//------------------------------//
// The First Day 
// Story: Sunset at Shujin 
// by ultiville 
//------------------------------//

Monday 4/11

By chance or providence, Sunset's time at Shujin Academy began nearly immediately.  She'd been in the world for roughly two days, and it was the first day of the school year.  She knew this was a spring month, and not much else. 

For all she'd become a weaker, disturbingly furless, ape-minotaur, she felt strangely at home, and mostly not in good ways.  Her single-minded but hidden devotion to revolution had made her a recluse, so the long stares she got from her fellow students on her way from the train station to the school were sadly familiar.

Though it was maybe just as well.  She'd stayed up all night in her new dorm room, trying to find her footing in this world, but she'd barely scratched the surface.  She'd started with the ancient encyclopedia on the minimally stocked bookshelves.  Then Hifumi, the (thankfully very nice) girl she shared a suite with, had come out, confused, and told her about the computer.  So she'd moved to that.

Still, between the time wasted with the encyclopedia, struggling with the mouse and keyboard, and then with the staggering scale of the Internet, she felt barely improved by the time the sun was coming up and she needed to get ready for school.  She was glad she had gone with "total amnesia"  when she'd been taken in, because her Equestrian knowledge seemed so useless here it was basically the truth.  She supposed she should be happy that the portal left her able to speak the language, though it also worried her.  Not only did losing her magic leave her feeling horribly weak and vulnerable, it meant she couldn't figure out what spell was doing the translating, making it much more likely it'd cause an obscure misunderstanding.

That being out of her control, she tried to remind herself to take pride in what she had accomplished.  Just figuring out how to get to school in the first place was an unexpected challenge - the Tokyo region alone had more train lines and stations than all of Equestria, and they overlapped in dizzying ways.  She wasn't sure she'd have been able to manage it if Hifumi hadn't checked in with her before going to bed and made sure she understood the situation.  But she was here, with time to spare, even.  She had all of the books and supplies called for in the student handbook, which she'd read.  She had a lunch.  She seemed likely to survive at least until the end of the day.

She had to keep reminding herself to adjust for being turned into a magic-deprived biped on a vastly different world, making these actually difficult things to do.  The opposite perspective, that suddenly she was less competent than a foal, didn't seem like it'd improve her mental state.

And if the stares of her new classmates were anything to go by, it'd need all the help it could get.  She still wasn't confident she could read humans very well, so she hoped she was just wrong.  Unfortunately as the narrower streets leading to Shujin's entrance forced them closer together, she started to overhear their conversations.

"Two weird transfer students in 2-D in one year?  Ugh, we have the worst luck."

"At least she's not a criminal like he is."

"Yeah but look at her hair!  And is that a spray-tan?  Who does that?  Besides, I hear she can't remember anything.  She could be a criminal too!"

"If she can't remember anything, how's she going to pass her classes?"

Sunset shook her head to clear the sleepy cobwebs, which seemed to shock the gossiping girls behind her into silence.  Deciding she couldn't do anything about it except prove them wrong, she reported to the faculty office.  Akechi had warned her that her admission was a special favor and very late, so she'd have to go there to meet her homeroom teacher and get a brief introduction.  When she arrived, she found another student waiting at the door.  She couldn't tell if he was nervous about going in, but he certainly stood out, and she wondered if he was the second transfer student the girls had been talking about.

He was pale-skinned and dark-haired, like almost all the humans she'd met.  (Her brief Internet research let her know that this was partially because she was in Japan, though no humans seemed to be naturally colorful the way she was used to.)  He was tall compared to most of the other students, though she was about his height.  His hair was fluffy if short, and he wore glasses.  As she approached, she noticed the lenses were extremely thin; either his lenses were very weak, or he wore them for fashion.

"Hi," she said awkwardly, since he was blocking the door.  "I'm new, I need to go in for a meeting."

He shrugged.  He spoke quietly but precisely.

"Same, but it's locked."

Not knowing what else to do, she searched her memory for the pleasantries she'd looked up, then extended her hand.

"Sunset Shimmer."  At her name he raised his eyebrows, which she thought meant surprise, but extended his own hand and shook.

