Take a look at the sand! (Vincent)

Akina had found herself at the school once again, god she really had to stop coming here. It was so hot, and the atmosphere annoyed her because she had no choice but to tie her hoodie around her waist instead of actually wear it. Unless she wanted to suffocate, that is. No one really knew how often she came here, and if they did, they'd probably just ask why. But she didn't exactly know why herself. Most of the time, it just kind of happened. It had been maybe a few days since she'd last been here. Though today, she had an actual reason to be here.

Well, sort of.

Akina took her phone out of her pocket, quickly going to her contacts. "Hm. We did talk about how sandy the school is..." She thought out loud as she began to text her newfound (well, not really "new"...) friend. It had been a few days since they'd ate together at the diner, though they had texted a little as the days passed. They hadn't actually hung out in person again, though.

'Hey, Vince. Remember when we talked about how sandy Zela is atm? Well, want to check it out? I'm here rn, so if you want you can come and see it for yourself, if you haven't already.' She would send, quietly standing in the sand as she waited for him to arrive or at least respond to the text.

He was throwing a ball against his wall while it came back to him, rinse and repeat this that was his whole well half of his day, his phone buzzed before he caught the ball while looking down at his phone. "Hm?" He read it, it was Akina. The school? should he bring beach clothes? Naw. He got up his head as he walked out, getting driven to the train station while he texted.

"Yeah I remember? I guess your serious about the whole sand thing yeah, a couple of people have told me about it, I dont remember when san malarus was so.....weird? Like seriously I asked for a tour from a guy with needles for hair hehe, I called him needle noggin, He wore a red coat. it was pretty odd when he said somethings, So Im going to figure out what the hell is going on!" he sent the text as he entered the train, soon enough he exited and walked seeing the top of the school, looked fine but he continued to see the sand. eyes widen. "W-what the hell is going on."he continued to walk up a hill, he spotted Akina before waving. "Hey! Akina! your not hot?" He ran towards her. He couldnt believe it, there was no adults checking out what happened? was he right, the stupid joke he told Nozi about the teens having to figure this out was true?

She'd been pretty much staring off into space when Vincent arrived, and she waved as well as he ran up to her. "Hey, yeah it's pretty surprising, isn't it?"

"Am I hot?" She gestured down to her hoodie, would you look at that it was around her waist instead of on her like usual. Akina honestly felt so weird if she didn't have it on, but she was way too hot for that. "Yeah. Very. The climate is literally like a desert over here, that's probably the weirdest part."

"Also, in your text...you said you met someone with spiky hair and a red coat. I think I know that person..." Was he talking about Tremora? He had to be, who else looked like that... "Was his name Tremora by any chance? Because if so, I know him as well." Akina briefly wondered if any of her other friends had met Vincent so far. He had just gotten back, after all. "So...uh...what do you think about it?"

He panted a bit as he wiped his forehead off of sweat. "Yeah it is." He didn't have his track coat on. He raised a brow. "You know him wow? Small world right." he laughed. "Yeah but seriously tho that guy is off pudding don't you think? Well..Anyway? So you know your way around what the hell happened?" he looked around the area

"Haha, yeah, that's a pretty weird coincidence..." She said with a shrug. Meh, it happens sometimes. "Tremora's not that bad, he's pretty harmless really, you shouldn't worry about him much. He's actually a pretty cool guy. I like your nickname for him though, it's pretty funny. And fitting."

"Everyone's trying to figure out how this happened, really. Or what they're doing about school itself. I think tests we're supposed to be coming up, so I have no clue if we're still going to have to take those or not," She grinned slightly. "Better for me I guess, I don't like tests."

"Though they'll probably make us take them anyway, so I probably shouldn't get too excited about it. Plus, this whole thing is pretty freaky. Not exactly a thing to be happy about." Man, it was hard knowing stuff and not being able to tell someone about it in fear of being seen as insane. It wasn't that she didn't trust Vince; it was more she knew he wouldn't believe most of what was the actually cause of this was. Hell, Akina wouldn't believe it if she hadn't been involved in what was going on herself. Plus, it wasn't like she was an expert on this or anything.

He sighed as he closed one eye to look up and yawn. "Hm.........I wonder if- naw. Hehe" Hell maybe she knows Nozi. "I mean I was homeschooled, I have a library." his eyes widen. 'I mean.......I have a Library by the small normal house Im living with my parents and no one else....."

"Wonder if what?" She tilted her head slightly. Why had he cut himself off so fast?

"And what? You were homeschooled? Is that what happened?" Nuh uh. There's no way Akina is gonna let Vincent backtrack out of that statement. Now she wanted to know what he meant. "Anyway, yeah. There are still ways to study and stuff even though there's no school, but most kids our age aren't doing that. A lot of them are taking it as an impromptu vacation and celebrating. Though, I'm not, of course."

