"Shu… Get up… Hey—big bro. Get up. Mom sent me to get you." 

As Shu open his eyes, he sees his little sister, Ayame, looking down at him, light seeping through the curtains behind her.

"You're going to be late to your graduation, big bro! Hurry up!" 

Shuichi shoots up from his bed, not wasting another moment. Ayame leaves and closes the door behind her. Shu grabs his academy uniform and hurriedly puts it on. Once he's finished, he dashes downstairs and runs out the door, stopping to make sure it's shut all the way.

As he rushes down the busy streets, brimming with vendors and stalls, he weaves through the people crowding around. Every year, a festival is set up to celebrate the newly graduated, and this year, the streets are as busy as ever.

Yuki sits at her table, patiently waiting for the bell to ring and start her final day at the Academy. Despite the very loose dress code when it comes to how your uniforms are presented, Yuki still always finds a way to be in violation of it. Her uniform is always sloppily put together, as if she hurriedly put it on, yet she always manages to look better than anyone else had in the simple uniforms. 

Yuki always had the best score on the written and practical exams, contrasting from her uncaring attitude toward the regulations. She would never break any important ones, but rather the ones that hardly mattered, in a show of defiance. To her, a day without chaos, even in its most insignificant form, was a day wasted. 

Speaking of chaos, Yuki realized that her more well behaved counterpart wasn't present. Shuichi normally had to half-heartedly lecture her on how it was better to be early, than to be right on time. But Yuki knew that this was just an act he put on during the long days at the Academy. In reality, he was just as much of a gremlin as she was.

That being said, Shu not being here already was starting to worry her. Did he accidentally sleep in today of all days? The day we see whether we passed our finals or not? Sure, being late didn't really matter all that much today, it was still uncharacteristic for him. 

Right as she was starting to think he wouldn't be able to make it before the bell rang, he came rushing through the door. As soon as he entered, he stopped and doubled down on his hands and knees, trying to catch his breath. 

After what seemed like an eternity, he slowly got up and walked over to the seat next to her. He plopped down and threw his head back in exasperation. 

"Phew. I almost didn't make it on time-" The bell cut him off, clanging loud enough to wake the dead.

As the bell's sound slowly faded, Yuki stared daggers into him.

"Don't make me worry like that. I thought something might have happened to you," Yuki said in a very forceful tone. 

"Sorry. Won't happen again, ma'am."

Yuki and Shu both crack simultaneously, laughing at the stupidity of the bit they spontaneously decided to do.

The chatter ceases when their professor enters the classroom.

"Today is the day that you have probably all been waiting for. Whether it was filled with dread, or excitement. It is time to reveal who has passed, and who was unfortunate enough to fail. The names of those who passed," he pins two sheets of paper to the board at the front of the room. "Are on these sheets of paper, in order of highest score, to lowest. You may come look at the list."

Everyone except Shu and Yuki rush up to see if their names are on the board. Some cheers are heard, along with the worried cries of those who can't seem to find their names. After the crowd clears up for the most part, Shu gets up and speed walks over to the paper, while Yuki saunters over. Shuichi spots his name at the #2 spot and silently celebrates and sits back down. Yuki makes it over to the board, and to nobody's surprise, she is rank #1. She sits back down next to Shu and leans back. 

"Now everyone who passed will head to the courtyard," the professor takes a slight break in his announcement. "And the rest, will stay here. I wish you all better luck on the exam retakes in exactly one week."

As the group of students who passed make their way to the courtyard, Shu and Yuki take up the rear. 

The day after, Shu wakes up to Ayame telling him that Yuki is waiting at the front door. Shu gets dressed in his everyday attire, and heads down to see Yuki. 

"Greetings Shuichi," Yuki greets formally while holding back a grin.

 "Hi Yuki. I told you to stop greeting me formally already. You know that I don't like that," Shu replies in an exasperated tone.

 Yuki then cannot hold back her laughter and starts giggling. She knows Shu hates her greeting him formally, so she does it quite often. It's become quite a joke to her and she always ends up not being able to contain her laughter. In every day life, the two of them pretty much have the other's school personality. Shu's is basically a more friendly version of Yuki's, and Yuki's is essentially just a more chaotic version of Shu's. 

"Shall we get going?" Yuki asks Shu, referring to the inception day of the Quest Corps, where all those who graduated the academy, can join. 

"We shall," Shu starts walking toward the training grounds of the Quest Corps and Yuki follows in suite. 

"Welcome to the Quest Corps! We will be splitting you off into the factions that you will be working with for a long time. Faction 99 will have Kira, Ronin, and Yuna. Faction 1 will have Naru, Hina, and Minato. Faction 2 will have Kenji, Shion, Remi, and Kai. Faction 3 will have Yuki Hayashi and Shuichi Sato." The proctor lists off a few more factions. One of them had ten people, while others had four to eight. 

Yuki and Shu wait patiently to find out who the mentor of Faction 3 would be.