"Akira Kurusu."  She supposed no one she'd met had names that seemed to translate into words like hers did.  Maybe that was the source of the eyebrow raise?  She wished again she could examine the spell - she wasn't sure if these body language prompts were provided, or she was misunderstanding things.

Before she could come up with anything more to say, the office door opened and a man emerged.  He was imposingly tall even to Sunset's eyes, and wore a simple athletic shirt that showed off his powerful physique.  His dark hair was longer than most of the men Sunset had met thus far, falling over his ears and out in an unruly tangle, and his features were sharp.  She once again tried not to trust her gut reads, but she didn't like the look of him.  It didn't help when he gave her a smile that somehow made her shudder, and then gave Akira a look she couldn't interpret but certainly didn't like.

"Sorry to hold you up," he said, and she read it as sincere, for whatever that meant.  "Your teacher is Ms. Kawakami, go on in."  He walked on without looking back.

They shared a look and a shrug, a gesture Sunset felt more comfortable with since her own body had done it reflexively.  Then Akira gestured, and his pause made her think she'd read it correctly as giving her the chance to go in first.  She took it.

The faculty office was full of desks, a few cluttered, most empty.  Presumably the teachers were already on the way to class.  Only one woman remained, making it easy to assume she was Ms. Kawakami, their teacher.  Both Sunset and Akira had significant height on her, and she looked generally small and unassuming.  Sunset couldn't get a read on her expression, but if she had to guess she'd have gone with "slight disappointment."  She moved aside, letting Akira follow her in, then Ms. Kawakami spoke, opening with a short sigh.

"Welcome to Shujin Academy.  I'm Ms. Kawakami and I'll be your homeroom teacher.  I think you saw Mr. Kamoshida on his way out, he's the volleyball coach.   Normally I'd introduce you to all the teachers, but with the circumstances of your transfers, there's not time.  Your student handbook has a map, and you'll mostly be in our room until clubs start anyway.  You can ask me if you need help finding something, or ask the front desk."

She paused and looked them both over.

"Akira Kurusu and, uh, Sunset Shimmer, right?"

They both nodded.  Sunset noticed Ms. Kawakami seemed to struggle a little with her name, though only a little.  It sounded like she was having trouble with some of the consonant blends, and Sunset worried that it was a quirk of the translation magic causing trouble.  Still, if she was reading Ms. Kawakami's body language right (sigh), it seemed like her teacher was embarrassed about her difficulty, rather than suspicious of Sunset.  It'd have to do.

Ms. Kawakami turned to Akira first.

"I don't want to lecture you, but be careful.  I'll do my best for you but I hope you know the school's taking a big risk.  Please be on your best behavior."  She seemed to be about to say something else, but seemed to reconsider and said instead, "at least your grades are good.  Keep that up, keep your head down, and you'll do fine."  Akira nodded, and Ms. Kawakami turned to face Sunset.

"I hear you have your own challenges.  And I'm worried being obviously foreign will be hard on you, especially if you can't even tell people where you're from.  But we'll do what we can.  You might have a lot of trouble with the course work if you don't have the same background as everyone else.  The library is open until nine in the evening on school days, so feel free to use it.  We have tutors available if you need them, just let me know.  Your scholarship covers it."  She glanced back at Akira.  "And you might consider working together.  I don't know how it happened and I'm sorry, but I've already heard students gossiping about you, though your circumstances are supposed to be confidential.  The rumors about you might make it hard to make friends, especially since most of the others have already been together a year.  You might be able to help each other out.  Think about it."

Sunset had already been thinking about this, and adjusted her opinion of Ms. Kawakami upward.  She'd read her as frazzled and put-upon, but maybe it had been her conversation with this Mr. Kamoshida?  She seemed to have learned about them and to want them to succeed, even if her warning to Akira had been odd.

Before she could consult with him on her suggestion, though, the bell rang, and she rushed them to their classroom, 2-D, to make their introductions and begin the day.  They ended up seated near each other, Akira in front of her.  In front of him was a girl who seemed to stand out nearly as much as Sunset herself.  Her skin was pinker than most of the class, though nowhere near a pink pony's coat, and her hair was the color of sun-bleached straw.