"Also, you're still sort of new around here, yeah? Have you met anyone else that's shown you around besides Tremora?" Akina was mostly curious if they knew any of the same people, honestly. San Malarus wasn't exactly the smallest place to be in, but it sure as hell wasn't the biggest either. They were bound to run into similar people one way or another.

"He-Hey your acting like I dont study either Akina, After being homeschooled for so long, you sorta just get use to sleeping with a text book." He kicked some sand as he sqiunted his eyes sand and some parts of the school. "God is hot, what I give to be somewhat cold now." he stuck out his tongue and winked. He listened to her question. "who else do I know? Well.....This guy Called Nozomi but I call him Nozi, I met him at a cafe. And um." He rather not talk about Aki yet. "And thats it....you three? Like fate or something that you already know of them right?"

"Nozi...?" She blinked. "We're talking about the same Nozomi, right? Nozomi Kichida?" ...Wow, this was a little weird. How had Vincent managed to meet both of her teammates in the span of a few days? "You met Nozi too?! Me and him are actually really good friends. That is pretty odd, now that I think about it..."

"Fate? Haha, yeah. Maybe..." Akina was getting a weird sinking feeling from this. Did this have anything to do with the fact they had personas? Did Vincent have one as well? The fact that they all knew each other might not have seemed like a big deal by itself, but Akina imagined they'd all probably accidentally hinted at their knowledge in some way. That, on top of the fact that all three of them had a persona would probably seem a little suspicious to anyone. But Vincent didn't know most of that, so he probably couldn't make that connection. Right? Okay, maybe she was overthinking this a bit. Did any of that actually make them look suspicious? Did that logic even make any sense? She didn't know.

Akina probably looked like she was thinking hard about something, suddenly considering that possibility while appearing to be extremely focused on nothing really. She realized she'd been quiet for a bit. "Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about something. Anyway, you never really told me much about where you're actually living now that you're back in Malarus again. How is that working out?"

he chuckled. "Yep thats him." he raised a brow a bit while he looked at her. "Small world indeed." He he kicked some sand around as they walked, What was she thinking about.

"hehe how odd....she knows the two we have been suspecting of knowing something, She might not be saying much, but her actions speaking louder than words to us..Right Vincent~"

He shook his head. When she asked him about where he lived. "Oh, Im leaving fine in a nice comfy home just about outside the main city. Its fine, so do you still live, you know same place?"

"Oh. That sounds pretty nice, actually," She said with a smile. "Yeah, pretty much. We haven't done any moving around in the past few years. The only real change is that we've all gotten older and stuff."

"I'm like an expert on this area, though, so I guess that's a plus? I don't know. I've done quite a lot of wandering in my free time, I could probably make my way around here with my eyes closed if I really wanted to." Which she didn't. Akina would probably somehow hurt herself in the process of that. At least one could probably ask for directions if they really needed them. She was usually the one to greet new people here, after all.

"But yeah, like I said. Not much has really changed with me and my life." She ended with a shrug. It was true, after all.

"Hm? So by wondering around you mean, you still sneak out at night and get into crazy stuff right? Riiiiiigggghhht?" He poked her nose as he laughed. "At least you didnt change Akina, not at all." he whistled while he looked up into the air. "Man I still dont understand how this could happen I mean, Ive seen the size of this place. In photos, and my research, but to have a school covered in sand, gosh what a mess."

"Well yeah...I never exactly stopped sneaking out of places..." She grinned sheepishly. "But lately I've been trying not to. I mean, I still do but I try to avoid it as much as I can, especially at night. So when I do do it, I feel a bit...guilty." Akina was being honest here.

"Yeah, it's surprising, no less," Her gaze drifted back to the school. "For something like this to happen...there's no way it could be under any natural circumstances...right? Though, there really isn't an explanation for this at the moment. You'd be surprised how many people actually drop by here to see what the hell happened. Or for other reasons. I come here a lot since it's usually empty and quiet. Though, by just doing that I've actually met some people. It's odd, really."

"Who would have thought that a school buried under sand would bring people together?" He leaned on her arm. "Gosh really? Well what your parents know can't hurt them right?" He thought about all the times he just leaves home, the sad part is they knew and didn't care now, but before they would make a fus about it.

After exploring a bit, he sat down as he panted. "God Im going to die if we continue anymore Akina, hehe."

"Hahaha, yeah, that is a pretty weird situation," She would say with a laugh. A sandy school bringing people together definitely wasn't the most common situation to happen.

"I...guess you have a point. I still feel a little bad though. They actually found out about it a little while back, and we kind of had a big argument. So I've been trying to not do it as often," Akina explained with a slight frown. That confrontation went more like her parents yelling at her about it and how it was all her fault and her yelling back and storming out to cool off. She'd almost forgotten that had happened, but thinking about it now brought the fresh memory right back to her. Ugh.

Akina laughed a little as he sat down. "Haha, really? I must be getting used to the climate here because I feel fine. Anyway, maybe it would be best if we didn't stick around here much longer, for our health's sake."