Delivering the papers to the Academic Affairs Room had originally been Kiyo's job.
But he stopped as soon as he reached the door, saying the soles of his feet felt a little tight today and he was afraid his posture wouldn't meet the standard once he went inside. Teacher Mizuno glanced up at him without calling his bluff and simply told Che and Morita Yu to take the stack of rosters over.
The Academic Affairs Room was quieter than the classroom, so quiet that even turning a page seemed liable to disturb someone.
A row of old folders stood by the door, their covers worn pale, their corners bearing labels that hadn't been smoothed down properly. A new form lay spread across the desk, its edge held down by a paperweight, but an old register still rested at an angle beside it, as though the new thing had only just arrived and the old one hadn't yet been moved aside.
Che spotted the section headings on the form at once.
Class One, Class Two, auditing, temporary seat changes.
There were also several names he had already heard, arranged in different boxes. Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, several children from the Nara Clan, names from the Hyuga Clan-all perfectly ordinary words in the Academic Affairs Room, yet set down on this sheet, they seemed like a group of people already about to start moving.
"Don't stare too long," the teacher in charge of the paperwork said, looking up. "Look long enough, and you'll start mistaking the roster for fate."
Che looked away and nodded.
Kiyo wasn't there with his theatrics, or he probably would have asked, "Why are there so many boxes on this thing?" Morita Yu, however, was even quieter than usual. Standing to one side, he gently laid the roster