The classes were uneven.  They started with social studies, leaving her completely lost.  Luckily math, Japanese, and English were all more her speed, though whatever magic was providing the translation meant she couldn't distinguish the two languages, so she had to rely on context clues to figure out which one was being spoken to her.  Fortunately it meant she was equally adept at both, and seemed to cause her to respond appropriately.  Still, she hoped to figure it out before it really made a mess of things.

She took copious notes in any case, and planned to go over them that night with the aid of the computer.  With any luck, she could look up key terms and make sense of them.  She also planned to catch up with Akira on the way out - maybe he'd agree to help her per Ms. Kawakami's request, though she worried that if his own grades were good, he might not get much out of the deal, given how far behind she seemed to be.

He hurried out after class, while Sunset managed to get her bag entangled with her chair in a fashion she was sure was shameful.  She hurried out, hoping to catch him on the way to the station.  She saw him ahead, but just as she was getting ready to run after him, she heard a light voice calling her name.  Interestingly, this speaker didn't seem to have any difficulty with it, unlike Ms. Kawakami.  She turned and saw the straw-haired girl from class moving up behind her.

"Hey," she said, "got a minute?"

Sunset thought about saying no, but decided she already had an in with Akira.  If she didn't catch him today, she'd always be able to use Ms. Kawakami's suggestion to approach him later.  This new girl might be hurt if snubbed.

"Sure," she said, slowing down.  The other girl fell into stride next to her.

"That's a pretty name," she said.  "I've never met anyone with one like it.  Are you American?  Were your parents hippies?"

"I'm afraid I don't remember," Sunset said.

"You don't remember your parents, or where you grew up?"

"I don't remember anything," she briefly thought about being more truthful, but decided she could reconsider later.  She'd found no mention of portals, or even magic at all, in her research, so it seemed likely no one would believe the truth.  And that was an easy apology to give if she changed her mind.  So she went with her story, and the one Akechi gave her.

"I remember waking up in Shibuya Station two nights ago around midnight.  Luckily one of the employees found me while locking up.  There was a big scramble, but a nice politician named Shido used some connections for me, so here I am."  The girl was gaping, and Sunset realized they'd gotten a little out of order.  "Sorry, what's your name?"

That seemed to focus the other girl.

"Oh, sorry!  Ann Takamaki.  But you should just call me Ann!"  She extended her hand, and Sunset shook it.  "What should I call you?  Like, is Shimmer your family name, or what?"

"I've just got the one name," Sunset replied.  "You could just call me Sunset if you want it shorter.  Why did you think I might be American?"

Ann arched an eyebrow at her.

"Well, your name's a couple English words, for one, and you pronounce it like a native.  Though your Japanese is great too.  Maybe you're mixed, like me?"

Sunset wasn't sure what to do with any of that, and wasn't sure whether to curse the mirror's translation spell or be impressed.  She knew it was language agnostic from class, but she had no idea why it didn't just translate her name.  She almost let her frustration show, but realized it might give something away, and that she had an ongoing excuse that would cover a mostly honest reply.

"Honestly, I didn't even realize it was in another language."  She let her shoulders sag, which certainly felt like it released some of her frustration.

"Wow," Ann said softly.  "You know, I'd heard the rumors that you couldn't remember anything, but that's like, anything.  I'm sorry, it must be really hard."

"The rumors kept up, huh?"

Ann gave her a look she couldn't really interpret.

"Don't worry about it.  Our school's good, and there are some good people here.  Stick with them.  If you let the rumors get to you, it'll never stop."

Sunset had a sneaking suspicion, based on Ann's unusual appearance and apparent familiarity with the issue.

"I guess you get them too, huh?"

Ann giggled, surprising Sunset.

"That obvious, huh?"

"I just had a feeling.  Besides, we kind of stand out," Sunset flipped her hair.

"Yeah," Ann said.  "But hey, we'll stick together, right?  The Fabulous Hair Pair!  That's quite a dye job you have."

"Oh, you think it's dyed?"

