were moving without the person directly holding them- was that the kind of magic you would learn here? Ignoring that, he took a look around the area.

It really looked like a plaza. There were restaurants on the side with people eating, shops and stores, literally everything. All tied together by a silver-gold fountain with benches next to it. However, he couldn't sit around for too long. There was a section off to the side with a sign saying "Dorms". He remembered the boy saying he was in dorm A.

He went towards it. There were four crystals with labels above them- A, B, C, and D. In front of him, was that red-haired girl he saw on the train. Her hair seemed to be sparkling, like all of it was made out of crystal. She placed her hand on the crystal and she disappeared. Asahi followed suit.

He appeared in what looked like a living room. It seemed like a house. There were tables, pillows for chairs, pretty-looking rugs, brown columns and beautiful hardwood floors. It had a cozy feeling to it. There were a whole bunch of people, and they all looked different. He moved himself to another place so people could continue to enter.

Also, by the wall was a window. Through the glass, you could clearly see the clouds of the skies below. Asahi still couldn't believe that they were in the sky. A school like this, that was floating in the sky.

The next person to appear was Sayu, and he literally crashed into the room. Everyone was giving him weird looks, but he only stood up and said "Sorry".

Asahi took a look at the people around the room - the students he would be in a dorm with for the rest of the year. There was a girl with blue twintails, two people who looked like twins, two girls with long hair and poofy dresses, someone wearing a very heavy coat, and... and...

Almost intentionally, Kosui walked in. Asahi did think he looked very beautiful. Someone could easily mistake him for a girl. "Everyone is here, right?" he asked. How was he supposed to know?

"I'm pretty sure," said that guy with the heavy coat. "I see. Then, in a means to be polite, we should do introductions."

Was he this formal in casual talk? Ignoring that, he took a seat with the other students on the pillows. He was next to Akihiko and a girl with ash-gray hair.

The Sparkling Crystal-Haired Girl, as Asahi now nicknamed her, spoke up first. "I'm Arefure Ari, and it's my first year."

"Nakigoto Akira, second year." This was the boy with the messy coat.

"Kurunu Sayu, first year!"

"I'm Niyada Asahi, in my first year," Asahi said. He never liked talking, but it's better than saying it last.

"Seito Shinai and Kanegari. Second years," The two twin-looking people said that at the same time. They looked like mirror counterparts.

"Tsuri Liz," said the blue pigtailed girl. She didn't even bother to say her year? Asahi could tell she was a second year, though.

Asahi started to zone out as the other introductions went by. He heard the names Takumei Akihiko, Kagami Namida, Zanai Mirukream, and Shakkuri Mizumi. It was when that last person spoke where Asahi snapped out of it.

"I'm Niyada Kira. I'm a second year."

Asahi felt like his world was falling apart in front of him. His brother, who ran away and was never seen for over a year, was just at this school. He looked relatively the same - short gray hair along with the sheep horns that were completely identical to his. "Ki..."

He didn't speak. He couldn't even get his name out. He gave Asahi a sad look, before going back to Kosui. "So, what are we doing now?"

The announcer's voice filled the room again. "*This year, we have decided to give new dorm rooms to all students. Please take a look when you have a chance.*"

Asahi saw some people immediately running for the dorm areas. I guess it wouldn't hurt to check...?

There were silver nameplates on the doors of each room. Tsuri Liz/Seito Shinai... Resatto Erizu/Niyada Kira... Takumei Akihiko/Shakkuri Mizumi... Arefure Ari/Kagami Namida... he kept walking until he saw his own name.

On one of the last rooms of the hall, there was his.

*Niyada Asahi/Kurunu Sayu*.

Sayu. He felt perplexed. Why with Sayu again? Sighing, he opened the door to the dorm.

It was relatively clean. Well, not like it would be for long with Sayu being his roommate. There were two beds with a wall of glass behind it, along with two dressers with lamps atop them, and a carpet. Knowing Sayu, Asahi thought that he would break the glass within a week of living there.

The ride had made him dizzy, so he placed his suitcase onto the dresser before tucking himself into bed.