So… Yeah, okay, today had been pretty weird. And apparently they didn’t have any classes, even though Kiri (and everyone else) had been so sure that this was supposed to be the first day of school. There was, however, a more pressing matter. Kiri had noticed it when the class met those three strange people. It was hard not to notice, really.
There was a tree she hadn’t climbed.
She found her way back to the courtyard and made a beeline straight for that big tree. Maybe she could see something interesting from up there, if she went high enough. Maybe she’d just see the walls of Hope’s Peak.
Or maybe she’d get distracted by a cute girl entering the courtyard while Kiri was still climbing. When the white-haired girl walked in, Kiri greeted her with a grin and waved down from her spot halfway up the tree.
If Kiri weren’t hanging from a tree, she’d be bouncing on her heels.
It had been long enough where Mao had avoided thinking about the black fog. She’d eaten and tried to cheer up, but the nagging feeling that she was the most likely person to figure out what was going on with the weather kept coming back. Granted, Mao wasn’t a meteorologist, but she knew way more about weather patterns than the average person. The courtyard was a better place than any to go cloud gazing. Little pieces at a time, she could check the weird fog afterwards.
Entering the courtyard, Mao looked up to the sky… only to find herself entirely wrong. Only the sun was visible and boy oh boy did that hurt her eyes. she squinted and rubbed the pain away, waddling over and leaning against the nearest tree. Ech. The sun hurt, surprise surprise.
The cry of someone above her caused Mao to instinctively squint in the direction of the call. Ah… Who was… She rubbed her eyes again, readjusting to the non-sun lighting. Oh! That was… Matsumoto? She thinks, at least. There was only so much she could memorize from merely staring at a roster.
“Helloooooo, up there!! How’s the weather?”
Wow, climbing a tree so soon? Mao glanced to her heeled boots once, tapped the heel on the grass, and decided against following. She wasn’t a climber, anyway. Still! As long as Kiri had found something to do. There was surprisingly little outside of speaking to others. No classes or books, not much of anything. Maybe the school store would have board games or something of the sort.
Mao pushed down the back of her skirt and tucked it under her knees as she sat traditionally on the ground. Her heels jutted out at an odd angle, since she hadn’t bothered taking them off first, but the forgetfulness was it’s own kind of cute.
With her eyes fully adjusted, she got a better look a Kiri. Wow… What pretty hair! Mao looked upwards from her position, watching the ascension with interest.
“You seem familiar with this kind of thing… how long til you reach the top, do you think?”
Kiri giggled at the sound of Mao’s greeting. How was the weather up here? Well, she’d have to take a look and see. She braced her feet against the tree, raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun, and looked out. Not that she could see that much through the black fog.
“The weather up here iiiiiis… nice! Except it’s gross and foggy everywhere that isn’t here.”
She pulled herself up onto the branch and sat down, swinging her legs cheerfully as she grinned down at her conversation partner.
“Weeeeeell… If I wanted to, I could climb to the top, like, suuuuuper fast. I mean, my first role was basically tree-climbing? So I’ve, like, pretty much always been awesome at it.”