"It's got to be, no one has hair like that naturally.  I've never seen either of those as natural shades, let alone both!  Oh, but if you don't remember where you got it done, it'll be hard once it starts growing out.  That's a really smooth separation, it's got to take some skill."  Ann looked at her and frowned.  "But your roots look perfect too..."

Sunset was about to say she didn't think it was dyed, just to curtail the concern.  But then she realized that would be even weirder, and also that she wasn't sure how the portal's magic worked - maybe it would grow out another color.  So she hedged her bets.

"Well, if it starts to go wrong, maybe you can help me find a place to fix it?"

"Sure!"  The excited tone in Ann's voice made Sunset feel like she'd made the right choice.  Still, she felt herself sagging a bit.  All this dealing with aliens was exhausting, especially since she couldn't let them know they were aliens.  She thought she'd have to start trusting her instincts more, just to avoid falling apart from sweating every minor interaction!  Besides, it was becoming rapidly obvious she wasn't going to fit in all that well no matter what.  Maybe playing into it would work to her advantage.  At least it'd be less stressful.

They'd reached the corner of the school's side street, and Sunset was surprised to find Akira standing there.  He looked at her, met her eyes, but seemed to see Ann and turn away.

Sunset turned to Ann.  "Mind if I invite him to join us?  Ms. Kawakami suggested we might want to work together.  She was worried we might have trouble finding other friends.  Though I hope she's wrong about that."

Ann nodded.  "Sure.  He seems to have his own rumor problems."

"Hey, Kusuru," Sunset called out, and Akira turned back and paused to let them catch up.  "Were you waiting for me?"

He nodded.  "But it's not urgent, if you're busy."

"We were just chatting," Ann said.  "You're welcome to join.  We were talking about rumors.  Seems like we've all got our share."

Akira raised an eyebrow at this.  "Really?  What're yours?"

Before Ann could answer, a loud noise startled Sunset, and she started.  The other two turned to the road, where a car had pulled over.  Mr. Kamoshida leaned over the passenger seat and spoke out of the lowered window.

"Hey Takamaki, you said you had a gig, right?  Want a ride?  It'll save you some time."

"Oh, no thanks," she said, "we're going over some homework.  Besides, it's in Shibuya.  You'd never get through traffic in time, the train's my best bet."

Mr. Kamoshida stared at them for a moment, and Sunset's stomach lurched.  Then he nodded and drove on.  Ann let out a long breath.

"That," she said, "is one of the stupid rumors."

Sunset wasn't sure what that meant.

"Huh?"

"Kamoshida," she spat his name out without the honorific, like a curse.  Sunset thought she heard a voice from Akira's pocket, but Ann went on before she could ask him about it.  "They say we're dating."

"But...he's a teacher, right?  Is that allowed?"

Akira and Ann both stared at her for a moment.

"She really doesn't remember anything," Ann said to Akira, then shook her head.  "Of course not.  But that doesn't always stop people, and he has a lot of pull at school, so it's believable.  And scandalous."

She lowered her voice, and Sunset and Akira leaned closer to hear.

"I keep telling him I'm busy like that to hold him off, but..."

"So, what," Akira said, "he creeps on you, and then the students blame you?  That's fucked up."

Sunset, tired and unsure of her reads as she was, had totally missed that, but suddenly her distaste for Kamoshida made horrible sense.

"Oh no," she said.  "Ann..."

"It's okay," Ann sounded nearly ready to tear up.  "What can you do?  Let's just move on."

Akira just shook his head, but Sunset wasn't ready to give up.

"Are you sure that's what you want?  You were listening to me, helping me.  I'll listen to you, if you want to talk."

"I would, too," Akira said.  "But not if I'd be butting in."

"But you just met me.  Why?"

Sunset and Akira looked at each other.  Sunset spoke first.

"Why not?  We just met, but I like you.  And even if I didn't...that's awful.  No one should go through that, especially alone."

"I...I'm not alone...I have..." Ann sobbed, and Sunset paused before putting an arm around her.  Ann leaned into her.  She turned to Akira.

"I don't know the area at all, where can we can go?"

"I just moved here, too.  But I live in a café, and no one's ever there.  It's a few stops away, though..."

Ann got herself together remarkably quickly.

