Not walking fast himself, it didn't take long for the purple haired boy to catch up with Tumaini. A part of him winced at the thought of companionship, but the rest of him relished it. "Tumaini," he mumbled back in introduction. His eyes remained on the large center building of the campus, hands still shoved in his pockets. No doubt it would be crowded in there, nowhere for one with an appearance such as his to hide. It was a loathsome though, but he was on the course now and it was too late to turn back. Glancing over at Cain again, he tried to guess what he might be thinking, following Tumaini around like this. Did he want something? Yet, Tumaini didn't make an effort to shrug off the conversation completely. He neither actively participated in it nor denied it as the walked through the large open doors of the ceremony hall.

The interior, if possible, looked larger than the outside. Dark wood columns ran up to vaulted ceilings with golden lights dotting the space. Along the walls, sconces held light sources that looked neither like fire nor electricity trapped behind a frosted film. He managed to tear his eyes away and without an obvious pause, walked to one of the back rows of benches to slide in and disappear.

~~~

In the first row of--dare she call them pews?--sat the returning student, Tarja. Her blonde pony-tail looked its primmest, not even a single flyaway outside of the dark brown band. In her lap lay an open notebook, already well scrawled with notes despite being for the new year. Already in her final year, she had no need to come to the opening ceremony. It would teach her nothing new besides changing teachers faces. However, she never missed one and instead, parked herself early in her preferred seat to wait. No emotions crossed her face even as the great hall filled with more and more noisy students. As if in her own world, she ignored them on a mostly empty bench, just the gentle scritch of her pen on paper keeping her company.