Hitoshi waited for Harumi to clear the area before continuing onward.  He didn’t want to go into the School to meet with Principal Ayuka just yet, and didn’t want Harumi to see him slacking off even further.  He already had a challenge with her, thanks to his ego.  He didn’t need to have her harping on him about avoiding his duties and obligations to the Principal.  While Harumi could probably expect as much out of Hitoshi, he didn’t want to have that happen.  He’d seen enough of her ego for one day, and wanted to see who else was out and about.

Once the coast was clear he began a fast walk.  He walked past the two small ponds that were in front of the Main Doors of the school.  He hesitated for a moment, but just kept walking.  He had, for a moment, considered going inside to see the Principal, but it was low on his priority list, especially since he didn’t have anyone like Professor Moriko to intimidate him into doing it anymore.  He just went onward, towards the other side of the school building.  After all, whatever Principal Ayuka had in store for him, of all people, could wait. 

As Hitoshi walked by the edge of the building, he passed by the Ceremonial Stage, where the campus Catgirl was making her rounds, cleaning the rocky stage, as she always had to do during Free Time.  He raised an eyebrow as he saw her pounding her foot into the ground, no doubt crushing another ant that she’d seen running by.  Not wishing to spend his Free Time with a crazy Catgirl who likes squashing bugs, he pushed himself onward, passing the stage and heading towards the Girls’ Dormitory.

Upon reaching the front of the building, he encountered Asako, a red-and white robed, black-haired female student at the school, whom was lazier than Hitoshi thought it was possible for a woman to be.  For a Mage, she was terribly disciplined.  Always had been.  He would have rather avoided her whining, but fate was not on his side.  As soon as she’d turned her bow-clad head and saw him, she ran straight up to him, with a sad look on her face.

“It’s too hot out today!  I haven’t gotten to the chapter on Ice Magic yet, and I could really go for some RIGHT NOW!”  Her voice was high-pitched and full of whines, as it always was.  She, then, tried to convince Hitoshi of something.  “Hitoshi, I’ll give you a compliment if you stay here and fan me for the rest of the day.  Okay, please?”  The girl put on the best puppy-eyed look on her face that she could muster, but she couldn’t persuade Hitoshi to fan her if her life depended on it.  He simply shook his head and gave her a small smile.  “For that, it would have to be a pretty impressive compliment, Asako.”

Asako’s face suddenly lost the cute, puppy-eyed look and turned to a scowl.  She backed away from Hitoshi and threw her arms down.  “Oh, forget it!  There are plenty of other guys around who would be more than willing to become my personal servants for free!  Goodbye, then, Hitoshi!”  Hitoshi watched as the girl stammered off, likely in the hopes of conning some hopeless guy into being her man-servant.  Hitoshi almost felt bad for the girl for a moment, but then continued on.  He was pretty sure that he was close to the tree and lake where another friend usually hung out.

He took a quick turn around the dormitory building and ran past the garden, looking at the trees ahead.  Sure enough, there was a fairly large pond in front of one of the trees, and from a distance, he could definitely see a figure standing in front of one of the trees.  He smiled as he slowed his run to a walk and approached both the tree and the person.  The woman wore a pinkish-purple robe, had her dark hair in a ponytail, and also had pointed ears and a horn sticking out of her head.  He was somewhat happy to see Umi, alone.

As he approached her, he gave her a wave and greeted her, calling her the school’s “Greatest Invoker”.  Umi pulled her head up a little bit, looking towards Hitoshi.  With a normal look on her face, she returned his greeting and began to speak of something she’d written.  “Oh, hello, Hitoshi-san…I wrote a new poem recently.  Would you-…would you like to hear it?”  The girl sounded almost nervous about sharing her work, so Hitoshi gladly agreed to hear the poem.  “I’m game for that, Umi.  Let’s hear what you’ve got!”

Umi let out a small smile of surprise as she realized that he’d wanted to hear her new poem, and almost immediately started reciting words from her memory.

“Wind, it beckons me –
further, further until night meets day,
Wind, it carries me -
on and on, closer still to some place far away.”

There was a moment of silence between both of them as Umi finished reciting her poem.  Hitoshi didn’t want to say anything at first.  He thought there was more to the poems, than 2 short verses.  After a moment, though, his impulses kicked in and he responded with exactly what he was thinking, but not exactly what he wanted to say.  “Wait…that’s it?”

Quickly catching himself, he shook his head and tried to correct himself and not seem like he was being rude to her.  He faked a cough and then ‘continued’ to speak.  “I mean…I mean that sounds pretty good so far!  I can’t wait to hear the rest when you finish it.  There, um…there IS more to the poem, right?” 

Umi slowly closed her eyes and began to speak to Hitoshi, showing that his correction hadn’t helped, but was putting his criticism to good use.  She didn’t want to flat out say he was rude.  She took any person to listen to her poems as she could get.  “…No, Hitoshi, that was it.  However, your reaction has inspired me to add more onto it.  I do appreciate your kind, yet very juvenile critique.  You’re…the only person, other than Tarou, who ever listens to my poems…”

Trying to keep the girl at least somewhat happy, Hitoshi spoke up, trying to make her feel better about having so few people to tell her poems to.  “Well, all of them just don’t appreciate how unique and special you are.  They’ll come around sometime!  Besides, Tarou and I aren’t such bad company, now, are we?”

Umi was quiet for a couple seconds before talking more on what he’d said.  She wasn’t sure what to think of his words at first, but as they settled in her head, she brought a smile to her face and started reaching into her robe for something.  “Unique, huh?  It’s a gentle euphemism for weird.  Thank you, Hitoshi.  I was going to have this later on, but I have decided that you might be worthwhile enough to share this with.  Take it.”

Hitoshi held out his hand and accepted the Apple that came from Umi’s pocket.  Giving her a nod, he turned to leave her to work in peace, thinking of heading back towards the school building to make his way towards Principal Ayuka.