"That's alright," she said, "Let's go."

She didn't make it through the train ride so cheerfully, and by the time they made their way through the twisting back streets near Yongen-Jaya station to Leblanc, she was near tears again.

The cafe's bell heralded their entrance, but only the owner was there to hear it, an older-looking man with slicked-back receding hair and, uniquely among humans Sunset had yet met, hair running down his jawline to his chin, where it was styled into a point.  When he saw them, he opened his mouth to say something, but then he saw Ann, and seemed to reconsider, pausing a bit before he spoke.

"Rough day?"  He inclined his head towards Ann, who nodded.  "Sorry to hear.  I'm Sojiro Sakura and this is my place, but I'm gonna go out and have a smoke.  Help yourselves to coffee."

They slid into a booth - one of only three in the small café - and the man walked past them out the door, where he took up station a few paces away.

"Is that your dad?"  Sunset asked Akira.

"Guardian, I guess," he shook his head and smiled a little.  "He's never been that nice before.  Anyway, we're here for you, Ann."

She sighed and nodded.

"Yeah.  Thanks."  She paused a long time, and Sunset almost said something, but Akira gave her a tiny shake of his head.  Finally Ann seemed to gather herself.

"He's pretty new.  He started last year, just like us.  My friend Shiho's on the volleyball team, but she never talked about it much.  I thought maybe she wasn't that serious about it, you know, lots of people just do clubs for fun.  And we didn't  get to be close until partway through the year, so it wasn't news then.

"Then I had a shoot cancelled last September, and she had a game that day, so I figured I'd go by and watch.  She's so good!  I loved watching her, but I caught him staring at me a few times.  I'd never run into him before that.

"After the game, I told her how awesome she was, but she just started crying.  It turned out she wasn't talking about it to protect me, the idiot.  She'd been so excited about him, everyone was.  He's got an Olympic gold medal, normally someone like that would be coaching at college.  It was a great opportunity.

"And it started out fine, he's a great player.  But he isn't a great coach, and he got frustrated with the kids.  He started doing 'practice matches' when he was upset, and he'd spike on people hard.  They got bruised up, but he liked it.

"Then some of the girls noticed him staring at them, or touching them too much.  You know, coaching needs touching sometimes, but they felt like it was off.  No one knew what to do.  He's a teacher, and an Olympian!  So they started working harder and harder.  They hoped if they didn't mess up, he wouldn't punish them."

She buried her head in her hands for a long moment.

"I don't think that works on guys like that," Akira said.  Ann raised her head and nodded.

"Yeah, it didn't.  Shiho thought he got a little less abusive, but he got creepier.  He started doing things like coming into the girls' locker room after practice, with some excuse like talking about strategy.   And he got touchier during practice.

"By the fall, when I went to that game, they were winning a ton, but that just made it worse.  He was the talk of the school, so no one could say anything.  Everyone worried someone would end up in the hospital, or he'd try something really serious with one of the girls.

"And ever since he saw me that day, he's been doing it to me, too.  He doesn't see me at school, but he does it after and before.  He got my phone number somehow and he keeps calling to ask me to 'hang out' with him.  I keep making excuses.  I was hoping he'd come to his senses over the break.  But I didn't think he would, and today clinches it.  It's the first day and he's already like that!"

"Why don't the other teachers stop him?"  Sunset had never even heard of anything like this in Equestria, and couldn't help clenching her fists.  Apparently that was a human rage reaction - it made her feel like she'd stomped her hooves.

"I think they don't know," Ann said.  "But even if they did, the board loves him, the principal loves him.  I just...I don't know what we can do.  But thanks for listening.  It's funny, it does feel better to talk."  She managed a weak smile.

Sunset couldn't take it anymore.  She stood, causing both of the others to jerk backwards.

"He's nothing but a petty tyrant.  I don't know what I can do either, but I will help you, Ann.  I swear, I will defeat Kamoshida."

A tinny, female voice broke the silence.

"Candidate found."

Ann and Akira started again, and Sunset turned to look at him.

"I heard that voice last time Ann said his name, from your pocket.  What was it?"

Akira reached into said pocket.

"No idea, all that's in there is my phone," he pulled it out, and frowned at the screen.  "Wait, it's that app!"

He put the phone on the table, and all three leaned over it.  The screen showed a black and red interface, with a creepy-looking eyeball logo in the top corner.  Three text boxes formed the rest of the UI.  The first was labeled "Candidate", and contained the name "Suguru Kamoshida."  The second, "Location," and third, "Distortion," were both blank.

"What's that?"  Ann leaned closer.

"It's some app that installed itself on my phone," Akira said.  "I had a weird feeling in Shibuya, then it was there.  I thought I deleted it though."  He moved to manipulate the phone, but Sunset stopped him.

"Wait!  I know I don't remember things, but...that's not normal, right?"

"It might be malware," Akira said, then went on at her blank look.  "Sometimes people sneak damaging programs onto your phone."

Sunset took out her own phone, provided by Akechi.

"Huh," she said, looking at her app list, "isn't that the same picture?"

She pressed the red and black eye icon on her phone.  She barely noticed the same three fields popping up, because when she touched it she felt, faint and slightly alien but unmistakable, something she'd missed more than she realized: a tiny jolt of magic.  She nearly lost her footing, and sat back down heavily to recover.

"You okay?"  Ann asked.

"Fine.  Look, it's the same thing.  But I just got my phone yesterday."

"Hey," Ann said, "I have it too."

"I'm gonna delete it again," Akira said.

"I'm not!"  Sunset desperately wanted to know where that magic had come from, and how she sensed it without her horn.  "Isn't it too strange?  It knows who Kamoshida is--"

"Candidate found," the tinny female voice echoed from the girls' phones now that they'd opened the app.

"...or at least recognizes the name.  We were just saying there was nothing we could do.  But maybe somehow this can help!  I want to check it out."

Ann nodded.  "Yeah.  Don't they make, like, sex offender trackers?  In America at least.  Maybe he's done this before.  Even the school couldn't ignore it if he had a legal history, it'd be a scandal!"

Akira nodded.  "But we need a location, and a 'distortion', whatever that is.  How can we figure out what that means?"

"Why don't we press this 'help' button?"  Sunset gestured to the bottom corner of her screen.  The other two looked at her like she was, well, an alien.

"What?  We want to know what it does, and it has help."  She lay her phone on the table and pressed the button, causing a text box to appear.

The metaverse navigator app locates palaces and facilitates entry to the metaverse.  To enter a palace, you must discover three pieces of information.  The candidate is an individual with strongly distorted desires, powerful enough to manifest independently in the metaverse as a palace.  The location is the corporeal location of the palace, likely the place associated most strongly with the distorted desire.  The distortion is the form that location takes within the candidate's perceptions and desires.  Once you have entered all three pieces of information, the Enter button will become visible, allowing entry to the metaverse.  Please note: the Enter button will only function at or in close physical or metaphysical proximity to the location.

"Um," Ann said, "that doesn't look like a sex offender app.  What does any of this mean?"

"Distorted desires..."  Sunset pondered.  "Well, he certainly has those.  But what's a 'metaverse'?  I uh, don't recognize the word."

"I don't think it's a real word," Akira said.  "It sounds like some sci-fi term for another dimension."

"Another...dimension..."  Sunset wondered if the jolt of magic she'd felt was a link to Equestria.  Could she have caused this app to appear?  Would it take her back, right into the hooves of an angry Princess?

Meanwhile, Akira seemed to have been reading the help text on his own screen and mulling it over.

"This location thing...it seems more like a parallel world.  It sounds like a variation on a real place."

"Oh!"  Ann perked up.  "I used to love superhero shows!  You mean like, when they go into the world where all the heroes are evil and all the villains are good?"

Akira nodded.  "Look at all this stuff about distortions and distorted desires.  Maybe like one of those episodes where everything turns into how the heroes imagine it?"

"Only it's not the hero," Sunset said, "it's the villain."  Akira nodded.

Ann frowned.  "But...this isn't real, right?  Some random kids get a smartphone app that accesses another dimension?  That doesn't happen."

No one spoke for a long while, and Sunset tried to gather her thoughts.  In the end, though, she had an oath, and there was a tyrant.

"I don't know what happens and what doesn't," she said.  "But I meant what I said, Ann.  I'll bring him down.  If there's any chance this app can help, I'm going to find out."

Akira nodded.  "I'm in too.  What the hell.  Why mess with a good thing?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's how I ended up at Shujin, I'll--"

"Location found."  The words "Shujin Academy" appeared on the "Location" line of each of their apps.

"Uh, I'll tell you later," Akira finished.  "Let's figure this out, it's getting late, and Mr. Sakura's been gone a while.  If it's just some prank, no harm done."

"No surprise about the location," Ann said.  "It says the 'place most associated with the distorted desires,' after all.  But what's up with this last one?  The jargon is really messing with me."

Sunset hoped she'd do better, being used to magical terminology herself, but none of this was familiar.

"Maybe it's how he thinks about the school?"  Akira said.  "This language is all about his mind.  So some kind of metaphor or something?"

"So like a harem?"  Ann said.

"No match found," the app said.

"How does it know when we're guessing instead of just talking?  That's freaky."  Ann shook her head at it.

Sunset was less surprised, already knowing the app had a bit of magic to it.  "Well, at least we know that's the right kind of guess.  What else could it be?"

"It was a good guess I think," Akira said, "let's think of similar things.  Ann, sorry to ask you, but you know him best.  How does he feel creepy?  Do you think it's more a sex thing, or a power thing?"

"Oh, I get you," Ann said.  "I keep putting him off, so I'm not really sure.  Ugh, I don't want to have to try to seduce him for info or something!"

"No," Sunset said, "don't do that, we don't even know it works!  Let's think about it more.  Why would he think he could get away with this?"

"Same reason we do," Ann said, "the team's on fire and the school loves him."

"Maybe he thinks it's his right," Akira said.  "He deserves it because of his value to the school."

"Like that medieval lord thing with the brides," Ann said.

"Droit du seigneur," Akira said, "I don't think it was a real thing.  But he might not know that.  What would that make him think of the school as?"

"I still like harem," Ann muttered.  "But uh, a palace?"

"No match found."

"A castle?"

"Match found."

They all fell silent and stared at their phones.  On each screen, the three text boxes had been replaced with a single grey button bearing the eye logo and labeled "Enter."

A long silence reigned.  Sunset didn't know what the others were thinking, but she couldn't help feeling a little thrill, even through her fatigue.  When she held her hand close to the phone, she could sense a tingle of magic, like when another unicorn touched her with their field.  If they'd been at the school, she'd have pressed it immediately.

"Well," Ann said.  "I'm in.  If it might help Shiho, I'll press it.  Bring on a parallel dimension, or whatever.  Even if it's probably a meme."

"I'll do it because it might help you," Akira said.

"Yeah," Sunset said.  "And he needs to go down."

The door jingled as the owner came back in.

"Beautiful night for it," he said.  Sunset detected none of the foul smell of the Shibuya smoking area on him.  "But it's getting dark.  Don't you kids need to get home?"

"My dorm curfew isn't until nine-thirty," Sunset said, "in case I need to use the library."

"My parents trust me," Ann said.

"Lucky you.  But I need to close up shop, and I bet this guy has some cleaning to do upstairs," he went on.

It was pretty clearly a dismissal, and Ann seemed to be ready to accept it, but Sunset decided she might as well benefit from her social cluelessness.

"I'll help clean up," she said, "it's the least I can do after you offered us coffee."

"But you didn't drink any," he rubbed the back of his neck, but didn't seem to be interested in forcing the issue.

"Don't worry," Ann said, "I'll help too, so you don't need to worry about chaperoning."

"Jeez, that just makes it sound like I should worry.  What's wrong with you kids?"

"I just want to help my friend," Sunset said.

"It's your first day, you're friends already?"  He turned to Akira.  "You work fast, kid.  Maybe you're not as hopeless as I thought.  Don't try anything though, I'll be here until at least ten cleaning up."  He turned to Sunset, "So I expect to see you scampering out to meet your curfew before I go, miss..."

"Sunset Shimmer," she said, extending her hand.  "Thanks so much for your hospitality."

He nodded.  "Sojiro Sakura, but if you're a friend of his, call me Sojiro.  Weird name you've got, but you're alright."  He turned to Ann.  "And you?"

"Ann Takamaki.  We're classmates of Akira, and Sunset's a transfer student too.  Us misfits have to stick together!"

"All right, all right, too much youthful energy for this old man.  Get on with it, shoo."

Sunset had no idea how to assess human living situations, and Akira's loft was at least larger than her dorm room, but Ann had strong feelings.

"This place is a dump!  Sojiro seemed nice, how'd he stick you somewhere like this?"

Akira sighed.  "It was last minute.  I said I'd tell you, come on, we'll talk while we clean."

They started in.  The space was a good size, but cluttered with the classic contents of a storage room - books, boxes, a strange two-wheeled metal thing Sunset didn't recognize - most of it strewn on the floor.  It looked pretty doable to organize it and store it and still leave plenty of room to live in, but it would be a lot of work.  Still, there were three of them, and they started in as Akira narrated his own story

"It was at the end of last term.  I was walking home and I heard a couple arguing.  They were right on my path, so I heard most of it.  It wasn't odd, he was trying to get her to go home with him.  We get that stuff outside bars sometimes.  When I got close, he tried to force her into his car.  She screamed, they scuffled.

"I couldn't ignore it.  I backed her up, and told him to back off.  He was ripped.  He could have taken me.  But I had my phone out to call the police.  I thought she'd run."

"That was brave," Ann said.  Sunset nodded.

"I guess.  But it all went wrong.  He was some bigshot.  He said I attacked him.  She was scared of him and backed him up."

"What?  That's bullshit," Sunset said.

He shrugged.  "The police knew him too, so I'm the one who got in trouble.  He took me to court and I got assault.  Now I've got a record and I'm on probation.  Shujin was the only place that would have me.  My parents have a mutual friend with Sojiro, and he had this room.  I was on the train about an hour after he agreed.  That was two days ago.  His work meant he barely had time to make room for the futon."

Sunset stopped cleaning to give him a hug, and he stiffened a bit, but then leaned into it.  Ann joined them.  Sunset was surprised at how relieved she was at the contact.  Humans seemed much less prone to this than ponies, and she hadn't realized she was touch-starved until she felt the contact.  Still, it wouldn't do to turn her new friends off, so she pulled back when Ann did, before she would have as a pony.

"Thanks," he said.  "I didn't expect anyone here to be nice to me.  Especially since somehow the whole school knows about my record."

"We're all kind of like that, though," Sunset said, and the other two looked at her.  She cursed herself for the slip-up, and thought about just telling her own story right then.  But she wanted to talk to Hifumi first and maybe do some research about magic here.  She'd sort of assumed things like cell phones had to be enchanted, and she just couldn't tell because she didn't have her horn.  But now that she'd sensed the magic in the app, she didn't know what to think.  Especially since her friends had acted like it was unknown here.  

So instead, she glossed it over.

"We're all outsiders," she said.  "You two got screwed over by tyrants.  Maybe I did too, not like I remember, but none of us fit in well at school.  It seems like we're mostly on our own at home, too."

"Yeah," Ann said.   "I told Sojiro that my parents trust me, but the truth is they barely spend any time in the country.  I have my own apartment.  Though we at least have dinner when they're in town."

"My parents haven't called since I left," Akira said.  "They told me not to call them.  They didn't believe me either."

"So," Ann said, "what you meant, Sunset, is we're all garbage fires no one wants to deal with?"

"No," Sunset said, "I want to deal with you.  And it sounds like your friend Shiho does too."  She thought about Hifumi helping her the night before, and Sojiro's gruff kindness earlier.

"Yeah," Ann said, and smiled a little.  Akira nodded and pushed up his glasses.

"Right," Ann went on, "let's start by dealing with this mess."

"And tomorrow," Sunset said, "let's meet after school.  I want to try this app."

They both nodded.

By the time Sunset and Ann left, rushing to catch the train to make Sunset's curfew, Akira's loft was as tidy as it was going to get.